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diff --git a/old/66521-0.txt b/old/66521-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index aa528cf..0000000 --- a/old/66521-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3582 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Passing of Morocco, by Frederick -F. Moore - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Passing of Morocco - -Author: Frederick F. Moore - -Release Date: October 11, 2021 [eBook #66521] - -Language: English - -Produced by: D A Alexander, David E. Brown, and the librarians at South - Dakota State University for providing a high-res scan of - the map, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at - https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images - made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PASSING OF MOROCCO *** - - - - - -THE PASSING OF MOROCCO - - - [Illustration: _Frontispiece._ - A SAINT HOUSE.] - - - - - THE - PASSING OF MOROCCO - - BY - FREDERICK MOORE - - AUTHOR OF ‘THE BALKAN TRAIL’ - - _WITH ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAP_ - - - BOSTON AND NEW YORK - HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN, AND COMPANY - 1908 - - - - - TO - CHARLES TOWNSEND COPELAND - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -For several years I had been watching Morocco as a man who follows -the profession of ‘Special Correspondent’ always watches a place that -promises exciting ‘copy.’ For many years trouble had been brewing -there. On the Algerian frontier tribes were almost constantly at odds -with the French; in the towns the Moors would now and then assault -and sometimes kill a European; round about Tangier a brigand named -Raisuli repeatedly captured Englishmen and other foreigners for the -sake of ransom; and among the Moors themselves hardly a tribe was not -at war with some other tribe or with the Sultan. It was not, however, -till July of last year that events assumed sufficient importance to -make it worth the while of a correspondent to go to Morocco. Then, as -fortune would have it, when the news came that several Frenchmen had -been killed at Casablanca and a few days later that the town had been -bombarded by French cruisers, I was far away in my own country. It was -ill-luck not to be in London, five days nearer the trouble, for it -was evident that this, at last, was the beginning of a long, tedious, -sometimes unclean business, that would end eventually--if German -interest could be worn out--in the French domination of all North -Africa west of Tripoli. - -Sailing by the first fast steamer out of New York I came to London, and -though late obtained a commission from the _Westminster Gazette_. From -here I went first to Tangier, _viâ_ Gibraltar; then on to Casablanca, -where I saw the destruction of an Arab camp and also witnessed the -shooting of a party of prisoners; I visited Laraiche against my will -in a little ‘Scorpion’ steamer that put in there; and finally spent -some weeks at Rabat, the war capital, after Abdul Aziz with his -extraordinary following had come there from Fez. - -Of these brief travels, covering all told a period of but three months, -and of events that are passing in the Moorish Empire this little book -is a record. - - * * * * * - -Six letters to the _Westminster Gazette_ (forming parts of Chapters I., -IV., VI., XIV., XV., and XVI.) are reprinted with the kind permission -of the Editor. - -I have to thank Messrs. Forwood Bros., the Mersey Steamship Company, -for permission to reproduce the picture which appears on the cover. - - _March 15, 1908._ - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - - INTRODUCTION vii-ix - - I. OUT OF GIBRALTAR 1 - - II. NIGHTS ON A ROOF 12 - - III. DEAD MEN AND DOGS 30 - - IV. WITH THE FOREIGN LEGION 38 - - V. NO QUARTER 52 - - VI. THE HOLY WAR 59 - - VII. FORCED MARCHES 71 - - VIII. TANGIER 79 - - IX. RAISULI PROTECTED BY GREAT BRITAIN 95 - - X. DOWN THE COAST 102 - - XI. AT RABAT 111 - - XII. THE PIRATE CITY OF SALLI 129 - - XIII. MANY WIVES 139 - - XIV. GOD SAVE THE SULTAN! 147 - - XV. MANY SULTANS 157 - - XVI. THE BRITISH IN MOROCCO 173 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - - A SAINT HOUSE _Frontispiece_ - - TANGIER THROUGH THE KASBAH GATE _To face page_ 10 - - THE FRENCH WAR BALLOON } ” 38 - AN ALGERIAN SPAHI } - - ARAB PRISONERS WITH A WHITE FLAG } ” 60 - A COLUMN OF THE FOREIGN LEGION } - - ON THE CITADEL, TANGIER ” 80 - - A RIFF TRIBESMAN } ” 96 - A MAGHZEN SOLDIER } - - THE CASTLE AT LARAICHE ” 104 - - A CAMP OUTSIDE THE WALLS OF RABAT ” 126 - - SHAWIA TRIBESMEN ” 136 - - A FEW OF THE SULTAN’S WIVES ” 144 - - CHAINED NECK TO NECK: RECRUITS FOR THE SULTAN’S ARMY } ” 154 - ABDUL AZIZ ENTERING HIS PALACE } - - A PRINCELY KAID } ” 162 - THE ROYAL BAND } - - MAP OF MOROCCO ” 188 - - - - -THE PASSING OF MOROCCO - - - - -CHAPTER I - -OUT OF GIBRALTAR - - -It was in August, 1907, one Tuesday morning, that I landed from a P. & -O. steamer at Gibraltar. I had not been there before but I knew what -to expect. From a distance of many miles we had seen the Rock towering -above the town and dwarfing the big, smoking men-of-war that lay at -anchor at its base. Ashore was to be seen ‘Tommy Atkins,’ just as one -sees him in England, walking round with a little cane or standing -stiff with bayonet fixed before a tall kennel, beside him, as if for -protection, a ‘Bobbie.’ The Englishman is everywhere in evidence, -always to be recognised, if not otherwise, by his stride--which no one -native to these parts could imitate. The Spaniard of the Rock (whom the -British calls contemptuously ‘Scorpion’) is inclined to be polite and -even gracious, though he struggles against his nature in an attempt -to appear ‘like English.’ Moors from over the strait pass through the -town and leisurely observe, without envying, the _Nasrani_ power, then -pass on again, seeming always to say: ‘No, this is not my country; I -am Moslem.’ Gibraltar is thoroughly British. Even the Jews, sometimes -in long black gaberdines, seem foreign to the place. And though on the -plastered walls of Spanish houses are often to be seen announcements of -bull fights at Cordova and Seville, the big advertisements everywhere -are of such well-known British goods as ‘Tatcho’ and ‘Dewar’s.’ - -I have had some wonderful views of the Rock of Gibraltar while crossing -on clear days from Tangier, and these I shall never forget, but I -think I should not like the town. No one associates with the Spaniards, -I am told, and the other Europeans, I imagine, are like fish out of -water. They seem to be of but two minds: those longing to get back to -England, and those who never expect to live at home again. Most of -the latter live and trade down the Moorish coast, and come to ‘Gib’ -on holidays once or twice a year, to buy some clothes, to see a play, -to have a ‘spree.’ Of course they are not ‘received’ by the others, -those who long for England, who are ‘exclusive’ and deign to meet with -only folk who come from home. In the old days, when the Europeans in -Morocco were very few, it was not unusual for the lonesome exile to -take down the coast with him from ‘Gib’ a woman who was ‘not of the -marrying brand.’ She kept his house and sometimes bore him children. -Usually after a while he married her, but in some instances not till -the children had grown and the sons in turn began to go to Gibraltar. - -My first stop at the Rock was for only an hour, for I was anxious to -get on to Tangier, and the little ‘Scorpion’ steamer that plied between -the ports, the _Gibel Dursa_, sailed that Tuesday morning at eleven -o’clock. I seemed to be the only cabin passenger, but on the deck -were many Oriental folk and low-caste Spaniards, not uninteresting -fellow-travellers. Though the characters of the North African and the -South Spaniard are said to be alike, in appearance there could be no -greater contrast, the one lean and long-faced, the other round-headed -and anxious always to be fat. Neither are they at all alike in style -of dress, and I had occasion to observe a peculiar difference in their -code of manners. I had brought aboard a quantity of fresh figs and -pears, more than I could eat, and I offered some to a hungry-looking -Spaniard, who watched me longingly; but he declined. On the other hand -a miserable Arab to whom I passed them at once accepted and salaamed, -though he told me by signs that he was not accustomed to the sea and -had eaten nothing since he left Algiers. As I moved away, leaving some -figs behind, I kept an eye over my shoulder, and saw the Spaniard -pounce upon them. - -The conductor, or, as he would like to be dignified, the purser, of -the ship, necessarily a linguist, was a long, thin creature, sprung -at the knees and sunk at the stomach. He was of some outcast breed of -Moslem. Pock-marked and disfigured with several scars, his appearance -would have been repulsive were it not grotesque. None of his features -seemed to fit. His lips were plainly negro, his nose Arabian, his -ears like those of an elephant; I could not see his eyes, covered -with huge goggles, black enough to pale his yellow face. Nor was this -creature dressed in the costume of any particular race. In place of the -covering Moorish _jeleba_ he wore a white duck coat with many pockets. -Stockings covered his calves, leaving only his knees, like those of -a Scot, visible below full bloomers of dark-green calico. On his feet -were boots instead of slippers. Of course this man was noisy; no such -mongrel could be quiet. He argued with the Arabs and fussed with the -Spaniards, speaking to each in their own language. On spying me he -came across the ship at a jump, grabbed my hand and shook it warmly. -He was past-master at the art of identification. Though all my clothes -including my hat and shoes had come from England--and I had not spoken -a word--he said at once, ‘You ’Merican man,’ adding, ‘No many ’Merican -come Tangier now; ’fraid _Jehad_’--religious war. - -‘Ah, you speak English,’ I said. - -‘Yes, me speak Englis’ vera well: been ’Merica long time--Chicago, -New’leans, San ’Frisco, Balt’more, N’York’ (he pronounced this last -like a native). ‘Me been Barnum’s Circus.’ - -‘Were you the menagerie?’ - -The fellow was insulted. ‘No,’ he replied indignantly, ‘me was freak.’ - -Later when I had made my peace with him by means of a sixpence I asked -to be allowed to take his picture, at which he was much flattered and -put himself to the trouble of donning a clean coat; though, in order -that no other Mohammedan should see and vilify him, he would consent to -pose only on the upper-deck. - -Sailing from under the cloud about Gibraltar the skies cleared rapidly, -and in less than half-an-hour the yellow hills of the shore across -the strait shone brilliantly against a clear blue sky. There was no -mistaking this bit of the Orient. For an hour we coasted through the -deep green waters. Before another had passed a bleak stretch of sand, -as from the Sahara, came down to the sea; and there beyond, where the -yellow hills began again, was the city of Tangier, the outpost of the -East. A mass of square, almost windowless houses, blue and white, -climbing in irregular steps, much like the ‘Giant’s Causeway,’ to the -walls of the ancient _Kasbah_, with here and there a square green -minaret or a towering palm. - -We dropped anchor between a Spanish gunboat and the six-funnelled -cruiser _Jeanne d’Arc_, amid a throng of small boats rowed by Moors -in coloured bloomers, their legs and faces black and white and shades -between. While careful to keep company with my luggage, I managed at -the same time to embark in the first boat, along with the mongrel in -the goggles and a veiled woman with three children, as well as others. -Standing to row and pushing their oars, the bare-legged boatmen took us -rapidly towards the landing--then to stop within a yard of the pier and -for a quarter of an hour haggle over fares. Three reals Moorish was all -they could extort from the Spaniards, and this was the proper tariff; -but from me two pesetas, three times as much, was exacted. I protested, -and got the explanation, through the man of many tongues, that this -was the regulation charge for ‘landing’ Americans. In this country, he -added from his own full knowledge, the rich are required to pay double -where the poor cannot. While the Spaniards, the freak and I climbed up -the steps to the pier, several boatmen, summoned from the quay, came -wading out and took the woman and her children on their backs, landing -them beyond the gate where pier-charges of a real are paid. - -At the head of the pier a rickety shed of present-day construction, -supported by an ancient, crumbling wall, is the custom-house. Not in -anticipation of difficulty here, but as a matter of precaution, I had -stuffed into my pockets (knowing that my person could not be searched) -my revolver and a few books; and to hide these I wore a great-coat and -sweltered in it. Perhaps from my appearance the cloaked Moors, instead -of realising the true reason, only considered me less mad than the -average of my kind. At any rate they ‘passed’ me bag and baggage with -a most superficial examination and not the suggestion that _backsheesh_ -would be acceptable. - -But on another day I had a curious experience at this same -custom-house. A new kodak having followed me from London was held -for duty, which should be, according to treaty, ten per cent. _ad -valorem_. It was in no good humour that after an hour’s wrangling I was -finally led into a room with a long rough table at the back and four -spectacled, grey-bearded Moors in white _kaftans_ and turbans seated -behind. - -‘How much?’ I asked and a Frenchman translated. - -‘Four dollars,’ came the reply. - -‘The thing is only worth four pounds twenty dollars; I’ll give you one -dollar.’ - -‘Make it three--three dollars, Hassani.’ - -‘No, one.’ - -‘Make it two--two dollars Spanish.’ - -This being the right tax, I paid. But I was not to get my goods yet; -what was my name? - -[Illustration: TANGIER THROUGH THE KASBAH GATE.] - -‘Moore.’ - -‘No, _your_ name.’ - -‘I presented my card.’ - -‘Moore!’ A laugh went down the turbaned line. - -A writer on the East has said of the Moors that they are the Puritans -of Islam, and the first glimpse of Morocco will attest the truth of -this. Not a Moor has laid aside the _jeleba_ and the corresponding -headgear, turban or fez. In the streets of Tangier--of all Moorish -towns the most ‘contaminated’ with Christians--there is not a tramway -or a hackney cab. Not a railway penetrates the country anywhere, not a -telegraph, nor is there a postal service. Except for the discredited -Sultan (whose ways have precipitated the disruption of the Empire) not -a Moor has tried the improvements of Europe. It seems extraordinary -that such a country should be the ‘Farthest West of Islam’ and should -face the Rock of Gibraltar. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -NIGHTS ON A ROOF - - -I did not stop long on this occasion at Tangier, because, from a -newspaper point of view, Casablanca was a place of more immediate -interest. The night before I sailed there arrived an old Harvard friend -travelling for pleasure, and he proposed to accompany me. Johnny Weare -was a young man to all appearances accustomed to good living, and -friends of an evening--easy to acquire at Tangier--advised him to take -a supply of food. But I unwisely protested and dissuaded John, and we -went down laden with little unnecessary luggage, travelling by a French -torpedo-boat conveying despatches. - -Here I must break my story in order to make it complete, and anticipate -our arrival at Casablanca with an account of how the French army -happened to be lodged in this Moorish town. In 1906 a French company -obtained a contract from the Moorish Government to construct a harbour -at Casablanca; and beginning work they found it expedient, in order to -bring up the necessary stone and gravel, to lay a narrow-gauge railway -to a quarry a few miles down the coast. In those Mohammedan countries -where the dead are protected from ‘Infidel’ tread the fact that the -tracks bordered close on a cemetery, in fact passed over several -graves, would have been cause perhaps for a conflict; but this--though -enemies of France have tried to proclaim it--was not a serious matter -in Morocco, where the Moslems are done with their dead when they bury -them and anyone may walk on the graves. The French were opposed solely -because they were Christian invaders to whom the Sultan had ‘sold -out.’ They had bought the High Shereef with their machines and their -money, but the tribes did not intend to tolerate them. - -After many threats the Arabs of the country came to town one market-day -prepared for war. Gathering the local Moors, including those labouring -on the railway, they surrounded and killed in brutal fashion, with -sticks and knives and the butts of guns, the engineer of the locomotive -and eight other French and Italian workmen. The French cruiser -_Galilée_ was despatched to the scene, and arriving two days later -lay in harbour apparently awaiting instructions from home. By this -delay the Moors, though quiet, were encouraged, hourly becoming more -convinced that if the French could land they would have done so. They -were thoroughly confident, as their resistance demonstrated, when, -after three days, a hundred marines were put ashore. As the marines -passed through the ‘Water Port’ they were fired upon by a single Moor, -and thereupon they shot at every cloaked man that showed his head on -their march of half-a-mile to the French consulate. At the sound of -rifles the _Galilée_ began bombarding the Moslem quarters of the town; -and the stupid Moorish garrison, with guns perhaps brought out of -Spain, essayed to reply, and lasted for about ten minutes. - -But the landing force of the French was altogether too small to do more -than protect the French consulate and neighbouring European houses. -Town Moors and Arabs turned out to kill and rape and loot, as they do -whenever opportunity offers, and for three days they plundered the -places of Europeans and Jews and at last fought among themselves for -the spoils until driven from the town by reinforcements of French and -Spanish troops. - -The fighting and the shells from French ships had laid many bodies in -the streets and had wrecked many houses and some mosques. Certain -Moors, less ignorant of the French power, had asked the French to spare -the mosques and the ‘Saint Houses,’ domed tombs of dead shereefs, and -when the fighting began the Arabs, seeing these places were untouched, -concluded, of course, that the protection came from Allah, until they -entered them and drew the French fire. - -Casablanca, or, as the Arabs call it, _Dar el Baida_, ‘White House,’ -was a desolate-looking place when we arrived three weeks after the -bombardment. Hardly a male Moor was to be seen. The whole Moslem -population, with the exception of a few men of wealth who enjoy -European protection, and some servants of consulates, had deserted -the town and had not yet begun to return. Jews in black caps and -baggy trousers were the only labourers, and they worked with a will -recovering damaged property at good pay, and grinning at their good -fortune. In the attack the Moors had driven them to the boats, but now -the Moors themselves had had to go. Native Spaniards did the lighter -work. - -A Spaniard and a Jewish boy took our luggage to an hotel, of which -all the rooms were already occupied, even to the bathroom and the -wine closet, as the long zinc tub in the courtyard, filled with -bottles, testified. The proprietor told us that for ten francs a day -we might have the dining-room to sleep in, but on investigation we -decided to hunt further. Speaking Spanish with a grand manner, for he -was a cavalier fellow, the hotel-keeper then informed us through an -interpreter that he wanted to do what he could for us because he too -was an American. The explanation (for which we asked) was that in New -York he had a brother whom he had once visited for a few months, and -that at that time, ‘to favour an American gentleman,’ he had taken out -naturalisation papers and voted for the mayor. - -But this man’s breach of the law in New York was his mildest sin, as -we came later to hear. He had many robberies to his credit and a murder -or two. For his latest crime he was now wanted by the French consul -and military authorities, but being an American citizen they could not -lay hold of him except with the consent of the American consul, who -happened to be a German, and, disliking the French, would let them do -nothing that he could help. Rodrigues (this was the name of the Spanish -_caballero_) had defended his place against the Arab attack with the -aid only of his servants. The little arsenal which he kept (he was a -fancier of good guns and pistols) had been of splendid service. It is -said that when the fight was over forty dead Moors lay before the hotel -door, half-a-dozen horses were in Rodrigues’s stable, and bundles of -plunder in his yard. It was a case of looting the looters. On tinned -foods taken from the shops of other Europeans (whom he had plundered -when the Arabs were gone from the town) he was now feeding the host -of newspaper correspondents who crowded his establishment. But we were -not to be looted likewise by this genial fellow-countryman, and our -salvation lay at hand as we bade him _au revoir_. - -Leaving the Hôtel Américain we turned into the main street, and -proceeding towards the Hôtel Continental came upon a party of French -officers, who had just hailed and were shaking hands with a man -unmistakably either English or American. Beside him, even in their -military uniforms the Frenchmen were insignificant. The other man was -tall and splendid and brave, as the writer of Western fiction would -say. He wore a khaki jacket, white duck riding trousers, English -leggings, and a cowboy hat; and over one shoulder were slung a rifle, a -kodak, and a water-bottle. To lend reality to the figure--he was dusty, -and his collar was undone; and as we passed the group we heard him tell -the Frenchmen he had just returned from the ‘outer lines.’ How often -had we seen the picture of this man, the war correspondent of fiction -and of kodak advertisements! - -Both Weare and I were glad to meet the old familiar friend in the -flesh and wanted to speak to him, but we refrained for fear he might -be English and might resent American effrontery. As we passed him, -however, we noticed his name across the flat side of the water-bottle. -In big, bold letters was the inscription: ‘Captain Squall, Special -War Correspondent of “The Morning Press.”’ This was characteristic of -Squall, as we came to know; neither ‘special correspondent’ nor ‘war -correspondent’ was a sufficient title for him; he must be ‘special war -correspondent.’ - -We had heard of Squall at Tangier and thought we could stop and speak -to him, and accordingly waited a moment till he had left the Frenchmen. -‘How-do-you-do, Captain?’ I said. ‘I have an introduction to you in my -bag from the correspondent of your paper at Tangier.’ - -‘You’re an American,’ was the Captain’s first remark, not a very novel -observation; ‘I’ve been in America a good deal myself.’ He adjusted -a monocle and explained with customary originality that he had one -bad eye. ‘What do you think of my “stuff” in the Press?’ was his next -remark. - -‘A little personal, isn’t it? I read that despatch about your being -unable to get any washing done at the hotel because of scarcity of -water, and your leaving it for that reason.’ - -‘Yes, that’s what the British public like to read, personal touches, -don’t you think?’ - -‘Where are you living now? We have to find a place.’ - -‘Come with me. You know the Americans were always very hospitable to -me, and I like to have a chance to do them a good turn. I’m living on a -roof and getting my own grub. You know I’m an old campaigner--I mean to -say, I’ve been in South Africa, and on the Canadian border, and I got -my chest smashed in by a Russian in the Japanese war,--I mean a hand to -hand conflict, you know, using the butts of our guns.’ - -‘Were you a correspondent out there?’ - -‘No, I was fighting for the Japs; I’m a soldier of fortune, you know.’ - -‘But the Japanese Government did not allow Europeans to enlist.’ - -‘I was the only one they would enlist; I mean to say, my father had -some influence with the Japanese minister in London.’ - -‘But you’re very young; how old are you?’ - -‘Well, I don’t like to say; I mean there’s a reason I can’t tell my -age,--I mean, I went to South Africa when I was sixteen; you see that’s -under age for military service in the British Army.’ The Captain waited -a moment, then started off again. ‘I’ve got medals from five campaigns.’ - -‘I’d like to see them.’ - -Indifferently he opened his jacket. - -‘There are six,’ I remarked. - -‘Oh, that’s not a campaign medal; that’s a medal of the Legion of -Frontiersmen. I mean to say, I was one of the organisers of that.’ - -Weare and I recognised the type. There are many of them abroad and -some wear little American flags. But, of course, to us they are more -grotesque when they affect the monocle. We knew Squall would not be -insulted if we turned the conversation to the matter of most interest -to us at that moment. - -‘For my part,’ said Weare, ‘I could do well with something to eat just -now. One doesn’t eat much on a torpedo-boat.’ - -With the prospects of our companionship--for Squall was boycotted by -most of the correspondents--he led us away to his roof to get us a -meal; and, for what the town provided, a good meal he served us. He -did his own cooking, but he did it because he liked to cook,--he meant -to say, he had money coming to him from the sale of a motor-car in -London, and he had just lost fifteen or twenty thousand pounds--the -exact amount did not matter either to us or to him. - -For a fortnight, till an old American resident of Casablanca invited -us to his house, we suffered Squall. We three slept on the roof while -a decrepit, dirty Spaniard, the owner of the place, slept below. It -was a modest, one-storey house, built in Moorish style. There were -rooms on four sides of a paved courtyard, under a slab in the centre of -which was the customary well. Overhead a covering of glass, now much -broken, was intended to keep out the rain. The place had been looted -by the Moors, who took away the few things of any value and destroyed -the rest, leaving the room littered with torn clothes and bedding and -broken furniture, if I might dignify the stuff by these names; nor had -the old man (whose family had escaped to Tangier) cleared out any place -but the kitchen and the courtyard. - -There was a little slave boy whose master had been killed, and who now -served a ‘Mister Peto’ and came to us for water every day. As our old -Spaniard would not keep the place clean and saved all the food that -we left from meals (which filled the place with flies) we hired the -boy for a peseta, about a franc, a day to keep it clean. He was to get -nothing at all if he allowed in more than twenty-five flies, and for -one day he worked well and got the money. But the reason of his success -was the presence all that day of one or the other of us engaged at -writing, protecting him from the wrath of the old man, who resented -being deprived of both stench and flies. The next day when we returned -from the French camp there was no more black boy, and we never saw him -again, nor could we ascertain from the old man what had happened to -him. Thereafter we never drew a bucket of drinking water from the well -without the fear of bringing up a piece of poor ‘Sandy.’ - -As candles were scarce and bad we went to bed early. Weare and I -generally retiring first. We climbed the rickety, ladder-like stairs -and walked round the glass square over the courtyard to the side of the -roof where cooling breezes blew from the Atlantic. There undressing, we -rolled our clothes in tight bundles and put them under our heads for -pillows. To lie on we had only sacking, for our rain-coats had to be -used as covering to keep off the heavy dews of the early morning. Only -Squall had a hammock. - -Before retiring every evening Squall had the task of examining and -testing his weapons, of which he had enough for us all. A ‘Webley’ and -‘Colt’ were not sufficient, he must also bring to the roof his rifle, -on the butt of which were fourteen notches, one for each Moor he had -shot. He clanked up the steps like Long John, the pirate, coming from -‘below,’ in ‘Treasure Island.’ When he had got into the hammock, lying -comfortably on revolvers and cartridge belts, his gun within reach -against the wall, he would begin to talk. ‘You chaps think I bring all -these “shooting-irons” up here because I’m afraid of something. Only -look at what I’ve been through. I’ve got over being afraid. The reason -I bring them all up with me is that I don’t want them stolen,--I mean -to say there isn’t any lock on the door, you know.’ - -‘Go to sleep, Squall.’ - -‘I mean you chaps haven’t got any business talking about me being -afraid.’ - -‘Can’t you tell us about it at breakfast, Squall?’ - -One night Squall wanted to borrow a knife; his, he said, was not very -sharp. He had been out ‘on the lines’ that day, and he wanted it, he -explained, to put another notch in his gun. - -Sometimes a patrol would pass in the night, and we would hear the three -pistols and the gun click. Once the gun went off. - -At daybreak we would rouse old Squall to go and make coffee, and while -he was thus employed we were entertained by the occupants of a ‘kraal’ -(I can think of no better description) next door. In a little, low -hut, built of reeds and brush, directly under our roof, lived a dusky -mother and her daughter. The one (I imagine) was a widow, the other -an unmarried though mature maid. They were among the score of Moors -who had not fled, and there being no men of their own race about they -were not afraid to show their faces to us. The mother was a hag, but -the younger woman was splendid, big and broad-shouldered, with a deep -chest. Her colour was that of an Eastern gipsy, bronze as if sunburned, -with a slight red in her cheeks; she was black-haired, and she always -wore a flower. From her lower lip to her chin was a double line -tattooed in blue, and about her ankles and arms, likewise tattooed, -were broad blue bangles, one above her elbow. The clothes that she -wore, though of common cotton, were brilliant in colour, generally -bright green or blue or orange-yellow, sometimes a combination; they -were not made into garments but rather draped about her, as is the way -in Morocco, and held together with gaudy metal ornaments. Two bare -feet, slippered in red, and one bare arm and shoulder were always -visible. While this younger woman cooked in the open yard, and the old -crone lean and haggard watched, they would look up from their kettle -from time to time and speak to us in language we could not understand. -We threw them small coins and they offered us tea. But we did not visit -the ladies, to run the risk, perhaps, of dissipating an illusion. - -‘Coffee, you chaps,’ sounded from below, and we went down to breakfast -with good old ‘Blood-stained Bill.’ - - - - -CHAPTER III - -DEAD MEN AND DOGS - - -Though at times unpleasant, it is always interesting to come upon the -scene of a recent battle. Casablanca had been a battlefield of unusual -order. The fight that had taken place was not large or momentous, but -it had peculiarities of its own, and it left some curious wreckage. -Windowless Moorish houses with low arched doors now lay open, the -corners knocked off or vast holes rent in the side, and any man might -enter. Several ‘Saint Houses’ were also shattered, and a mosque near -the Water Port had been deserted to the ‘infidels.’ The French guns -had done great damage, but how could they have missed their mark at a -range of less than a mile! A section of the town had taken fire and -burned. One cluster of dry brush kraals had gone up like so much paper -and was now a heap of fine ash rising like desert sand to every breeze. -Another quarter of a considerable area was untouched by fire, though -not by the hand of the Arab; and what he had left of pots and pans -and other poor utensils the Spaniard and Jew had gathered after his -departure. At the time that we came poking through the quarter only a -tom-tom, and that of inferior clay with a broken drum, was to be found. -Hut after hut we entered through mazes of twisting alleys, the gates -down everywhere or wide ajar; and we found in every case a heap of rags -picked over half-a-dozen times, a heap of earthenware broken to bits by -the Moors in order that no one else might profit. So silent was this -quarter, once the living place of half the Moorish population, that the -shimmering of the sun upon the roofs seemed almost audible. Twice we -came upon Algerians of the French army, in one case two men, in the -other a single stalwart ‘Tirailleur.’ We came to a street of wooden -huts a little higher than the kraals, the _sok_ or market-place of the -neighbourhood. Invariably the doors had been barricaded, and invariably -holes hacked with axes had been made to let in the arm, or, if the -shop was more than four feet square, the body of the looter. In front -of the holes were little heaps of things discarded and smashed. What -fiends these Moors and Arabs are, in all their mad haste to have taken -the time to destroy what they did not want or what they could not carry -off! They had hurried about the streets robbing each others’ bodies and -dressing themselves, hot as the season was, in all the clothes they -could crowd on, shedding ragged garments when they came to newer ones, -always taking the trouble to destroy the old. And I have heard that in -collecting women they acted much in the same way, leaving one woman for -another, ‘going partners,’ one man guarding while the other gathered, -driving the women off at last like cattle, for women among Mohammedans -have a definite market value. - -Though the bodies were now removed from the streets it was evident -from the stench that some still lay amongst the wreckage. Flies, great -blue things, buzzed everywhere, rising in swarms as we passed, to -settle again on the wasted sugar or the filthy rubbish and the clots of -blood. Emaciated cats and swollen dogs roused from sleep and slunk away -noiselessly at our approach. One dog, as we entered a house through -a hole torn by a shell, rose and gave one loud bark, but, seeming to -frighten himself, he then backed before us, viciously showing his -teeth, though growling almost inaudibly. Evidently he belonged to the -house. At the fall of night these dogs--I often watched them--would -pass in packs, silently like jackals, out to the fields beyond the -French and Spanish camps, where the bigger battles had taken place and -where a dead Moor or a French artillery horse dried by the sun lay here -and there unburied. - -The return of the Moors to the wrecks of their homes began about -the time of our arrival. At first there came in only two or three -wretched-looking creatures, bare-footed and bare-headed, clad usually -in a single shirt which dragged about their dirty legs, robbed of -everything, in some cases even their wives gone. As the Arabs of the -country sought in every way, even to the extent of shooting them, to -prevent their surrender, they were compelled to run the gauntlet at -night; and often at night the flashes of the Arabs’ guns could be seen -from the camp of the French. The miserable Moors who got away lay most -of the night in little groups outside the wire entanglements till their -white flag, generally the tail of a shirt, was seen by the soldiers -at daybreak. The Moors who thus surrendered, after being searched for -weapons, were taken for examination to the office of the general’s -staff, a square brush hut in the centre of the French camp, where, -under a row of fig trees, they awaited their turns. Some Jews among -them, refugees from the troubled villages round about, were careful -in even this their day to keep a distance from the elect of Mohammed, -remaining out in the blinding sun till a soldier of ‘the Legion’ told -them also to get into the shade. The Jews were given bread by their -sympathisers, and they went in first to be questioned because their -examination was not so rigorous as that through which the Moors were -put--humble pie this for the Moors! - -When a Moor entered the commander’s office he prostrated himself, as -he would do usually only to his Sultan or some holy man of his creed; -however, he was ordered to rise and go squat in a corner. An officer -who spoke Arabic--and sometimes carried a riding-crop--drew up a chair, -sat over him and put him through an inquisition; and if he showed the -slightest insolence a blow or two across the head soon quelled his -spirit. When the examination was over, however, and the Moor had been -sufficiently humiliated, the French were lenient enough. The man’s -name was recorded and he was then permitted to return to his home and -to resume his trade in peace. He received sometimes a pass, and, if -he could do so in the teeth of his watchful countrymen outside the -barriers, he went back into the interior to fetch such of his women -folk as were safe. But every idle Moor was taken from the streets and -made to work as it is not in his belief that he should--though he was -fed and paid a pittance for his labour. Medical attention was to be -had, though the Mohammedan would not ordinarily avail himself of the -Nazarene remedies. - -I should say the French were just, even kindly, to the Moors who -surrendered without arms but to those taken in battle they showed no -mercy. The French army returning from an engagement never brought in -prisoners, and neither men nor officers kept the fact a secret that -those they took they slaughtered. - -The French spread terror in the districts round about, and after they -began to penetrate the country and leave in their wake a trail of death -and desolation, the leaders of several tribes near to Casablanca came -in to sue for peace. These were picturesque men with bushed black hair -sticking out sometimes six inches in front of their ears. The older of -them and those less poorly off came on mules, the youth on horses. They -saw General Drude and the French consul, and went away again to discuss -with the other tribesmen the terms that could be had: no arms within -ten miles of Casablanca and protection of caravans bound hither. But -soon it came to be known that the sorties of the French were limited to -a zone apparently of fifteen kilomètres, and the spirit of the Arabs -rose and they became again defiant. - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -WITH THE FOREIGN LEGION - - -It was to see the war balloon go up that I planned with a youthful -wag of a Scot to rise at five o’clock one morning and walk out to the -French lines before breakfast. He came to the roof and got me up, -and we passed through the ruined streets, over the fallen bricks and -mortar, to the outer gate, the _Bab-el-Sok_. Arriving in the open, the -balloon appeared to us already, to our surprise, high in the air; and -on the straight road that divided the French camp we noticed a thick, -lifting cloud of brown dust. Lengthening our stride we pushed on as -fast as the heavy sand would allow, passing the camp and overtaking -the trail of dust just as the last cavalry troop of the picturesque -French army turned out through an opening in the wire entanglements -which guarded the town. General Drude did not inform correspondents -when he proposed an attack. - -[Illustration: THE FRENCH WAR BALLOON.] - -[Illustration: AN ALGERIAN SPAHI.] - -Spread out in front of us on the bare, rolling country was a moving -body of men forming a more or less regular rectangle, of which the -front and rear were the short ends, about half as long as the sides. -The outer lines were marked by companies of infantry, bloomered -Tirailleurs and the Foreign Legion, marching in open order, often -single file, with parallel lines at the front and vital points. Within -the rectangle travelled the field artillery, three sections of two -guns each; a mountain battery, carried dismantled on mules; a troop -of Algerian cavalry; the general and his staff; and a brigade of the -Red Cross. Outside the main body, flung a mile to the front and far -off either wing, scattered detachments of _Goumiers_, in flowing -robes, served as scouts. Already three of them on the sky-line, by the -position of their horses, signalled that the way was clear. - -This little army, counting in its ranks Germans, Arabs, and negroes, as -well as native Frenchmen, numbered all told less than three thousand -men. It had got into fighting formation under shelter of a battery and -two short flanking lines of infantry lodged on the first ridge; and -passing through the wire entanglements the various detachments had -found their positions without a halt. The force, even though small, was -well handled, and the men were keen for the advance. Of course they -were thoroughly confident; they might have been recklessly so but for -the controlling hand of the cautious general. - -Finding ourselves at a rear corner of the block we set our speed at -about double that of the columns of the troops and took a general -direction diagonally towards a section of the artillery, now kicking -up a pretty dust as it dragged through the ploughed fields. Overtaking -the guns we slogged on with them for a mile or more, advising the -officers not to waste their camera films, as they seemed inclined to -do, before the morning clouds disappeared. - -The helmets of the artillerymen and _Légionnaires_ hid their faces and -made them look like British soldiers; and this was disappointing, to -find that the only French troops in the army had left behind in camp -the little red caps that give them the appearance of belonging to the -time of the French Revolution. - -Though inside us we carried no breakfast, neither were we laden with -doughy bread and heavy water-bottles, to say nothing of rifles; and -after a short breathing spell and a ride on the guns we were soon -able to say _au revoir_ to the battery and to press on ahead. Our -eagerness to ascertain the object of the movement led us towards the -general’s staff; but we did not get there. The little man with the -big moustache spied us at some distance and sent an officer to say -that correspondents should keep back with the hospital corps. Thinking -perhaps it would be best not to argue this point, we thanked the -officer, sent our compliments to Monsieur le Général Drude, and dropped -back till the artillery hid us from his view, grateful that he had not -sent an orderly with us. - -It was only four miles out from Casablanca, as the front line came -to the crest of the second rise, that the firing began. About half a -mile ahead of us we saw the forward guns go galloping up the slope and -swing into position; and a minute later two screeching shells went -flying into the distance. A battery to the left was going rapidly to -the front, and, keeping an eye on the general, we made over to it and -passed to the far side, to be out of his view. It happened that by so -doing we also took the shelter of the battery from a feeble Moorish -fire, and our apparent anxiety brought down upon us the chaff of the -soldiers. But we did not offer to explain. With this battery we went -forward to the firing line; and as soon as the guns were in action, -the Scot, forgetting the fight in the interest of his own mission, -began dodging in and out among the busy artillerists, snapping pictures -of them in action. Though the men kept to their work, several of the -officers had time to pose for a picture, and one smart-looking young -fellow on horseback rode over from the other battery to draw up before -the camera. All went well till the general, stealing a march on us, -came up behind on foot. I do not know exactly what he said, as I do -not catch French shouted rapidly, but I shall not forget the picture -he made. Standing with his legs apart, his arms shaking in the air, -his cap on the back of his head, the little man in khaki not only -frightened us with his rage but made liars of his officers. The same -men who had posed for us now turned upon us in a most outrageous -manner. Some of them, I am sure, used ‘cuss’ words, which fortunately -not understanding we did not have to resent; several called us -imbeciles, and one threatened to put us under arrest. - -‘There,’ said the Scot as the general turned his wrath upon his -officers, ‘that will make a splendid picture, “A Critical Moment on the -Battlefield; General Drude foaming at his Staff.” Won’t you ask them to -pose a minute?’ - -We moved back a hundred yards, taking the shelter of a battered Saint -House, and began to barter with some soldiers for something to eat. -For three cigarettes apiece four of them were willing to part with a -two-inch cube of stringy meat and a slab of soggy brown bread, with -a cupful of water. As we sat at breakfast with these fellows their -officers got out kodaks and photographed the group, perhaps desiring to -show the contrast of civilians in Panama hats beside their bloomered, -fezzed Algerians. With still a hunk of bread to be masticated we had -to rise and go forward. All of the army ahead of us moved off and the -reserves took up a position on the ridge the cannon had just occupied. -As soon as the general took his departure we began to look about for -some protecting line of men or mules, but there were none following -him. The rectangle had divided into two squares, and we were with the -second, which would remain where it was. The object of this manœuvre -was to entice the Moors into the breach, they thinking to cut off the -first square and to be caught between the two. But the Moors had had -their lesson at this game three weeks before. - -Realising soon that we were with the passive force we resolved to -overtake the Foreign Legion, now actively engaged, and accordingly set -out across the valley after them for a two-mile chase. A caravan track -led down through gullies and trailed in and out, round earth mounds -and ‘Saint Houses,’ often cutting us off from the view of both forces -at the same time, and once hiding from us even the balloon. Crossing a -trodden grain-field to shorten our distance we came upon three Arabs, -dead or dying, a dead horse, and the scatterings of a shell. A lean -old brown man, with a thin white beard and a shaven head, lay naked, -with eyes and mouth wide open to the sun, arms and legs flung apart, -a gash in his stomach, and a bullet wound with a powder stain between -the eyes. His companions, still wearing their long cotton shirts and -resting on their arms, might have been feigning sleep; so, as a matter -of precaution we walked round them at a distance. It came to me that -this was fool business to have started after the general and I said so. -‘Human nature,’ replied the Scot; ‘we have been trying to avoid the -general all morning, now we wished we had him.’ We talked of going back -but came to the conclusion that it was as far back as it was forward, -and went on to a knoll, where four guns had taken up a position and -were blazing away as fast as their gunners could load them. - -Of course our independence of General Drude revived as we got to a -place of more or less security, and we swung away from him towards the -right flank. Choosing a good point from which to watch the engagement, -we saluted the captain of a line of Algerians and lay down among -the men. Below us, in plain view, not a quarter of a mile away, was -the camp of the Moors, about four hundred tents, ragged and black -with dirt, some of them old circular army tents, but mostly patched -coverings of sacking such as are to be seen all over Morocco. It was -to destroy this camp, discovered by the balloon, that the French army -had come out, and we had managed to come over the knoll at the moment -that the first flames were applied to it. Just beyond the camp the -squalid village of Taddert, beneath a cluster of holy tombs, a place -of pilgrimage, was already afire. - -The Moors at Taddert had evidently been taken by surprise. They left -most of their possessions behind in the camp, getting away with only -their horses and their guns. A soldier of the Foreign Legion came back -driving three undersized donkeys, and carrying several short, pot-like -Moorish drums. We spoke to him and he told us that they had taken seven -prisoners and had shot them. - -The Arabs hung about the hills, keeping constantly on the move to avoid -shells. Organisation among them seemed totally lacking and ammunition -was evidently scarce. Once in a while a horseman or a group of two -or three would come furiously charging down to within a mile of the -guns and, turning to retire again, would send a wild shot or two in -our direction. Wherever a group of more than three appeared, a shell -burst over their heads and scattered their frightened horses, sometimes -riderless. The fight was entirely one-sided, yet the French general -seemed unwilling to risk a close engagement that might cost the lives -of many of his men. - -After an hour my companion, though under fire for the first time, -became, as he put it, ‘exceedingly bored,’ and lying down on the ground -as if for a nap, asked me to wake him ‘if the Moors should come within -photographing distance.’ I suggested that he might have a look at -them with a pair of glasses and that he might borrow those of a young -officer who had just come up. - -‘Monsoor,’ he said, rising and saluting the officer, ‘_Permettez moi à -user votre binoculaires, s’il vous plaît?_’ - -‘You want to look through my glasses?--certainly,’ came the reply. -‘There, you see that shot; it is meant for those Moroccans converging -on the sky-line. There, it explodes. It got four of them. It was well -aimed. These are splendid guns we have. No other country has such guns. -I should say many of the Moors are killed to-day. Not less than three -hundred. What is that? Give me my things! Pardon, it is only _les -Goumiers_. They look like Moroccans but of course we must not shoot -them!’ - -The energetic Scot interrupted. ‘I should like to see your men fire -a volley so that I might get a picture; my paper wants scenes of the -fighting about Casablanca.’ - -‘Perhaps I can do so in a few minutes, if you stay by me.’ - -The general passed within a few yards, and, ignoring us, went back to -the ambulance brigade to see a wounded man of the Foreign Legion. We -followed him and took his photograph as he shook hands with the trooper -on the litter. - -‘Good picture,’ I said. - -‘Rotten,’ said the Scot. ‘They’ll think in London that I got Drude -to pose; the wounded chap hadn’t a bloodstain on him and he smoked a -cigarette.’ - -We had not long to wait, however, before an example of real misery -came to our view. A Goumier covered with blood, riding a staggering -wounded horse, brought in a Moor without a stitch of clothes, tied by a -red sash to his saddle. Captor, captive, and horse fell to the ground -almost together. The Goumier had been shot in the chest, and expired -while his fellow horsemen relieved him of his purple cloak and his -turban and gave him water. The Moor (who had been taken in the fire at -Taddert) was a mass of burns from head to foot. On one hand nothing -remained but stumps of fingers, and loose charred flesh hung down from -his legs. Well might the French have shot this creature; but they bound -up his wounds. - -At one o’clock the Arab camp was a mass of smouldering rags, while -Taddert blazed from every corner. The day’s work was done. Long -parallel lines of men marching single file in open order trailed over -the stony ground back towards the white walled city. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -NO QUARTER - - -On the next excursion with the French I happened to see the shooting -of six prisoners. We set out from camp as usual at early morning and -moved up the coast for a distance of eight miles, with the object of -examining a well which in former dry seasons supplied Casablanca with -water and was now no doubt supplying the Arabs round about. By marching -in close formation and keeping always down in the slopes between hills -we managed to get to the well and to swing a troop of Goumiers round it -without being noticed by a party of thirteen Moors, of whom only three -were properly mounted. - -The unlucky thirteen had no earthly chance. The Goumiers swept down -upon them, killing seven, and taking prisoners the remaining six. As -I was marching with the artillery at the time, I missed this little -engagement, and my first knowledge of it was when the prisoners trailed -by me on foot: six tall, gaunt, brown men, bare-legged, and three of -them bare-headed, none clad in more than a dirty cotton shirt that -dragged to his knees. They moved in quick, frightened steps, keeping -close to one another and obeying their captors implicitly. Allah had -deserted them and their souls were as water. The Goumiers, fellow -Mohammedans and devout--I have seen them pray--followed on tight-reined -ponies, riding erect in high desert saddles, their coloured kaftans -thrown back from their sword-arms--brown men these too, with small -black eyes and huge noses. French soldiers of the Foreign Legion -drove three undersized asses, carrying immense pack-saddles of straw -and sacking meant to pad their skinny backs and to keep a rider’s -feet from trailing ground. They were too small to be worth halter or -bridle, and the soldiers prodded them on with short, pointed sticks, -that brought to my mind Stevenson’s ‘Travels with a Donkey.’ One of -the Frenchmen brought along a gun, a long-barrelled Arab flintlock, an -antiquated thing safer to face than to fire. Besides this, I was told, -one of the prisoners had carried a bayonet fastened with a hemp string -to the end of a stick; the others seem to have been unarmed. They were -indeed a poor bag. - -Without the least idea that such prisoners would be shot, I did not -follow to their summary trial, but moved, instead, over to a spring, -where some artillerists were watering their horses, while a dozen -sporting tortoises stirred the mud. The gunners had bread and water, -while I had none. Bread and water are heavy on campaign, and a few -cigarettes I had found were good barter. My cigarettes were distributed -and we were just beginning our breakfast, when a man standing up -called our attention to the Goumiers coming our way again with the -Moors. They were walking in the same order, the prisoners first in a -close group, moving quickly on foot, not venturing to look back, the -Goumiers, probably twenty, riding steady on hard bits. - -‘_Pour les tuer_,’ said a soldier, smiling; ‘_Pour les tuer_,’ repeated -the others, looking at me to see if I smiled. - -I shook my head in pity, for the doomed men were ignorant, pitiable -creatures. - -A hundred yards beyond us were a clump of dwarfed trees and some -patches of dry grass, like an oasis among the rolling, almost barren, -hills; and for this spot the Moors were headed. Mechanically I went -on eating, undecided whether to follow, for I did not want to see the -thing at close range. I thought the Moors would be lined up in the -usual fashion, their sentence delivered, and a moment given them for -prayer. But suddenly, while their backs were turned, just as they set -foot upon the dry grass, quickly a dozen shots rang out almost in a -volley, then came a straggling fire of single shots. The single shots -were from a pistol, as an officer passed among the dying men and put a -bullet into the brain of each. - -A young Englishman, the Reuter correspondent, rode over to me from the -other side and asked what I thought. It seemed to me, I said, rather -brutal that they were not told they were to die. - -‘I don’t know,’ said the Englishman. ‘I should say that was -considerate. But the thing isn’t nice; it isn’t necessary.’ - -The Goumiers set fire to the grass about the bodies, and soon the smoke -and smell, brought over on a light Atlantic breeze, caused us to move -away. - -Across the dusty, shimmering plains signal fires began to send up -columns of smoke, warning the Arabs beyond of our approach. But we were -going no further. - - * * * * * - -There is no censorship of news in England, but the English press -often decides what is good for the public to know and what it should -suppress. In my opinion the above affair, reported to the London papers -by their own correspondents, who were witnesses, should have been -published. But the papers either did not publish the despatches, or -else, as in the case of the _Times_ and the _Telegraph_, which I saw, -they gave the incident only the briefest notice, and placed it in a -more or less obscure position in the paper. This, on the part of the -London editors, was no doubt in deference to the British _entente_ -with France. The question arises in my mind, however, whether a paper -purporting to supply the news has any right to suppress important news -that is legitimate. - -The shooting of prisoners continued until I left Morocco; and I am of -the opinion that it goes on still. The French did not hide the fact; -as I have said, any of the officers would tell you that they took -no prisoners in arms. The Arabs opposing them, they pointed out, -were murderers who had looted Casablanca, attempted to slaughter the -European residents, and failing, had turned upon each other to fight -not only for plunder but for wives. What would have happened to the -European women, the Frenchmen asked, had the consulates not sustained -the siege? What happens to French soldiers who are captured? They -argued also that drastic methods brought submission more quickly. