Travels through the Empire of Morocco Part 1

Travels through the Empire of Morocco.

by John Buffa.

PREFACE.

My motives for publishing this volume of Travels, will be best explained by a detail of the circ.u.mstances which gave rise to my journey to Morocco. In 1805, I was serving in the capacity of Physician to His Majesty's Forces, at the Depot Hospital in the Isle of Wight; whence, by dexterous management of the Army Medical Board[*], I was removed, and placed upon half-pay, in June of that year. At this period, it occurred to Mr. Turnbull, Chairman of the Committee of Merchants trading to the Levant, that it would be of advantage to the public, were the offices of Garrison Surgeon of Gibraltar, and Inspecting Medical Officer of the ships doing quarantine, which were then united in the person of Mr. Pym, separated and made distinct appointments; and he was pleased to think that, from my local knowledge, and other circ.u.mstances, I should be a proper person to fill the latter of these offices. This was also the opinion of His Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, Governor of the garrison.

Representations were accordingly made on the subject, to the then Secretary of State for the War and Colonial Department, Lord Castlereagh; and it was so fully understood that the proposition had been a.s.sented to on his part, that an order was issued from the Transport Board, to provide a pa.s.sage for myself and family to Gibraltar. There I waited some months, in the expectation that the commission would be sent after me, but in vain. In the mean time, I received a communication from Mr. Mattra, British Consul General at Tangiers, requesting that I would cross over to Barbary, and attend His Excellency the Governor of Larache, First Minister of the Emperor of Morocco, then labouring under a dangerous illness. It was on my return from this journey, that I found a letter from Mr. Turnbull (See Appendix, No. III. p. 227), stating that my old friends of the Medical Board had been at their usual work of persecution, and by their scandalous misrepresentations to the new Secretary of State for War and the Colonies, Mr. Windham, had succeeded in preventing the appointment which His Royal Highness the Governor of Gibraltar had been graciously pleased to design for me.

During my residence in Barbary it was my good fortune to gain the approbation and friendship of the Emperor of Morocco, and of the princ.i.p.al Officers of his Court, by which I was enabled to give facilities to the procuring of fresh provisions for our Navy, and render to my country other services, not strictly in the line of my profession. (See the various doc.u.ments at the end of Appendix.) Having succeeded in restoring the Governor of Larache to health, and performed some other cures, acceptable to the Emperor of Morocco, I considered the objects for which I had crossed over to Barbary accomplished, and returned to Gibraltar, after having received the most flattering marks of distinction, both from the Imperial Court, and from Lord Collingwood, Commander of the British fleet in the Mediterranean. The letter of the Emperor of Morocco to His Majesty (Appendix, No. X. p. 239) is an ample proof of the disposition of that prince in my favour.

Finding the princ.i.p.al aim of my voyage to Gibraltar frustrated by the machinations of the Medical Junta, whom I have already stated as ever active in mischief, I determined to return to England. The letter of the Emperor of Morocco to His Majesty, and a general certificate, couched in the strongest terms of approbation, and signed by all the princ.i.p.al merchants of Gibraltar, I thought were doc.u.ments, which, added to my correspondence with Lord Collingwood, and the officers of his fleet, would not fail to have procured me a favourable reception, and some attention to my claims.

But the letter of the Emperor of Morocco, as it still remains unanswered, I cannot but believe has never been presented to His Majesty. Nay, the pressing solicitations, with which I have since been honoured on the part of the Emperor of Morocco, through his princ.i.p.al Minister, to return to that country, I have hitherto been obliged to delay answering, that I might not, on the one hand, insult, by evasive or false replies, a government from which I had experienced such friendship and respect; or, on the other hand, be compelled, by a true statement, to compromise my own.

The princ.i.p.al design of publishing this account of my journey to the Barbary States, is to shew the good policy, on the part of this country, of keeping upon terms of strict amity with the government of Morocco. The neglect, which, on this occasion, has been evinced of the Emperor's letter, I cannot but consider, in a public point of view, as extremely reprehensible, independently of the private injury it has occasioned to myself. Whether this neglect arose from the misrepresentations of the Army Medical Board, or from those of any other persons, I will not pretend to determine; but in any case, a most censurable disregard, even of the forms of civility, towards a Prince, who, however we may affect to despise his influence in the great political scale, has it always in his power materially to promote or to impede the interests of this country in the Levant, must attach to some quarter or other.

