Travels in Morocco Volume I Part 11

_Traveller._--"Admitting the curse p.r.o.nounced here was right, that Ham and Canaan were the progenitors of the African negroes, and that the curse was to be extended to all generations of Africa--are these reasons why the all-Merciful Deity will hold man guiltless who enslaves and maltreats poor Africans? Now, the Jews have been dispersed all over the world, and maltreated, if not enslaved, by both Christians and Mahometans (as now) according to prophecy, but will G.o.d hold us guiltless for persecuting or maltreating you, Jews?"

_The Rabbi_.--"But we are the slaves of G.o.d, not of you Christians, and besides, we are commanded to treat well our slaves in the Scriptures."

Here he quoted many pa.s.sages from the Pentateuch.

Then followed a desultory conversation, some a.s.serting "that inasmuch as the slavery of the whites was permitted by G.o.d, how much more right had they to enslave blacks who were the servants of servants!" Others even added, "If we were Sovereigns of Morocco, we should make slaves of both Mahometans and Christians." This indeed is the genuine feeling of Barbary Jews; oppression begets oppression, and wrong begets revenge.

Another observed, "If you ask me what I think as a British subject, and not as a Jew, I will give you my opinion against slavery."

Such distinctions in morals are not easily admissable, but the Jews there are acute enough to make them, and are as good Jesuits as those of Rome. Some cited the cavtivity of Joseph us, as a reason for carrying on the slave-trade.

On another occasion, I had a conversation with Ha.s.san Yousef, the High Priest, or Archbishop, as Captain Phillips calls him. The Chief Priest acknowledged that he who stole a man, whether white or black, was condemned to death, according to the fair interpretation of the Mosaic law. He and all Jews were much astonished at the tenor of Lord Brougham's Act, and got not a little frightened; for all the merchants of Mogador, Christians and Jews, more or less aid and abet the slave-trade, all having connections with slave-dealers. At length, our Jewish Archbishop opined. "Well, well, it is better now, since the Christians have put down slavery in most of their countries, that we Jews should follow their example."

It would be useful, and might subserve the cause of civilization, were the Jews of Europe to take some means of enlightening their brethren of North Africa on the question of slavery. The Israelites, who have suffered so much from slavery and oppression, after becoming free themselves, should endeavour to emanc.i.p.ate those who are still in the chains of bondage.

The Hhaha levies were about to return to their country; the disposable force of this province is about 70,000. The troops from Shedma were to come in after the departure of those of Hhaha. Government were afraid to bring both together, lest they should fight among themselves. Alluding to the quarrel of their Sultan with the French, these hostile tribes mutter to each other, "We must kill our own French first;" that is to say their own "hereditary enemies."

I went out to see the two levies. These tribes had a singularly wild and savage aspect, with only a blanket to cover them, which they wrap round and round their bodies, having neither caps on their heads, nor shoes on their feet. They were greatly excited against the Christians, owing to the foolish conduct of the Moorish authorities. The lawless bands spat at me, and every European pa.s.sing by them, screaming with threatening gestures, "G.o.d curse you! Infidels." These semi-savages, called out for the defence of the Empire, were merely armed with a bad gun or matchlock; some had only knives and clubs. Such levies are certainly more fit to pillage the Emperor's coast-towns than to defend his territory against the foreign enemy.

These poor tribes bring their own provisions, a little barley meal, and olive or argan-oil, or liquid b.u.t.ter; on this being exhausted, they could stay no longer, for Government supplies them with nothing but bad matchlocks.

They were loud in their complaint on not receiving any nations, and threatened to join the French Nazarenes when they arrived. His Excellency the Governor was very anxious to get rid of them, which was not at all surprising. So avaricious is the Emperor, that when he can, he makes the rich Moors supply arms for their poorer brethren, instead of furnishing them from government depots. And this he insists upon as a point of religion. The Governor called upon rich Moors to supply the poor with arms.

A friend of mine who understands Shelouh as well as Arabic, overheard a characteristic quarrel between a Shedma man and a Hhaha man. The Shedma people, or inhabitants of the plains, mostly speak Arabic, those of the mountains, Shelouh, which difference of language embitters their quarrels, and alienates them from one another.

Shedma man.--"Dog! you have put your hands of the devil into my bag of barley."

Hhaha man.--"Dog and Jew, you lie!"

Shedma man.--"Jew and Frenchman! there's some one now in your wife's tent."

