70 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY the same occupations which they had left in Andalusia. They formed intimacies with the inhabitants, discovered springs, made them available for the irrigation of their fields, planted trees, introduced water-mills, and other useful inventions. In short, they taught the African farmers many things whereof they had never heard, and showed them the use of excellent practices whereof they were completely ignorant. Through their means the countries where they fixed their residence became at once prosperous and rich, and the inhabitants saw their wealth increase rapidly, as well as their comfort and enjoyments. . . . There was no district in Africa wherein some of the principal authorities were not Andalusians. . . . But it was in the class of operatives and workmen in all sorts of handicrafts that Africa derived the most advantage from the tides of emigration setting towards its shores." Ibn Ghalib, from whom the quotation is made, wrote at an earlier period than Ibn Said. After making the quotation, Ibn Said continues: ** Perhaps some of my readers, in perusing the accounts I have just given in the words of Ibn Ghalib of the revolution created by the Andalusian emigration in the trade and agriculture of Africa, will say to themselves : ' This author was undoubtedly partial towards his countrymen, and he exaggerated their merits ' ; but let them plunge into his book, let them weigh every one of his expressions, and compare his narrative with those of other writers, and they will soon feel convinced that he spoke the truth." Of these same Andalusians the author, Ibn Ghalib, who is quoted, says, at an earlier period : " They are Arabs by descent, in pride, in the haughtiness of their temper, the devotion of their minds, the goodness of their hearts, and the purity of their intentions. They resemble them in their abhorrence of everything that is cruel or oppressive, in their inability to endure subjection or contempt, and in the liberal expenditure of whatever they possess. They are Indians in their love of learning, as well as in their assiduous cultivation of science, their firm