The World and Its People Part 54

The apartments themselves are furnished elaborately, and would seem almost elegant in their appointments, were they fresher and less dilapidated. In many of the houses are rich carvings of a style and finish of earlier and more prosperous times.

Just outside the city walls is the emperor's palace. The grounds surrounding it are very extensive and are kept in excellent order.

Although the gardens can in no way be compared with the royal gardens in Europe, yet they do not lack beauty. They cannot be considered as open to the public, yet travelers are admitted to certain parts of them, and Europeans receive marked attention from the officials.

After the heat and noise, to say nothing of the disagreeable odors of the city, it is a relief to get outside the walls and enjoy the beauty and sweetness of the royal gardens. Here in the cool and quiet is the best place from which to view the royal family, the various officers of state, and such distinguished guests as may be in attendance on the court.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DINNER TIME IN MOROCCO.]

The palace of the emperor is far from imposing; there is, in fact, nothing remarkable about it. Some of our hotels present a more elegant and imposing appearance.

The population of Morocco is, as we might suppose, a mixed one. People of all colors, the educated and the ignorant of all cla.s.ses mingle together. Here, in fact, are all sorts and conditions of men.

Mekinez is the summer residence of the Sultan. It has a fine situation in the midst of olive plantations, about forty miles west of Fez, to which broad streets, lined with beautiful shade trees, present a very pleasing contrast. It is surrounded by a triple row of notched or crenated walls, and the approach to the city in the full light of midday is most beautiful, with the thousands of white terraces standing out in bold relief from the deep blue sky.

Not a column of smoke can we perceive ascending from any of the mult.i.tude of houses; not a person is visible either upon the terraces or before the walks; not a sound is to be heard.

We might believe we were in an enchanted city where some "sleeping beauty" lay waiting for the hundred years to expire. We stand in silence, as if spellbound by the grandeur of some wondrous painting.

There is a saying, among the natives, that Mekinez can justly lay claim to having the most beautiful women in the empire of Morocco, the most ornamental gardens in Africa, and the finest imperial in the world.

Directly west of the city of Morocco and farther south than Mekinez lies Mogadore, the most important seaport of Morocco upon the Atlantic coast.

The inhabitants, who take great pride in their town, give it a name signifying square. It is, however, somewhat triangular in shape.

The town is quite modern in its construction. It is built upon a sandy beach; which, fortunately, has a rocky foundation. The streets are somewhat narrow, but they are straight and well laid out. The houses are arranged with much regularity and precision on either side.

The town is divided into two parts. One section contains the citadel, the public buildings, governor's palace, and the residences of the consuls and merchants who represent the several countries of Europe. The other section of the town is occupied by the Jews and Moors. The Moors have their own special quarter, called _villah_, which the police close at night.

The walls of the town are not especially high nor strong. They are, however, of sufficient height and strength to serve as a defense against the attacks of the savage mountain tribes and the Arabs of the plains.

The harbor of Mogadore is formed by a bay, which is closed by an island of the same name situated about two miles from the mainland. The harbor contains some slight fortifications and a mosque--all situated upon this island.

It has been estimated that the town of Mogadore has a population numbering between thirteen and fifteen thousand people. About four thousand of these are Jews, and there are possibly one thousand Christians.

If we approach the town from the interior it presents a most curious aspect, surrounded as it is by immense batteries in the form of pyramids. Each of these is constructed in such a way as to serve as a defense to the approaches to the city. An aqueduct, which is filled from a small river, furnishes the water supply for the inhabitants.

The climate of the town is very healthy. There are no lowlands nor marshes to breed malarial fevers. Rain seldom falls, but the dryness of the air is tempered by the Atlas mountain chain on the one side, and the sea on the other. The former serves to keep off the hot land breezes, while the latter lends its refreshing breezes to give coolness and moisture to the atmosphere.

The suburbs of Mogadore consist mainly of desolate waste land. At intervals gardens with a few vegetables and flowers may be seen. These gardens are always cultivated in the very midst of the sand at no little outlay of time and strength. They furnish striking evidence of man's ingenuity to make the most of his resources, even in so sterile a land.

At one side of the town are two cemeteries; one for Christians, the other for natives. That for Christians is desolate in the extreme. Not a sod, nor even the most humble flower is to be seen; not a tree shades the tombs. The mournful winds of Old Ocean sweep over its expanse, and it seems indeed forsaken; but, dreary as it is, the Moorish cemetery is even more unattractive.

CHAPTER LXXVI.

INTO ALGERIA.

Striking off from the empire of Morocco, as we journey eastward into Algeria we come to the town of Tlemcen. A pa.s.sing glance at the town is, at first, very pleasing. A triple row of fine trees, such as the white poplar, the plane tree, the acacia, the nettle tree, and a species of tree the foliage of which is so thick that no sunbeam can ever penetrate it, lines the avenue of Mechonar, which leads to the gate of Bon Medina.

At the left can be seen the old walls of Mechonar, which was the citadel of the town. At the right the eye beholds a scene strongly in contrast, for the houses, with possibly a few exceptions, are squalid in the extreme.