[*] As the members of that body are expected shortly to be dismissed from their situations, I think it right, lest at any future period injustice should be done to innocent individuals, by confounding them with the guilty, here to state that Sir Lucas Pepys, Bart. Mr. Thomas Keate, and Mr. Francis Knight, Apothecaries, at present compose the body illegally calling themselves the Army Medical Board, whose conduct for a great many years has brought disgrace and disaster on that important department. For a detail of their conduct, see "An a.n.a.lytical View of the Medical Department of the British Army, by Charles Maclean, M.D." 8vo. published by Stockdale, Pall Mall.

TRAVELS,

&c.

LETTER I.

Inducement for the Journey--Arrive at Tangiers--Its History-- Situation--Inhabitants--Military--Governor--Fortifications-- Subterraneous Pa.s.sage--Socco, or Market--Adjacent Villas--Invited to Larache.

Tangiers, January 12th, 1806.

I have long felt very desirous to visit a country, which, notwithstanding the many revolutions it has undergone, and the enlightened characters of its conquerors, is regarded as still immersed in a degree of barbarism almost unparalleled. It appeared to me next to impossible that a nation so contiguous to Europe, with which it has for centuries maintained a constant intercourse, could have remained in a state of such profound ignorance.

Impressed with these ideas, I readily embraced the offer of a friend to accompany him from Gibraltar to this place, intending to travel further up the country, should I meet with sufficient inducement from the result of my observations here. We landed on the first of this month, and the intermediate time I have employed in obtaining information relative to the town of Tangiers from the earliest tradition to the present time. As the particulars I have collected do not appear devoid of Interest, I flatter myself, you will be gratified that I should have made them the subject of a letter.

This town, which by the ancients was called _Tingis_, or Tingir, and appears to have been the metropolis of the _Western Mauritania_, or Tingitania, as it was named, to distinguish it from _Mauritania Caesariensis_; according to Pliny and others, was first founded ed fay _Antaeus_ (about a thousand years before Christ), the same who was afterwards conquered and slain by _Hercules_. The giant is supposed to have been buried here: and the report of Plutarch, that his tomb was opened by Sertorius, and a corpse sixty cubits or more in length, taken out of it, confirms the idea. But according to others, _Tingis_, or the present _Tangiers_, lays claim to a more ancient founder than _Antaeus_. Procopius mentions, that in his time were standing two pillars of white stone, upon which were inscribed in the Phoenician characters the following words: _"We are the Canaanites who fed from Joshua, the son of Nun."_

A colony of Carthaginians settled here, and it is most probable that a flourishing trade was carried on by them, as the situation of Tangiers is extremely well adapted for that purpose. Indeed the name _Tingis_, in the language of the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, signifies an _emporium_. When the Mauritaniae became subject to the Romans, in the reign of Julius Caesar, Bocchus, the son-in-law of Jugurtha, having defeated Bogud, the king of _Mauritania Tingitania_, he became possessed of that country, and Augustus, or, as some say, Octavius, confirmed this acquisition to him; and the inhabitants of _Tingis_ were allowed the privileges of Roman citizens.

I cannot discover any thing further remarkable of Tangiers from the time it became a Roman colony, and during the period it was possessed by the Saracens, till the latter end of the fourteenth century, when it was taken by the Portuguese, who erected fortifications and other public works. It continued in their possession for nearly two centuries; and was at length given to our King, Charles the Second, as part of the dowry of his consort Catharine, We did not keep it long; for, owing to the little harmony that subsisted between that Monarch and his Parliament, it was ceded to the Moors in 1684, after we had blown up all the fortifications, and utterly destroyed the harbour. Since that event, it seems to have been gradually dwindling into its present insignificance.

I have before observed, that the situation of Tangiers is well adapted to the purposes of commerce, being about two miles within the Straits of Gibraltar (or Hercules); but the ruins of the fortifications and harbour have rendered the anchorage in the bay of Tangiers very unsafe. This is a great obstacle to trade; very little is carried on there at present, and that little is by a few Jews, and lately, by a Spanish merchant of the name of Don Pedro.

