Fez , a city of modest size and one of the most beautiful to be found in Africa, in the province and on the river of the same name, in Barbary, and capital of the kingdom of Fez . Fez comprises three cities in one; it boasts magnificent mosques and many schools of the sect of Mohammed, where the only science taught is the Arabic of the Qur'an. The Jews are found here in large number, and there are some synagogues. There is also a mufti. The wealthy ladies wear gold and silver chains around their legs. Fez is located 100 leagues southeast of Morocco and 35 south of Salé. According to the Arabs' charts, its longitude is 18 and latitude 32.3; however, according to Harris, its longitude is 11.34.45 and latitude 33.10.0. See the authors cited above. [1]

In the process of writing this article (January 2, 1756), I was browsing through what several geographers have reported on Fez concerning its position, area, mosques, and the synagogues that the Jews maintain in the capital, when I received a copy of a letter from the missionaries of the order of Saint Francis established in Barbary. This letter, now published, recounts among other details of the ravages visited upon Africa by the earthquake of November 1, 18, and 19, 1755, how most of the city of Fez was leveled, 3,000 people were killed, Miquenez was entirely destroyed, and a cavalry regiment numbering 1,000 men was swallowed up.

I do not intend by any means to cast doubt on all the extraordinary effects that could have been precipitated on a part of our globe by this singular natural disaster: as it is foolish simplemindedness to accept everything, it is an equally foolish presumptuousness to reject everything to which our own eyes are unaccustomed. But I will say that the more this earthquake under discussion is portrayed as unique in the history of the world, the more one should challenge the reliability of the reports that have been spread from all corners, but especially those that come to us from faraway countries. These accounts are always suspect due to the small number of observers incapable of deceiving us or of being deceived themselves. If one makes a thousand false reports of the most common events, what more would be done in those dreadful cases that leave our minds frozen in fear? See, then, the article Earthquake.

1. See the article Fez.