It is impossible to enter the town except from the southwest; as all other approaches to it present steep and rugged sides. The district about it abounds in fruit trees of all descriptions. The olive tree is the most valuable among them. Much of the land is cultivated for the production of cereals, tobacco, etc.

Tlemcen is the capital of the province of Oran. It is situated some eighty miles from its chief town, Oran, and enjoys a delightful situation in an undulating country under a thorough system of irrigation and cultivation. A range of hills, some four thousand or more feet in height, protects it from the south wind sweeping up from the desert sections.

The climate of the town is somewhat remarkable for its sudden changes in temperature, which are as distinct from day to day as are the changes of our climate from season to season. Sometimes they come in rapid succession, even in a single day, during the summer season.

Rain falls in abundance. The rainy season begins usually in October and continues, with occasional periods of fine weather, until the following May or June. The spring rains and the frequency of morning fogs render the vegetation so luxuriant as to astonish the traveler, even in the heat of the summer. After journeying through districts where the vegetation is parched and withered by the heat of June, the freshness of the verdure around Tlemcen cannot fail to delight as well as surprise the stranger.

The town rarely feels the effect of the sirocco, or wind from the south, and never longer than for two or three days in succession. Thunder is occasionally heard in winter or in the spring, and sometimes at the close of an unusually sultry day. When storms come they pa.s.s rapidly, for strong currents of air draw them away, usually towards the southeast.

Although apparently enjoying so many advantages, yet the town cannot be said to be very beautiful, when once we are within its walls. The quarters of the natives are hideous. Often they are scarcely more than ruins. In fact, it is no uncommon thing to find the most wretched buildings constructed out of the remnants of larger ones.

The interior of nearly all the native houses is squalid and dest.i.tute of all comfort. Usually a mat serves the purpose of a bed. A painted wooden chest, containing a few garments of wearing apparel and a scanty supply of linen, serves the double purpose of a closet and a table or seat, as may be needed. A few articles for the kitchen, a chafing dish of earthenware, and some wooden plates made from the poplar tree, complete the articles of household furniture.

The Jews, though much more crowded in their quarters than we should think admitted of comfort for their families of numerous boys and girls, furnish their homes much more comfortably than the natives do.

The natives are divided into two distinct cla.s.ses very hostile to each other. On account of this hostile spirit the French have been able to maintain a strong hold upon the country.

Many of the people have Turkish fathers and Arab mothers, and const.i.tute an oppressed and despised cla.s.s. The French have protected them from direct persecution, and this has made them not only very grateful but very loyal to these foreigners, whom they even aid by joining their military forces in time of need.

They are generally tall in stature and vigorous in body, and are more cleanly and careful in their dress than their rivals, and more industrious. Through their labor the fine gardens of the town are kept green. They keep the provision and butcher shops, and as they speak both French and Spanish they easily compete with the foreign tradesmen.

Their rivals, the Haddans, are of pure Arab blood, and in their poverty and indolence are far inferior to their ancestors, who were rather an energetic race. Their bronze complexions and black hair offer a strong contrast to the white complexions and usually fair hair of the despised half-breeds.

The Israelites are very numerous in Tlemcen. During the persecution of the Jews in the fifteenth century, many of them fled into Algeria and took refuge mainly in the province of Oran.

About the middle of the present century the Kabyles, a st.u.r.dy race of mountaineers descended from the ancient Numidians, broke out into decided hostilities against the French. Although they displayed much of the fierce, dauntless spirit of their ancestors, they were speedily quelled.

The work of conquering, colonizing, and, in a measure, civilizing Algeria, went on; while the French troops, penetrating into the remote south, almost to the borders of the Sahara, soon subdued the desert tribes, in spite of their bold resistance.

During the latter half of the present century the French government has given a great deal of attention to Algeria. Unfortunately, the French have not the reputation of making very good colonists.

The Kabyles, who occupy the mountainous section between Algiers and Constantine, were originally strong and powerful tribes, numbering one hundred and fifty thousand fighting men, all deadly foes of the French.

Most of them have been subdued, though not without a long, sanguinary struggle.

The Kabyles are the most intelligent and the most industrious of all the Algerian tribes. Not an inch of ground capable of cultivation is allowed to go to waste. The carpets they manufacture are of superb beauty.

Their woolens almost equal those of the English manufacturers in their excellence. Their gunpowder is of so superior a quality that the French for a long time believed it to be of English manufacture.

With the exception of a few Kabyle districts that struggle to maintain an independence of the French government, the whole of Algeria is now so much in subjection that it is perfectly safe to travel through any part of it without fear of being molested.

Among the benefits that have come through the colonization of Algeria, the system of artesian well digging is, by far, the most important. By means of irrigation, many barren and waste lands have been reclaimed and made extremely fertile.

About the middle of the present century, boring was begun in an oasis of the Sahara, within a desert section of the province of Constantine. A splendid fountain of water, yielding at the rate of over four thousand quarts a minute, at a temperature of seventy degrees, was the result.

The native priests blessed it, and named it "The Fountain of Peace."

Another of these artesian wells was called "The Fountain of Benediction."

In the desert of Sidi-Rached, a region wholly unproductive, owing to lack of water, a well was dug to a depth of a little more than fifty-four meters, which yielded over four thousand quarts a minute.