The town being built on the declivity of that high tract of land called Cape Spartel (the Cape _Cottes_ or _Ampelusian_ of the ancients), it is seen at a great distance; but on entering the bay, it appears to the best advantage. It is defended by two martello towers, a castle, and a large battery; but I am confident that it could not withstand the attack of a few English frigates, and that such a force from the bay might destroy the town in the s.p.a.ce of a few hours. Notwithstanding the vicissitudes to which this place has been exposed, it still possesses a superiority over the other towns in the empire of Morocco; it is the capital of the kingdom, and the residence of the Consuls General of the powers in amity with his Imperial Majesty. The houses of these foreign residents are constructed with great taste in the European style; the habitations of the Moors are neat; the air is pure and salubrious; the supply of excellent water, abundant; and the market cheap and plentiful. This combination of advantages renders Tangiers, in many points of view, an eligible residence. The European society, which consists almost solely of the families of the foreign consuls, is pleasant and agreable, The adjacent country is beautifully romantic; and the opposite coast and bay present a most delightful prospect. The Moorish inhabitants are all soldiers, very poor, and entirely subject to the arbitrary will of the Emperor. It is capable of furnishing, at a moment's warning, three thousand cavalry, and two thousand infantry and artillery-men; but these troops are badly trained, and without order or discipline: I attended their evening parade yesterday, and was truly diverted with the sorry appearance of their best militia-men, who were to mount guard for the night. These Moorish soldiers are remarkably addicted to cheating. It is probably owing to their excessive indolence, which prevents them from making the usual exertions for obtaining a livelihood, and induces them to adopt the more expeditious mode of extorting from strangers the means of subsistence; but as they are not often presented with an object of prey, they continually labour against the pressure of extreme poverty. Tangiers is under the government of Sidy Ash-Ash; who resides at Tetuan. He is by no means partial to the English, but devoted to France; influenced by French principles, and French interest. Excepting a few small armed vessels, fitted out for piracy, there is no shipping in the harbour. I have observed none for the purpose of commerce; all their goods are exported in foreign bottoms; and when they bring in a prize, the vessel remains unsold for a considerable length of time, and it is always disposed of to a foreign merchant.

Several remains of the European fortifications are yet visible; the Moors have repaired some, among which the western bastions still form a princ.i.p.al part of the strength of the place. The castle, which appears to have been built before the time of the Portuguese, stands in a commanding position upon one of the most prominent rocks of this coast. By an order of the Emperor, all the civil and military officers of this town are obliged to reside in it.

From this castle is a subterraneous pa.s.sage containing many curious remnants of antiquity. On each side of the pa.s.sage are ruinous apartments, which we may readily suppose to have been designed as places for the concealment of treasures, or receptacles for the dead. From the fragments of some urns I have collected, upon which are to be traced parts of inscriptions in the Punic character, I imagine this subterraneous place to have been built by the Carthaginians, for one or both of those purposes. It extends from the castle to several miles without the gates of the town; whence we may likewise infer, that it served as a means of escape in case of a sudden insurrection, or siege. Here are several superb mosques and commodious public baths.

The _Socco_, or market, is held twice a week (on Sunday and Wednesday), in a s.p.a.cious sandy square, outside of the western gate, whereto the peasants bring all kinds of provisions, and other necessaries, which are sold at very low rates. Fish and every sort of wild fowl are brought in daily, and sold very cheap. Among the Consuls' villas, some of which are built near the spot where the _Socco_ is held, that of the Swedish Consul is the most worthy of notice. The pleasure-ground is laid out with great taste in orange groves; the gardens abound in fruit-trees, and the Consul has made a curious botanical collection.

I have just been interrupted by Mr. Matra, our Consul. He called to request me to go up to Larache, to attend the Governor, who is dangerously ill, and has sent here for an English physician. I intended to have continued a brief account of this empire, from the time it became a Roman province to the introduction of Mahometanism; also by what means the Moors became mixed with Arabs: but I must reserve this for the next opportunity.

LETTER II.

_Sketch of the History of Morocco--Road from Tangiers--Simplicity of the Peasants--Moors hospitable--Arrive at a Village--The ancient Zelis--Public Accommodations--Much infested with Vermin--Arzilla, a ruinous walled Town--Arrive at Larache_.

Larache, January 1806.

Before I proceed to give you the particulars of my journey to this place, I shall fulfil tho promise I made you in my last.