Hhaha man.--"Religion of the Frenchman! your mother has been dishonoured a thousand times."

The maternal honour is the dearest of things amongst these semi-barbarians. At the mention of this libel on his mother, the Shedma fellow rushed at the Hhaha man, seizing him by the throat, and unsheathed a dirk to plunge into his bowels. The scuffle fortunately excited the instant attention of a group of Arabs close by, who, securing both, carried them before the Shiekh; who, without hearing the subject of the quarrel, bastinadoed them both with his own hand. But he was the Hhaha Sheikh, and the Shedma Sheikh complained to the Governor of his man having been bastinadoed by the other Sheikh. The Governor dismissed them, each threatening the other with due vengeance.

It is time to give some account of Mogador. We sometimes spell the name with an e, Mogadore, the inhabitants call their town _Shweerah_. Square, [30] in allusion to its beauty, for it is the only town constructed altogether on geometrical principles throughout Morocco. Its form, however, is really a triangle. Mogador is a modern city, having been built in the year 1760 of our era, by the Sultan Sidi Mohammed, under the direction of a French engineer of the name of Cornut, who was a.s.sisted by Spanish renegades.

The object of Sidi Mahommed was to found a central emporium of the commerce of the Empire, and a port for the southern capital (Morocco).

This town belongs to the province of Hhaha, whose Berber tribes are its natural defenders.

The site is a sandy beach with a rocky foundation or a base on the sea, forming a peninsula, and is supposed to be the ancient Erythraea. The houses are regularly built, with streets in direct lines, extremely convenient though somewhat narrow. The residences of the consuls and European merchants are elegant and s.p.a.cious. There is a large market-place, which, on days when the market is not held, furnishes a splendid parade, or "corso" for exercising cavalry.

The city is divided into two parts; one division contains the citadel, the public offices, the residence of the governor, and several houses occupied by European consuls and merchants, which are all the property of the Sultan; and the other is the s.p.a.ce occupied by the houses of the Moors and Jews.

The Jews have a quarter or _willah_ to themselves, which is locked up during the night, the key being kept by the police. Nevertheless, several Jews, especially Imperial traders, are allowed to occupy houses in the Moorish quarter or citadel portion of Mogador, with the Christian merchants.

Both quarters are surrounded by walls, not very thick or high, but which are a sufficient protection, against the depredations of the mountaineers, or Arabs of the plain. The port is formed by a curve in the land and the isle of Mogador, which is about two miles from the mainland.

This isle, on the verge of the ocean, contains some little forts and a mosque, and its marabout shrines sparkle in the sun. It is a place of exile for political offenders. When the French landed, at the bombardment of Mogador, they released fifty or sixty state prisoners, some of whom had been Bashaws, or ministers of this and former reigns.

The isle, however, is finely situate off the Atlantic, fanned and swept by healthy gales, and the prisoners suffer only seclusion from the Continent. The exiles never attempt to escape, but quietly submit to their destiny.

In the port, there are only ten or twelve feet of water at ebb tide, so that large vessels cannot enter, but must lie at anchor a mile and a half off the Western battery, which extends along the north-western side of the port. Such vessels do not lie there except in the summer months, and then with extreme caution, being, as they are, right off in the Atlantic, on one of its most dangerous coasts. There are some tolerable batteries, but they cannot long resist a European bombardment, which was demonstrated by the French.

Colonel Keating says, "As far as parapets, ramparts, embrasures, cavaliers, batteries, and casemates const.i.tute a fortress, this town is one; but the walls are flimsy, the cavaliers do not command, the batteries do not flash, and the casemates are not bomb-proof. The embrasures are so close that not one in three upon the ramparts could be worked, if they were mounted, which they are not. All their guns, which have been only twelve months here, are already in very bad order, from exposure to the climate and surf. The casemates are so damp, that their interior is covered constantly with a thick nitrous incrustation."

Nevertheless, the Moors have such a superst.i.tious veneration for fortifications built by a parcel of renegades, that they will not permit Christians to walk on these ramparts. But what is most unfortunate for the defence of Mogador, the water could be instantly cut off by destroying its aqueduct.

The population is between thirteen and fifteen thousand souls, including four thousand Jews, and fifty Christians, who carry on an important commerce, princ.i.p.ally with London and Ma.r.s.eilles. Excepting Tangier, it is now the only port which carries on uninterrupted commercial relations with Europe.

