Travels in Morocco Volume Ii Part 12

2_d_., for foreign ports, 55,965 13_s_. 1_d_.

The imports are Manchester cotton goods, which have entirely superseded the East India long cloths, formerly in universal use, blue salampores, prints, sugar, tea, coffee, Buenos Ayres slides, iron, steel, spices, drugs, nails, beads and deals, woollen cloth, cotton wool, and mirrors of small value, partly for consumption in the town, but chiefly for that of the interior, from Morocco and its environs, as far as Timbuctoo.

The amount of imports in 1855 was: British goods, 136,496 7_s_. 6_d_., foreign goods 31,222 11_s_. 5_d_.

The trade last year was greatly increased by the unusually large demand for olive-oil from all parts, and there is no doubt that, under a more liberal Government, the commerce might be developed to a vast extent.

RABAT.

The princ.i.p.al goods imported at Rabat are, alum, calico of different qualities, cinnamon, fine cloth, army cloth, cloves, copperas, cotton prints, raw cotton, sewing cotton, cutlery, dimity, domestics, earthenware, ginger, gla.s.s, handkerchiefs (silk and cotton), hardware, indigo, iron, linen, madder root, muslin, sugar (refined and raw), tea, and tin plate.

The before-mentioned articles are imported partly for consumption in Rabat and Sallee, and partly for transmission into the interior.

The value of different articles of produce exported at Rabat during the last five years amounts to 34,860 1_s_.

There can be no doubt that the imports and exports at Rabat would greatly increase, if the present high duties were reduced, and Government monopolies abolished. Large quant.i.ties of hides were exported before they were a Government monopoly: now the quant.i.ty exported is very inconsiderable.

MAZAGAN.

_Goods Imported_.--Brown Domestics, called American White, muslins, raw cotton, cotton-bales, silk and cotton pocket-handkerchiefs; tea, coffee, sugars, iron, copperas, alum; many other articles imported, but in very small quant.i.ties.

A small portion of the importations is consumed at Mazagan and Azimore, but the major portions in the interior.

The amount of the leading goods exported in 1855 was:--Bales of wool, 6,410; almonds, 200 serons; grain, 642,930 fanegas.

No doubt the commerce of this port would be increased under better fiscal laws than those now established.

But the primary and immediate thing to be looked after is the wilful casting into the anchorage-ground of stone-ballast by foreigners.

British masters are under control, but foreigners will persist, chiefly Sardinian masters.

THE END

[1] The predecessor of Muley Abd Errahman.

[2] On account, of their once possessing the throne, the Shereefs have a peculiar jealousy of Marabouts, and which latter have not forgotten their once being sovereigns of Morocco. The _Moravedi_ were "really a dynasty of priests," as the celebrated Magi, who usurped the throne of Cyrus. The Shereefs, though descended from the Prophet, are not strictly priests, or, to make the distinction perfectly clear the Shereefs are to be considered a dynasty corresponding to the type of Melchizdek, uniting in themselves the regal and sacerdotal authority, whilst the _Marabouteen_ were a family of priests like the sons of Aaron.

Abd-el-Kader unites in himself the princely and sacerdotal authority like the Shereefs, though not of the family of the Prophet. Mankind have always been jealous of mere theocratic government, and dynasties of priests have always been failures in the arts of governing, and the Egyptian priests, though they struggled hard, and were the most accomplished of this cla.s.s of men, could not make themselves the sovereigns of Egypt.

[3] According to others the Sadia reigned before the Shereefs.

[4] I was greatly astonished to read in Mr. Hay's "Western Barbary," (p.

123), these words--"During one of the late rebellions, a beautiful young girl was offered up as a propitiatory sacrifice, her throat being cut before the tent of the Sultan, and in his presence!" This is an unmitigated libel on the Shereefian prince ruling Morocco. First of all, the sacrifice of human beings is repudiated by every cla.s.s of inhabitants in Barbary. Such rites, indeed, are unheard of, nay, unthought of. If the Mahometan religion has been powerful in any one thing, it is in that of rooting out from the mind of man every notion of human sacrifice. It is this which makes the sacrifice of the Saviour such an obnoxious doctrine to Mussulmen. It is true enough, at times, oxen are immolated to G.o.d, but not to Moorish princes, "to appease an offended potentate." One spring, when there was a great drought, the people led up to the hill of Ghamart, near Carthage, a red heifer to be slaughtered, in order to appease the displeasure of Deity; and when the Bey's frigate, which, a short time ago, carried a present to her Britannic Majesty, from Tunis to Malta, put back by stress of weather, two sheep were sacrificed to some tutelar saints, and two guns were fired in their honour. The companions of Abd-el-Kader in a storm, during his pa.s.sage from Oran to Toulon, threw handsful of salt to the raging deep to appease its wild fury. But as to sacrificing human victims, either to an incensed Deity, or to man, impiously putting himself in the place of G.o.d, the Moors of Barbary have not the least conception of such an enormity.