The present empire of Morocco is properly the _Mauritania Tingitania_ of the Romans, as the _Mauritania Caesariensis_ comprised Algiers, Tripoli, and Tunis; and was so called from the Emperor Claudius. _Tingitania_ was not decidedly reduced to a Roman province till after the death of _Bocchus_. Augustus afterwards gave the two Mauritanias, and a part of _Getulia_, to the younger _Juba_, as a remuneration for the loss of his father's kingdom (_Numidia_). _Ptolemy_, his son, by _Cleopatra_ (daughter of _Antony_ and _Cleopatra_), succeeded him. In his reign, the Moors of this country were induced to revolt by a Numidian named _Tacfarinas_, who had served in the Roman army, and who, at the head of a set of barbarians accustomed to every species of robbery, a.s.sisted the revolt he had excited.

After a variety of successes and defeats, they were completely routed by _Dolabella_, the Roman General, and a body of Mauritanians sent to his a.s.sistance by _Ptolemy_, This conquest contributed to establish peace for a short time in these provinces; but at the death of _Ptolemy_ (who was treacherously cut off by _Caius_), they again revolted, when _Claudius_ first fixed a Roman army in _Mauritania_.

His generals, though not without difficulty, succeeded in restoring tranquillity, which scarcely met with any interruption till the latter end of the fifth century, when the declining state of the Roman power favoured another revolt, in which the Moors entirely shook off the yoke of the Romans, a.s.sisted by the Vandals, under _Genseric_, who overran Africa, and obtained possession of most of the maritime towns. The Vandals were expelled in the seventh century by the Saracens, under the Caliphs of Bagdad, a ferocious and warlike race of Arabs, who, from conquest to conquest, had extended and removed their seat of government from Medina to the city of Damascus; thence to _Cufa_, and from the latter place to _Bagdad_; where they established their Caliphate authority.

Flushed with their success, and burning with the hopes of plunder, in the conquest of countries more fertile and richer, but less warlike than their own, they extended their arms as far as the western _Mauritania_. This country then remained for some time subject to the Caliphs of Bagdad, and was governed by their lieutenants, a set of cruel, arbitrary, and rapacious men.

The distance from the seat of government, and the oppressive manner in which the Caliphs ruled, excited universal commotion in this part, and considerably diminished their authority. Their generals, far from suppressing, openly encouraged these tumults, and severally aspired to the sovereignty. In the midst of these intestine broils, _Edris_, a descendant of Mahomet, fled into Mauritania, to avoid the persecutions of the Caliph _Abdallah_, who, to ensure the succession to his own family, had caused the kinsmen of _Edris_ to be put to death. _Edris_ first settled in a mountain, between Fez and Mequinez, called _Zaaron_, where he soon gained the confidence of the Moors. He preached the doctrine of Mahomet, and, by degrees, succeeded in establishing it throughout the country. These people, fond of novelty, and extremely susceptible of fanaticism, readily embraced a faith so well suited to their manners and inclinations. They elected him their chief, and invested him with supreme power; which he employed in reducing the Arab generals. From that time, the characters of the Moors and Arabs gradually blended, so that in after-ages, among the generality of them, scarcely any distinction can be traced.

As it is foreign to my present purpose to carry you farther into the ancient history of this country, I shall proceed to give you tho particulars of my journey to this town. I left Tangiers, escorted by a guard, consisting of a serjeant and six hors.e.m.e.n, accompanied by an interpreter, and my few servants. We rode for several hours, alternately through gardens and woods: the former full of fruit-trees; such as orange, lemon, fig, pomegranate, apple, pear, and cherry trees. The scene became every moment more interesting. As we advanced, the country a.s.sumed a variety almost indescribable. The contrast was every where infinitely striking. At one instant the eye was presented with fine corn-fields, meadows, and high hills; nay, mountains, cultivated to the very summits, are covered with immense flocks of sheep, and herds of cattle; while the vallies conveyed to the imagination an idea of the fertile plains of Arcadia; the simple manners of the Moors, who tend these flocks and herds, still further inducing one to believe them the happy, peaceful people, the poets feign the Arcadian swains to have been. On the other hand are huge mountains, bleak and barren, inaccessible to man, and scarcely affording food to the straggling wild goats that venture to browse on them.