Mogador is situate in the midst of shifting sand-hills, that separate it from the cultivated parts of the country, which are distant from four to tweleve miles. These sands have an extraordinary appearance on returning from the interior; they look like huge pyramidal batteries raised round the suburbs of the city for its defence. The inhabitants are supplied with water by means of an aqueduct, fed by the little river, or rill of Wai Elgh.o.r.ed, two miles distant south. The climate hereabouts is extremely salubrious, the rocky sandy site of the city being removed from all marshes or low lands, which produce pestiferous miasma or fever-exhaling vegetation. Rarely does it rain, but the whole tract of the adjoining country, between the Atlas and the sea, is tempered on the one side by the loftiest ranges of that mountain, and on the other, by the north-east trade winds, blowing continually. Mogador is in Lat. 31 32' 40" N., and Long. 9 35' 30" W.

The environs offer nothing but desolate sands, except some gardens for growing a few vegetables, and a sprinkling of flowers, which, by dint of perseverance, have been planted in the sand of the sea-sh.o.r.e. This is a remarkable instance of human culture turning the most hopelessly sterile portions of the world to account. These sands of Mogador are only a portion of a vast and almost interminable link, which girdles the north-western coast of the African continent, and is only broken in upon at short intervals, from Morocco to Senegal, like a shifting, heaving, and ever-varying rampart against the aggressions of the ocean. Both wind and sea have probably equally contributed to the formation of this vast belt of shifting sands.

The distance from Tangier to Mogador, by ordinary courier, is twelve days, but no traveller could be expected to perform the journey in less than twenty days.

Other courier distances are as follows:

Tangier to Rabat 4 days Rabat to Fez 2 days Fez to Mickas 12 hours Rabat to Morocco 8 days Mogador to Morocco 2 days Mogador to Santa Cruz 3 days Mogador to Wadnoun 8 days Santa Cruz to Teradant 1 days

A notice of the interesting, though now abandoned part of Aghadir, may not be out place here. Aghadir, (called also Agheer and by the Portuguese, Santa Cruz) means in Berber "walls." It is the Gurt Luessem of Leo Africa.n.u.s. The town is small, but strong, and well fortified, and is situate upon the top of a high and abrupt rock, not far from the promontory of Gheer, which is the western termination of the Atlas, and where it dips into or strikes the ocean.

On the south, close by, is the river Sous, and formerly Aghadir was the capital of this province.

Aghadir has a s.p.a.cious and most secure port, which is the last port southwards on the Atlantic. Indeed, this bay is the finest roadstead in the whole empire. Mr. Jackson says, that during his residence at Aghadir of three years, not a single ship was lost or injured. The princ.i.p.al battery of Aghadir, a place equally strong by nature and art, is half way down the western declivity of the mountain, and was originally intended to protect a fine spring of water close to the sea. This fort also commands the approaches to the town, both from the north and the south, and the shipping in the bay.

Santa Cruz was converted from a fisherman's settlement into a city, and was fortified by the Portuguese in 1503. Muley Hamed el-Ha.s.san besieged it in 1536 with an army of fifty thousand men, and owing to the accident of a powder-magazine blowing up and making a breach, the Sultan forced an entrance, to the astonishment of the Portuguese, who were all slaughtered.

In the reign of Muley Ismail, Santa Cruz was the centre of an extensive commerce carried on between Europe and the remotest regions of Africa, which obtained for it the name of Bab-el-Soudan, (Gate of Soudan.) The inhabitants became rich and powerful, and, as a consequence which so frequently happens to both the civilized and the barbarian, insolent and rebellious. In 1773, Sidi Mohammed was obliged to march out against the town to crush a rebellion; and this done with great slaughter, he ordered all the European merchants to quit the place and establish themselves at Mogador. The father of this prince had sworn vengeance against the haughty city, but died without accomplishing his sanguinary threats. The son, however, did the work of blood, so faithful to vows of evil and violence is man. Since that period, Aghadir has dwindled down to nothing, six hundred inhabitants, and others say only one hundred and fifty. The greater part of these are Jews, who have the finest women in all the country. Mr. Davidson says the population of Aghadir is forty-seven Mohammedans, and sixty-two Jews. At Fonte, the port, are about two hundred Moors. Were any European power to conquer Morocco, Aghadir would certainy be re-established as the centre of the commerce in the south. To a maritime nation like England, the repair and re-opening of its fine port would be the 6rst consideration, and doubtless a lucrative and extensive commerce could be established between Aghadir and Timbuctoo. The city is seven leagues south of Cape Gheer, in lat.i.tude 30 35'.