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -THE HOLY WAR - - -When the Shawia tribesmen made their first attacks upon the French at -Casablanca they were thoroughly confident of their own prowess and -of the protection of Allah. They had often, before the coming of the -French, called the attention of Europeans to the fact that salutes of -foreign men-of-war entering port were not nearly so loud as the replies -from their own antiquated guns--always charged with a double load of -powder for the sake of making noise. But they have come to realise now -that Christian ships and Christian armies have bigger guns than those -with which they salute, and the news that Allah, whatever may be His -reason, is not on the side of the noisy guns has spread over a good -part of Morocco. - -The Arabs now seldom try close quarters with the French, except -when surrounded or when the French force is very small and they are -numerous; and as I have indicated before, their defence is most -ineffective. One morning on a march towards Mediuna I sat for an hour -with the Algerians, under the war balloon, watching quietly an absurd -attack of the tribesmen. From the crest of a hill, behind which they -were lodged, they would ride down furiously to within half a mile of -us, and turning to go back at the same mad pace, discharge a gun, -without taking aim, at the balloon, their special irritation. It was -all picturesque, but like the gallant charge of the brave Bulgarian -in ‘Arms and the Man,’ entirely ridiculous. If the Algerians had been -firing at the time, not one of them would have got back over their hill. - -[Illustration: ARAB PRISONERS WITH A WHITE FLAG.] - -[Illustration: A COLUMN OF THE FOREIGN LEGION.] - -The reports in the London papers of serious resistance on the part -of the Moors are seldom borne out by facts. Most of the despatches, -passing through excitable Paris, begin with startling adjectives and -end with ‘Six men wounded.’ Here, for instance, are the first and the -last paragraphs of the Paris despatch describing the first taking of -Settat, which is over forty miles inland and among the homes of the -Shawia tribesmen. It is headed: - - ‘_A Sixteen-Hour Fight._ - - ‘At eight a.m. yesterday the French columns opened battle in the - Settat Pass. The enemy offered a stubborn resistance, but was finally - repulsed, after a fight lasting until midnight. Settat was occupied - and Muley Rechid’s camp destroyed. - - ‘There were several casualties on the French side.... The enemy’s - losses were very heavy. The fight has produced a great impression - among the tribes.’ - -The Arab losses under the fire of the French 75-millimètre guns and -the fusillade of the Foreign Legion and the Algerians, many of them -sharpshooters, are usually heavy where the Arabs attempt a serious -resistance. I should say it would average a loss on the part of the -Moors of fifty dead to one French soldier wounded. Moreover, when a -Moor is badly wounded he dies, for the Moors know nothing of medicine, -and the only remedies of which they will avail themselves are bits of -paper with prayers upon them, written by shereefs; these they swallow -or tie about a wound while praying at the shrine of some departed -saint. It has seemed to me a wanton slaughter of these ignorant -creatures, but if the French did not mow them down, the fools would say -they could not, and would thank some saint for their salvation. - -The arms of the Arabs are often of the most ineffective sort, many of -them, indeed, made by hand in Morocco. While I was with the French army -on one occasion we found on a dead Moor (and it is no wonder he was -dead) a modern rifle, of which the barrel had been cut off, evidently -with a cold chisel, to the length of a carbine. The muzzle, being bent -out of shape and twisted, naturally threw the first charge back into -the face of the Moor who fired it. I have seen bayonets tied on sticks, -and other equally absurd weapons. - -There are in Morocco many Winchester and other modern rifles, apart -from those with which the Sultan’s army is equipped. Gun-running has -long been a profitable occupation amongst unscrupulous Europeans of the -coast towns, the very people for whose protection the French invasion -is inspired. A man of my own nationality told me that for years he got -for Winchesters that cost him 3_l._ as much as 6_l._ and 8_l._ The -authorities, suspecting him on one occasion, put a Jew to ascertain -how he got the rifles in. Suspecting the Jew, the American informed -him confidentially, ‘as a friend,’ that he brought in the guns in -barrels of oil. In a few weeks five barrels of oil and sixteen boxes of -provisions arrived at ---- in one steamer. The American went down to -the custom-house, grinned graciously, and asked for his oil, which the -Moors proceeded to examine. - -‘No, no,’ said the American. - -The Moors insisted. - -The American asked them to wait till the afternoon, which they -consented to do; and after a superficial examination of one of the -provision boxes, a load of forty rifles, the butts and barrels in -separate boxes, covered with cans of sardines, tea, sugar, etc., went -up to the store of the American. - -It was more profitable to run in guns that would bring 8_l._, perhaps -more, than to run in 8_l._ worth of cartridges, and after the Moors -had secured modern rifles they found great difficulty in obtaining -ammunition, which for its scarcity became very dear. For that reason -many of them have given up the European gun and have gone back to the -old flintlock, made in Morocco, cheaper and more easily provided with -powder and ball. - -Ammunition is too expensive for the poverty-stricken Moor to waste -much of it on target practice, and when he does indulge in this vain -amusement it is always before spectators, servants and men too poor to -possess guns; and in order to make an impression on the underlings--for -a Moor is vain--he places the target close enough to hit. The Moor -seldom shoots at a target more than twenty yards off. - -Even the Sultan is economical with ammunition. It is never supplied to -the Imperial Army--for the reason that soldiers would sell it--except -just prior to a fight. It is told in Morocco that when Kaid Maclean -began to organise the army of Abdul Aziz he was informed that he might -dress the soldiers as he pleased--up to his time they were a rabble -crew without uniforms--but that he need not teach them to shoot. Nor -have they since been taught to shoot. - -I am of opinion that the French army under General d’Amade, soon -to number 12,000 or 13,000 men, could penetrate to any corner of -Morocco with facility, maintaining at the same time unassailable -communication with their base. A body of the Foreign Legion three -hundred strong could cut their way across Morocco. With 60,000 men -the French can occupy, hold, and effectively police--as policing goes -in North Africa--the entire petty empire. Such an army in time could -make the roads safe for Arabs and Berbers as well as for Europeans, -punishing severely, as the French have learned to do, any tribe that -dares continue its marauding practices and any brigand who essays to -capture Europeans; and as for the rest, the safety of life and property -within the towns and among members of the same tribes, the instinct of -self-preservation among the Moors themselves is sufficient. There is -no danger for the French in Morocco. - -Nevertheless, their task is not an easy one. Conservatism at home -and fear of some foreign protest has kept them from penetrating the -country, as they must, in order to subdue it. So far they have made -their power felt but locally, and though they have slain wantonly -thousands of Moors, their position to-day is to all practical purposes -the same as it was after the first engagements about Casablanca. For -four months General Drude held Casablanca, with tribes defeated but -unconquered all about him. With the new year General Drude retired and -General d’Amade took his place, and the district of operations was -extended inland for a distance of fifty miles. But beyond that there -are again many untaught tribes ranging over a vast territory. - -If the French, from fear of Germany, do not intend to occupy all -Morocco I can see for them no alternative but to recognise Mulai el -Hafid, who as Sultan of the interior is inspiring the tribesmen to war. -Hafid’s position, though criminal from our point of view, is undeniably -strong. - -On proclaiming himself sultan, he sought to win the support of the -country by promising a Government like that of former sultans, one -that cut off heads, quelled rebellions, and kept the tribes united -and effective against the Christians. This was the message that his -criers spread throughout the land; and the people, told that the French -had come as conquerors, gave their allegiance to him who promised to -save them. Hafid’s attitude towards the European Powers was by no -means so defiant as he professed to his people. Emissaries were sent -from Marakesh to London and Berlin to plead for recognition, but were -received officially at neither capital. He then tried threats, and at -last, in January, declared the _Jehad_, or Holy War. But that he really -contemplated provoking a serious anti-Christian, or even anti-French, -uprising could hardly be conceived of so intelligent a man; and hard -after the news of this came an assuring message--unsolicited, of -course--to the Legations at Tangier that his object was only to unite -the people in his cause against his brother. Later, when one of his -_m’hallas_ took part in a battle against the French he sent apologies -to them. - -The Moors, the country over, have heard of the disasters to the Shawia -tribes, at any rate, of the fighting. Knowing the hopelessness of -combating the French successfully, the towns of the coast are willing -to leave their future in the diplomatic hands of Abdul Aziz, in spite -of their distaste for him and his submission to the Christians. Those -of the interior, however, many of whom have never seen a European, have -a horror of the French such as we should have of Turks, and they will -probably fight an invasion with all their feeble force. - -Because of the harsh yet feeble policy of the French, the trouble in -Morocco, picturesque and having many comic opera elements, will drag on -its bloody course yet many months. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -FORCED MARCHES - - -The French Army is an interesting institution at this moment, when it -is known that the Navy of France ranks only as that of a second-class -Power and it is thought her military organisation is little better. -I am not in a position to make comparisons, knowing little of the -great armies of Europe, nor is the detachment of troops in Morocco, -numbering at this writing hardly 8,000 men, a sufficient proportion of -the army of France to allow one to form much of an opinion. But some -observations that were of interest to me may also interest others. - -The French forces in Morocco represent the best that the colonies -of France produce in the way of fighting men. European as well as -African troops are from the stations of Algeria, a colony near enough -to France to partake of her civilisation yet sufficiently far away to -escape conservatism and the so-called modern movements with which the -home country is afflicted. If there are weaklings, socialists, and -anarchists among the troops they are in the Foreign Legion, absorbed -and suppressed by the ‘gentlemen rankers.’ The Army is made up of -many elements. Besides ordinary Algerians, it includes Arabs from the -Sahara and negroes who came originally perhaps as slaves from the -Soudan; besides Frenchmen, there are in the famous Foreign Legion--that -corps that asks no questions--Germans, Bulgarians, Italians, Russians, -and even a few Englishmen. The main body of the Army is composed of -Algerians proper, Mohammedans, who speak, or at least understand, -French. They are officered by Frenchmen, who wear the same uniforms -as their men: the red fezzes and the baggy white bloomers in the case -of infantry, the red Zouave uniform and boots in the cavalry. These -Algerians, of course, are regular soldiers, subjected to ordinary -military discipline, but there are too the _Goumiers_, or _Goums_, -of the desert, employed in irregular corps for scout duty and as -cavalry, and they, I understand, are exempt from camp regulations and -restrictions except such as are imposed by their own leaders. And in -the last month similar troops have been organised from the tribesmen of -the conquered Shawia districts near to Casablanca. - -Algerians and Goumiers, Europeans and Africans, camp all together in -the same ground, their respective cantonments separated only by company -‘streets.’ The various commands march side by side and co-operate as if -they were all of one nationality, a thing which to me, as an American, -knowing that such conditions could not obtain in an American army, -speaks wonders for the French democracy. - -A good deal of small gambling goes on in the French camps, or rather -just outside them; but this seems to be the army’s only considerable -vice. Drunkenness and disorder seem to be exceedingly rare. I cannot -imagine a more abstemious body of men. Of course conditions in the -campaign in which the French are now engaged are all favourable to -discipline; there is the stimulus of an active enemy, and yet the men -are never overworked, except on occasional long marches, when they are -inspired and encouraged to test their endurance. - -The marching power of the French infantryman is extraordinary. Carrying -two days’ rations and a portion of a ‘dog tent’ (which fits to a -companion’s portion), he will ‘slog’ nearly fifty miles in a day and a -night. I remember one tremendous march. The army left camp one morning -at three o’clock, cavalry, artillery, a hospital staff, _Tirailleurs_ -and _Légionnaires_, about 3,000 men, and marched out fifteen miles to -a _m’halla_, or Moorish camp, beyond Mediuna. For more than two hours -they fought the Arabs, finally destroying the camp; and then returned, -reaching Casablanca shortly before five o’clock in the afternoon. I did -not accompany the army on this occasion, but went out to meet it coming -back, curious to see how the men would appear. The Algerians showed -distress the least, hardly a dozen of them taking the assistance of -their comrades, and many, though covered with dust, so little affected -by fatigue that they could jest with me about my fresh appearance. When -their officers, about a mile out, gave orders to halt, then to form in -fours to march into camp in order, they were equal to the part. But -the Foreign Legion obeyed only the first command, that to halt, and it -was a significant look they returned for the command of the youthful -officer who passed down the line on a strong horse. - -A still longer march was made by a larger force of this same army in -January, after General d’Amade had taken command. Pushing into the -interior from Casablanca to Settat, they covered forty-eight miles -in twenty-five hours, marching almost entirely through rough country -without roads, or at best by roads that were little more than camel -tracks. Proceeding at three miles an hour, the infantry must have done -sixteen hours’ actual walking. Moreover, on arriving at Settat the army -immediately engaged the _m’halla_ of Mulai Rachid. Good marching is a -prized tradition with the French, and in this one thing, if in nothing -else, the army of France excels. - -It has been stated by men who have some knowledge of Moslems, that the -French in Morocco are liable to start that long-threatened avalanche, -the general rising of Pan-Islam. The first Mohammedans to join the -Moors in the Holy War, it is said, will be the Algerians. But my own -knowledge of Moslem countries leads me to argue otherwise. Since the -French have been in Morocco, now more than six months, there have been -less than a hundred desertions from the ranks of the Algerians; while -a significant fact on the other side is the enlistment in the French -ranks, in the manner of Goumiers, of Shawia tribesmen who have been -defeated by them. - -It has been from the Foreign Legion that desertions are frequent. -Taking their leave overnight, the deserters, generally three or four -together, make their way straight into the Arab country, usually to -the north, with a view to reaching Rabat. In almost every case the -deserters are Germans, and the Moors permit them to pass, for they -understand that German _Nasrani_ and French _Nasrani_ hate each other -as cordially as do Arab Moslems and Berber Moslems. Nevertheless, even -though the deserters are Germans, it is asking too much of the Moor to -spare them their packs as well as their lives. I have seen one man -come into Rabat dressed only in a shirt, another, followed by many Arab -boys, wearing a loin-cloth and a helmet. - -The French consul at Rabat makes no effort to apprehend these men; but -they are usually taken into custody by the German consul and sent back -to their own country in German ships, to serve unexpired terms in the -army they deserted in the first place. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -TANGIER - - -To see Morocco from another side--for we had looked upon the country so -far only from behind French guns--we started up the coast on a little -‘Scorpion’ steamer, billed to stop at Rabat. But this unfriendly city -is not to be approached every day in the year, even by so small a -craft as ours, with its captain from Gibraltar knowing all the Moorish -ports. A heavy sea, threatening to roll on against the shores for many -days, decided the skipper to postpone his stop and to push on north to -Tangier; and we, though sleeping on the open deck, agreed to the change -of destination, for we had seen all too little of ‘the Eye of Morocco.’ - -Tangier is a city outside, so to speak, of this mediæval country. It -seems like a show place left for the tourist, always persistent though -satisfied with a glimpse. Men from within the country come out to this -fair to trade, and others, while following still their ancient dress -and customs, are content to reside here; yet it is no longer, they will -tell you, truly Morocco. There is no _mella_ where the Jews must keep -themselves; Spaniards and outcasts from other Mediterranean countries -have come to stay here permanently and may quarter where they please, -and there is a great hotel by the water, with little houses in front -where Christians, men and women, go to take off their strange headgear -and some of their clothes, then to rush into the waves. Truly Tangier -is defiled. Franciscan monks clang noisy bells, drowning the voice of -the _muezzin_ on the Grand Mosque; the hated telegraph runs into the -city from under the sea; an infidel--a Frenchman, of them all--sits -the day long in the custom-house and takes one-half the money; and -no true Moslem may say anything to all of this. - -[Illustration: ON THE CITADEL. TANGIER.] - -Still there are compensations. The Christian may build big ships and -guns that shoot straighter than do Moslem guns, but he is not so wise. -He works all day like an animal, and when he gets much money he comes -to Tangier with it, and true believers, who live in cool gardens and -smoke _hasheesh_, make him pay five times for everything he buys. He is -mad, the Nazarene. - -Seated at a modern French or Spanish table at a café on the Soko -Chico, the Christian is beset by youthful bootblacks and donkey -drivers; and older Moors in better dress come up to tell in whispers -of the charms of a Moorish dance--‘genuine Moroccan, a Moorish lady, -a beautiful Moorish lady’--that can be seen at a quiet place for ten -pesetas Spanish. One of them, confident of catching us, presents a -testimonial; and with difficulty we reserve our smile at its contents: - -‘Mohammed Ben Tarah, worthy descendant of the Prophet, is a first-class -guide to shops which pay him a commission on what you buy. He will -take you also to see a Moorish dance, thoroughly indecent, well -imitated, for all I know, by a fat Jewish woman. He has an exaggerated -idea of his superficial knowledge of the English language, and as a -prevaricator of the truth he worthily upholds the reputation of his -race.’ (Signed.) - -The Soko Chico of Tangier, though an unwholesome place, is thoroughly -interesting. About the width of the Strand and half the length of -Downing Street--that is, in American, half a block long-it is large -enough, as spaces go in Morocco, to be called a market and to be used -as such. From early morn until midnight the ‘Little Sok’ is crowded -with petty merchants, whose stock of edibles, brought on platters or -in little handcarts, could be bought for a Spanish dollar. Mightily -they shout their wares, five hundred ‘hawkers’ in a space of half as -many feet. The noise is terrific. The cry of horsemen for passage, the -brawl of endless arguments, the clatter of small coins in the hands -of money-changers, and the strains of the band at the ‘Grand Café,’ -struggling to make audible selections from an opera; all these together -create an infernal din. The Soko Chico, where the post-offices of the -Powers alternate with European cafés, is, of all Morocco, the place -where East and West come into closest touch. The Arab woman, veiled, -sits cross-legged in the centre of the road, selling to Moslems bread -of semolina, and the foreign consul, seated at a café table, sips his -glass of absinthe. Occasionally a horseman with long, bushed hair, -goes by towards the _kasbah_, followed a moment later by the English -colonel, who lives on the _Marshan_ and wears a helmet. A score of -tourists gather at the café tables in the afternoon, and as many -couriers, with brown, knotty, big-veined legs, always bare, squat -against the walls of the various foreign post-offices, resting till the -last moment before beginning their long, perilous, all-night runs. Jews -who dress in gaberdines listen to Jews in European clothes, telling -them about America. - -But there is another Sok, the Outer Sok, beyond the walls, where the -camels and the story-tellers come, and this is no hybrid place, but -‘real Morocco,’ and as fine a Sok as any town but Fez or Marakesh can -show. Here, across a great open space that rises gradually from the -outer walls, are stretched rows upon rows of ragged tents as high as -one’s shoulder, and before them sit their keepers: Arab barbers ready -to shave a head from ear to ear or leave a tuft of hair; unveiled -Berber women, generally tattooed, selling grapes and prickly pears, -or as they call them, Christian figs; Soudanese, sometimes freemen, -trading or holding ponies for hire; women from the Soudan, generally -pock-marked and mostly slaves, squatting among their masters’ -vegetables; Riff men who have come perhaps from forty miles away to -sell a load of charcoal worth two francs; pretty little half-veiled -girls, with one earring, selling