There is a degree of simplicity in the behaviour of the peasants, so widely different from these who inhabit the towns, that it is impossible to suppose them the same race of men. From the great affinity between the manners and customs of these country Moors, and the _Scenite Arabs_, the inhabitants of _Arabia Deserta_, we may naturally infer that they must have derived those habits from the latter.

They reside in villages composed of tents to the number of forty or fifty, which they remove at pleasure; when the pasture fails in one valley, they strike their tents, and seek another, where they remain till the same necessity impels them to quit that in its turn. This was precisely the custom of the _Arabes Scenitae_. The vast plains of sand with which _Arabia Deserta_ abounds, were occasionally interspersed with fertile spots, which appeared like little islands. These we're rendered extremely delightful by fountains, rivulets, palm-trees, and most excellent fruit. The Arabs, with their flocks, encamped on some of them, and when they had consumed every thing there, they retired to others. Their descendants, the present _Bedoweens_, continue the practice to this day. The name given to this kind of village is the same as that of the Arabs just mentioned, which is _Dow-war, or Hbyma_.

The families of the Moorish peasants appear to be very numerous, as I observed that each tent was quite full. They flocked out as I pa.s.sed, to gratify their curiosity in seeing a _Ma.s.sarane_ (for so they denominate a Christian). Yet, notwithstanding their antipathy to all Christians, I was received with the greatest hospitality by these followers of Mahomet. They seemed to vie with each other in presenting the bowl of b.u.t.ter-milk, which they consider as a great delicacy, and.

indeed, an offering of peace.

In the centre of a plain, about eight hours journey from Tangiers, we halted, and refreshed ourselves. After allowing my serjeant and guard to perform their ablutions, and say their prayers, we proceeded on our journey, and arrived, very late in the evening, at a village on the banks of a large river, which, from its situation, I imagine to be the _Zelis_, or _Zelia_, of the ancients, and which, by its annual inundation, fertilizes and enriches the country to such a degree, that, with very little labour, it produces abundant crops of all kinds of grain, particularly of wheat and barley.

A number of rivulets have their source in those mountains, which, joining others in their course, at length form pretty considerable rivers; and these, meeting with obstacles from the projecting rocks over which they pa.s.s, produce most beautiful natural cascades, which, precipitating themselves into the plains, preserve so great a moisture in the soil, that it is covered with a continual verdure.

There are no public inns for the accommodation of travellers on the road; but the Emperor has caused stone buildings to be erected, at certain distances, as subst.i.tutes. These buildings are not so good as many of the stables in England; they resemble the sheds, made, by farmers, to-give shelter to their cattle in tempestuous weather: yet, miserable as they were, I was glad to accept the offer of a night's lodging in one of them, not having provided myself with a tent.

The Cadi of the village conducted us to this delectable abode, which we found already occupied by six Moorish wanderers, who, in the Emperor's name, were ordered to turn out, and make room for me and my suite. Supper was brought me by the Cadi; it consisted, of boiled rice and milk, and some fresh-water fish, tolerably well dressed. When I had partaken of this homely repast, I prepared myself for rest, of which I stood in great need from the fatigues of the day; but, alas!

my evil genius had determined otherwise; it seemed as if all the fleas and bugs in His Imperial Majesty's dominions had been collected, to prevent my closing my eyes; or it was, possibly, a legacy bequeathed, me by my predecessors. Be that as it may, I found them such very troublesome companions, that I preferred the night air to the prospect of being devoured before morning; I therefore wrapped myself up in a thick blanket, and slept, unmolested, in the open air, till after daybreak, when I found myself sufficiently refreshed to pursue my journey. Crossing the river, we pa.s.sed through a ruinous walled town, called _Arzilla_, commanded by an Alcaid, under the Governor of Larache. This, which is a maritime town, lies at the mouth of the above river, and was, according to Strabo, Pliny, and others, a _Phoenician colony_; it was afterwards successively in the hands of the Romans, Vandals, Arabs, and occupied by _Aphonso_, King of Portugal, surnamed the _African_. It was abandoned by the Portuguese in 1471, when it fell under the power of the kings of Morocco.

I observed several ruins in this town and its vicinity, but could not stay to inspect them, It is inhabited by Moors and Jews, and is surrounded by gardens abounding with lemon, orange, and grape trees. On the evening of the same day we reached this place. I shall defer the account of my reception here, and the state in which I found the Governor, till my next.