I shall now give some further details ill.u.s.trative of the state of negro slavery. The Fniperor has an entire quarter of the city of Morocco appropriated for his own slaves, the number of whom, in different parts of the empire, amounts to upwards of sixty thousand. This is his, the lion's share. His Imperial Highness, who was accepting presents from various governors, lately received five hundred slaves from the Sheikh of Taradant. The trading Moors, believing me to be sent by the British Government to purchase and liberate all their slaves, have calculated the whole of the slaves in Morocco to be worth twenty-seven millions of dollars.

A Moor observed, "I hope to see any calamity befall the country rather than that of the slaves being liberated," He observed: "G.o.d shews his approbation of slavery by not permitting slaves to rise against their masters, or the free negroes to invade Morocco, who are infinitely more numerous. The reason why the English abolished slavery is because the Queen of England has a good heart, but Mussulmen treat their slaves well, and do not fear the anger of G.o.d." When I mentioned that the Bey of Tunis and the Imaum of Muscat had entered into treaties for the suppression of Slavery, the traders observed, "Amongst the Mohammetans are four sects, but the only orthodox sect is that of Morocco."

There is, however, one cla.s.s of abolitionists in this country--the women, or Mooresses. The rumour that a Christian had come to purchase all the slaves of Mogador soon penetrated the harems. The wife of one of the most distinguished Moors of Mogador informed a Jewess of her acquaintance, that she was very happy to hear a Christian was come to purchase all her husband's slaves, for she was tired of her life with them. The truth is, respectable Moorish females detest this system of domestic slavery, and wish to see it abolished, notwithstanding that they are bred in it, and are themselves little better than slaves. They see themselves gradually abandoned by the husbands of their youth for the most ignorant and degraded negress slaves, whom their husbands purchase one after another as their caprice or pa.s.sion excites them, until their houses are filled with these slaves.

The artful negress absorbs all the affection of her master, whilst the legitimate wife is left as a widow, and is obliged to wait upon these pampered slaves, whose insolence knows no bounds. The negress slaves besides, when they bear sons, are treated with great respect; their children are free by the law, and cannot be disposed of, although the Moors do sell them when hard pressed for money. Yet even these negresses are beginning to chatter and clatter about the Anti-Slavery mission, expressing their satisfaction to our Jewish neighbours. A negress slave on hearing that a person had come from England to liberate all the slaves, jumped up and called on G.o.d to bless the English nation.

This excitement in the domestic circles of Mogador raises the bile of the slave-dealers. A fellow of this sort beckoned me to come to him as I was pa.s.sing in the street, and thus began: "Christian, if you dare attempt to go to the south, we shall cut you up into ten thousand little pieces."

Traveller.--"You will not lay a finger upon me, nor throw a handful of sand in my face unless it please G.o.d."

Slave-dealer.--(Taken aback at this reply, he drew in his horns), "Well, how much will you give us apiece for our slaves."

_Traveller_.--"I shall give you nothing; you have no right to sell a man, a brother, like yourself."

_Slave-dealer_.--"It's our religion."

_Traveller_.--"It's not your religion to sell Mussulman; you sell the children of your own slaves, born in your houses, and who are Mussulmen?" The slave-dealer, puzzled and angry, was silent a few minutes, and then said, "Ah, well, all's right, all's from G.o.d."

I received a visit from a Hajee under peculiar circ.u.mstances. Pa.s.sing through Tunis on his return from Mecca last year, his slave, hearing that all the slaves were liberated in the country, ran away. In vain his master attempted to catch him. There were no Christians in the country of the Mecca impostor, who kept _manhunting hounds_. This is the peculiar glory of Christian lands. Tunis is not so "go a-head" as Yankee freedom-land. The consequence was the pilgrim left without his slave. He then, strange to say, applied to me to procure him back his slave.

Thinking this a good opportunity to agitate the authorities here OR the question, I recommended him to apply to the Governor, who should write to the Emperor, and also to the Bey of Tunis, and so forth. I had visitors daily who asked me when I should be ready to purchase the slaves and liberate them. Arabs from the remotest districts came to me; and I was told that there is not a town or district of the empire, but has heard of the English going to liberate all the slaves of Morocco.