It would seem, unfortunately, that the practice of the gentleman, who travelled a few miles into the interior of Morocco on a horse-mission, had been to exaggerate everything, and, where effect was wanting, not to have scrupled to have recourse to unadulterated invention. But this style of writing cannot be defended on any principle, when so serious a case is brought forward as that of sacrificing a human victim to appease the wrath of an incensed sovereign, and that prince now living in amicable relations with ourselves.

[5] Graberg de Hemso, whilst consul-general for Sweden and Sardinia (at Morocco!) concludes the genealogy of these Mussulman sovereigns with this strange, but Catholic-spirited rhapsody:--

"Muley Abd-ur-Bakliman, who is now gloriously and happily reigning, whom we pray Almighty G.o.d, all Goodness and Power, to protect and exalt by prolonging his life, glory, and reign in this world and in the next; and giving him, during eternity, the heavenly beat.i.tude, in order that his soul, in the same manner as flame to flame, river to sea, may be united with his sweetest, most perfect and ineffable Creator. Amen."

[6] Yezeed was half-Irish, born of the renegade widow of an Irish sergeant of the corps of Sappers and Miners, who was placed at the disposition of this government by England, and who died in Morocco. On his death, the facile, buxom widow was admitted, "nothing loath," into the harem of Sidi-Mohammed, who boasted of having within its sacred enclosure of love and bliss, a woman from every clime.

Here the daughter of Erin brought forth this ferocious tyrant, whose maxim of carnage, and of inflicting suffering on humanity was, "My empire can never be well governed, unless a stream of blood flows from the gate of the palace to the gate of the city." To do Yezeed justice, he followed out the instincts of his birth, and made war on all the world except the English (or Irish). Tully's Letters on Tripoli give a graphic account of the exploits of Yezeed, who, to his inherent cruelty, added a fondness for practical (Hibernian) jokes.

His father sent him several times on a pilgrimage to Mecca to expiate his crimes, when he amused, or alarmed, all the people whose countries he pa.s.sed through, by his terrific vagaries. One day he would cut off the heads of a couple of his domestics, and play at bowls with them; another day, he would ride across the path of an European, or a consul, and singe his whiskers with the discharge of a pistol-shot; another day, he would collect all the poor of a district, and gorge them with a razzia he had made on the effects of some rich over-fed Bashaw. The mult.i.tude sometimes implored heaven's blessing on the head of Yezeed. at other times trembled for their own heads. Meanwhile, our European consuls made profound obeisance to this son of the Shereef, enthroned in the West. So the tyrant pa.s.sed the innocent days of his pilgrimage. So the G.o.dless herd of mankind acquiesced in the divine rights of royalty.

[7] See Appendix at the end of this volume.

[8] The middle Western Region consists of Algiers and part of Tunis.

[9] Pliny, the Elder, confirms this tradition mentioned by Pliny. Marcus Yarron reports, "that in all Spain there are spread Iberians, Persians, Phoenicians, Celts, and Carthaginians." (Lib. iii. chap. 2).

[10] In Latin, Mauri, Maurice, Maurici, Maurusci, and it is supposed, so called by the Greeks from their dark complexions.

[11] The more probable derivation of this word is from _bar_, signifying land, or earth, in contradistinction from the sea, or desert, beyond the cultivable lands to the South. To give the term more force it is doubled, after the style of the Semitic reduplication. De Haedo de la Captividad gives a characteristic derivation, like a genuine hidalgo, who proclaimed eternal war against Los Moros. He says--"Moors, Alartes, Cabayles, and some Turks, form all of them a dirty, lazy, inhuman, indomitable nation of beasts, and it is for this reason that, for the last few years, I have accustomed myself to call that land the land of Barbary."

[12] Procopius, de Bello Vandilico, lib. ii. cap. 10.

[13] Some derive it from _Sarak_, an Arabic word which signifies to steal, and hence, call the conquerors thieves. Others, and with more probability, derive it from _Sharak_, the east, and make them Orientals, and others say there is an Arabic word _Saracini_, which means a pastoral people, and a.s.sert that Saracine is a corruption from it, the new Arabian immigrants being supposed to have been pastoral tribes.

[14] Some suppose that _Amayeegh_ means "great," and the tribes thus distinguished themselves, as our neighbours are wont to do by the phrase "la grande nation." The Shoulah are vulgarly considered to be descended from the Philistines, and to have fled before Joshua on the conquest of Palestine.

In his translation of the Description of Spain, by the Shereef El-Edris (Madrid, 1799), Don Josef Antonio Conde speaks of the Berbers in a note--

"Masmuda, one of the five princ.i.p.al tribes of Barbaria; the others are Zeneta, called Zenetes in our novels and histories, Sanhagha which we name Zenagas; Gomesa is spelt in our histories Gomares and Gomeles.

Huroara, some of these were originally from Arabia; there were others, but not so distinguished. La de Ketama was, according to tradition, African, one of the most ancient, for having come with Afrikio.

"Ben Kis Ben Taifi Ben Teba, the younger, who came from the king of the a.s.syrians, to the land of the west.

"None of these primitive tribes appear to have been known to the Romans, their historians, however, have transmitted to us many names of other aboriginal tribes, some of which resemble fractions now existing, as the Getules are probably the present Geudala or Geuzoula. But the present Berbers do not correspond with the names of the five original people just mentioned. In Morocco, there are Amayeegh and Shelouh, in Algeria the Kabyles, in Tunis the Aoures, sometimes the Shouwiah, and in Sahara the Touarichs. There are, besides, numerous subdivisions and admixtures of these tribes."

[15] Monsieur Balbi is decidedly the most recent, as well as the best authority to apply to for a short and definite description of this most celebrated mountain system, called by him "Systeme Atlantique," and I shall therefore annex what he says on this interesting subject, "Orographie." He says--"Of the 'Systeme Atlantique,' which derives its name from the Mount Atlas, renowned for so many centuries, and still so little known; we include in this vast system, all the heights of the region of Maghreb--we mean the mountain of the Barbary States--as well as the elevations scattered in the immense Sahara or Desert. It appears that the most important ridge extends from the neighbourhood of Cape Noun, or the Atlantic, as far as the east of the Great Syrte in the State of Tripoli. In this vast s.p.a.ce it crosses the new State of Sidi-Hesdham, the Empire of Morocco, the former State of Algiers, as well as the State of Tripoli and the Regency of Tunis. It is in the Empire of Morocco, and especially in the east of the town of Morocco, and in the south-east of Fez, that that ridge presents the greatest heights of the whole system. It goes on diminishing afterwards in height as it extends towards the east, so that it appears the summits of the territory of Algiers are higher than those on the territory of Tunis, and the latter are less high than those to be found in the State of Tripoli. Several secondary ridges diverge in different directions from the princ.i.p.al chain; we shall name among them the one which ends at the Strait of Gibraltar in the Empire of Morocco. Several intermediary mountains seem to connect with one another the secondary chains which intersect the territories of Algiers and Tunis. Geographers call Little Atlas the secondary mountains of the land of Sous, in opposition to the name of Great Atlas, they give to the high mountains of the Empire of Morocco. In that part of the princ.i.p.al chain called Mount Gharian, in the south of Tripoli, several low branches branch off and under the names of Mounts Maray, Black Mount Haroudje, Mount Liberty, Mount Tiggerandoumma and others less known, furrow the great solitudes of the Desert of Lybia and Sahara Proper. From observations made on the spot by Mr. Bruguiere in the former state of Algiers, the great chain which several geographers traced beyond the Little Atlas under the name of Great Atlas does not exist. The inhabitants of Mediah who were questioned on the subject by this traveller, told him positively, that the way from that town to the Sahara was through a ground more or less elevated, and slopes more or less steep, and without having any chain of mountains to cross. The Pa.s.s of Teniah which leads from Algiers to Mediah is, therefore, included in the princ.i.p.al chain of that part of the Regency.

[16] Xenophon, in his Anabasis, speaks of ostriches in Mesopotamia being run down by fleet horses.

[17] Mount Atlas was called Dyris by the ancient aborigines, or Derem, its name amongst the modern aborigines. This word has been compared to the Hebrew, signifying the place or aspect of the sun at noon-day, as if Mount Atlas was the back of the world, or the cultivated parts of the globe, and over which the sun was seen at full noon, in all his fierce and glorious splendour. Bochart connects the term with the Hebrew meaning 'great' or 'mighty,' which epithet would be naturally applied to the Atlas, and all mountains, by either a savage or civilized people. We have, also, on the northern coast, Russadirum, the name given by the Moors to Cape Bon, which is evidently a compound of _Ras_, head, and _dirum_, mountain, or the head of the mountain.

We have again the root of this word in Doa-el-Hamman, Tibet Deera, &c., the names of separate chains of the mighty Atlas. Any way, the modern Der-en is seen to be the same with the ancient Dir-is.

[18] The only way of obtaining any information at all, is through the registers of taxation; and, to the despotism and exactions of these and most governments, we owe a knowledge of the proximate amount of the numbers of mankind.

[19] Tangier, Mogador, Wadnoun, and Sous have already been described, wholly, or in part.

[20] In 936, Arzila was sacked by the English, and remained for twenty years uninhabited.