bread broken into half and quarter -loaves; soldiers feeling the weight of each small piece and asking -for half a dozen seeds of pomegranate as an extra inducement to buy; -minstrels and snake-charmers and bards; water-carriers tinkling -bells; blind beggars with their doleful chants--‘Allah, Allah-la’; -camel-drivers; saints. At dark the big Sok goes to bed with the camels -and the donkeys and the sheep; man and beast bed down together; and it -is an eerie place to pick one’s way through when the night is dark. -From choice we lived, when in Tangier, across the big Sok, at the Hôtel -Cavilla, and sometimes of an evening, after dinner, would descend the -slope, passing through the gates, down the narrow, cobbled streets, to -the Soko Chico, with its flaring cafés, to sit perhaps and watch a -Moorish kaid pit his skill at chess against a German champion. It was -the business of Kaid Driss, commander of artillery, to be in readiness -at this central square to go to any gate which Raisuli or another -hostile leader might suddenly attack; and so this splendid Moor, a -well-liked gentleman, spent the weary hours until midnight at this, the -Moors’ favourite game. Around the corners, under dank arches, slept his -troops, covered even to their noses, their guns, too, underneath their -white jelebas. Except the Kaid himself there seemed to be no other -Moorish soldier stirring after nine, or at the latest, ten o’clock, and -if we should delay our stay within the walls beyond this hour, nothing -but a Spanish or other coin more valuable than a Moorish piece would -quiet the complaining brave who pulled himself together to unbar the -gates for us to pass. - -It is not only, however, when the sun is down that the Moor sleeps; he -sleeps by day, as he tells you his religion teaches, and rolled in -woollen cloth lies anywhere that slumber overtakes him, in the sands -upon the beach, on the roadway under gates--what difference does it -make, the earth is sweet and a hard bed is best! Why work like the -Christian to spend like a fool? - -One day I saw a fisherman without a turban, sitting on a rock, beside -him a sleeping bundle of homespun _haik_. They were a pretty pair, and -with my kodak I proceeded out to where they were, going cautiously, -intending to get a picture, from behind, of the shaved head and its -single trailing scalp-lock. But the fisherman discovered me and -hurriedly lifted the hood of his jeleba, muttering something. The sound -waked the sleeping bundle, which moved itself a moment, then poked -out a likewise shaven head and a youthful face thinly covered with -sprouting beard. ‘You English man?’ said the head. - -‘No, ’Merican,’ I replied. - -‘Dat’s better; more richer. Open you mouth and show dis chap you got -gold teeth.’ - -I did as he bade and disappointed him. - -‘Me woman,’ he continued. - -‘A bearded woman,’ I suggested; at which he laughed and explained -(still lying on his back) that he had been to Earl’s Court once, in a -show, that he had had no beard then, being but sixteen, and because he -wore what seemed to Londoners to be a feminine attire they all thought -he was a woman. - -The Arab quarter of Tangier is entirely Moorish. The _kasbah_ or -citadel, high above the water of the Straits, has its own walls, as is -customary, and within these, though the architecture may not be so fine -as that at Fez, there is yet no Christian and no Christian way; it is -thoroughly Moorish. The tourist may enter without a guide and poke his -way through the heavy arches and the stair-like streets. He may go into -the square where the Basha governing the district, like the Sultan at -the capital, receives delegations and hears the messages of tribesmen -in trouble; but the infidel, even though he be a foreign minister, may -not enter mosque or fort or arsenal, or any other place except the -residence of the kaid who is in command. - -He may look in, however, at the door of the prison and even talk to -victims crowded within, but there is much grumbling and no doubt some -cursing if he goes away forgetting to distribute francs among the dozen -jailers whose ‘graft’--to use an expressive American term--is to make a -living in this way from Europeans. There is one man in prison here who -speaks a little English and tells you that he has been in jail for more -than ten long years and will be there for ever, for he has no money and -his friends are far up country. He was imprisoned, so he says, because -a rival told the Basha that he had smuggled arms from Spain. Now -smuggling arms is a trade that meets, in ports where consuls do not -interfere, with speedy execution. Not many years ago this punishment -was meted out to some offenders even in Tangier. There is a graphic -story of one such killing told in a book by an Italian, De Amicis, -published many years ago: - -‘An Englishman, Mr. Drummond Hay, coming out one morning at one of -the gates of Tangier, saw a company of soldiers dragging along two -prisoners with their arms bound to their sides. One was a mountain man -from the Riff, formerly a gardener to a European resident at Tangier; -the other, a young fellow, tall, and with an open and attractive -countenance. The Englishman asked the officer in command what crime -these two unfortunate men had committed. - -‘“The Sultan,” was the answer--“may God prolong his life!--has ordered -their heads to be cut off, because they have been engaged in contraband -trade on the coast of the Riff with infidel Spaniards.” - -‘“It is very severe punishment for such a fault,” observed the -Englishman; “and if it is to serve as a warning and example to the -inhabitants of Tangier, why are they not allowed to witness the -execution?” (The gates of the city had been closed, and Mr. Drummond -Hay had caused one to be opened for him by giving money to the guard.) - -‘“Do not argue with me, Nazarene,” responded the officer; “I have -received an order and must obey.” - -‘The decapitation was to take place in the Hebrew slaughterhouse. A -Moor of vulgar and hideous aspect was there awaiting the condemned. He -had in his hand a small knife about six inches long. He was a stranger -in the city, and had offered himself as executioner because the -Mohammedan butchers of Tangier, who usually fill that office, had all -taken refuge in a mosque. - -‘An altercation now broke out between the soldiers and the executioner -about the reward promised for the decapitation of the two poor -creatures, who stood by and listened to the dispute over the -blood-money. The executioner insisted, declaring that he had been -promised twenty francs a head, and must have forty for the two. The -officer at last agreed, but with a very ill grace. Then the butcher -seized one of the condemned men, already half dead with terror, threw -him on the ground, kneeled on his chest, and put the knife into his -throat. The Englishman turned away his face. He heard the sounds of the -violent struggle. The executioner cried out: “Give me another knife; -mine does not cut!” Another knife was brought, and the head separated -from the body. The soldiers cried in a faint voice: “God prolong the -life of our lord and master!” but many of them were stupefied. - -‘Then came the other victim, the handsome and amiable-looking young -man. Again they wrangled over his blood. The officer, denying his -promise, declared that he would give but twenty francs for both heads. -The butcher was forced to yield. The condemned man asked that his hands -might be unbound. Being loosed, he took his cloak and gave it to the -soldier who had unbound him, saying: “Accept this; we shall meet in a -better world.” He threw his turban to another, who had been looking at -him with compassion; and stepping to the place where lay the bloody -corpse of his companion, he said in a clear, firm voice: “There is no -God but God, and Mohammed is His prophet!” Then, taking off his belt, -he gave it to the executioner, saying: “Take it; but for the love -of God cut my head off more quickly than you did my brother’s.” He -stretched himself upon the earth, in the blood, and the executioner -kneeled upon his chest.... - -‘A few minutes after, two bleeding heads were held up by the soldiers. -Then the gates of the city were opened and there came forth a crowd of -boys who pursued the executioner with stones for three miles, when he -fell fainting to the ground covered with wounds. The next day it was -known that he had been shot by a relation of one of the victims.... -The authorities of Tangier apparently did not trouble themselves about -the matter, since the assassin came back into the city and remained -unmolested. After having been exposed three days the heads were sent -to the Sultan, in order that his Imperial Majesty might recognise the -promptitude with which his orders had been fulfilled.’ - -Since this incident of thirty years ago Tangier has changed. No longer -may a man be flogged in public in the Sok; no longer may the slave be -sold at auction; no longer may the heads of the Sultan’s enemies hang -upon the gates; for the place is dominated now by foreign ministers. -Though still in name within the empire of the Sultan, it is defiled for -ever, gone over to the Christian. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -RAISULI PROTECTED BY GREAT BRITAIN - - -Two years ago Tangier and the surrounding districts were governed by -one Mulai Hamid ben Raisul, better known as Raisuli, a villainous -blackguard who was finally deposed through the interference of the -foreign legations. To-day this same Raisuli enjoys the interest on -£15,000 (£5,000 having been given him in cash) and the protection -ordinarily accorded to a British subject; and these favours are his -because he deprived of liberty for seven months Kaid Sir Harry Maclean, -a British subject in the employ of the Sultan Abdul Aziz. According to -the terms of the ransom, which permit Raisuli, if he conducts himself -in honourable fashion, to receive the sum invested for him at the end -of three years, it is probable that the world will hear no more of him -in his popular rôle; and, therefore, it might be interesting--also -because of the light the story will throw on the ways of the Moorish -Government and of diplomacy at Tangier--to sum up the exploits of this -notorious brigand. - -[Illustration: A RIFF TRIBESMAN.] - -[Illustration: A MAGHZEN SOLDIER.] - -Raisuli, as his title _Mulai_ implies, is a Shereef or descendant of -the Prophet, and partly for that distinction, aside from personal -power, he holds a certain influence over the K’mass and other tribes -about Tangier. Being a shrewder villain than the others of his race -who aspire to govern districts, he adopted early in his career other -methods than that which is the custom--of purchasing positions from the -Maghzen. The system of buying a governorship, to hold it only till some -other Moor bought it over the head of the first and sent him to prison, -did not appeal to Raisuli. The mountains of the Riff were impregnable -against the feeble forces of the Sultan, and for a rifle and a -little not-too-dangerous fighting all his tribesfolk could be got to -serve him as their leader. So Raisuli started out for power--a thing -the Moor loves--in a manner new to Morocco. - -It was in 1903 that he captured his first European, the _Times_ -correspondent, W. B. Harris, who, speaking Arabic, negotiated his own -surrender, and within three weeks left the mountains of the Riff on -the release of a number of Raisuli’s men from Moorish prisons. For a -year thereafter there prevailed intense fear in the suburbs, outside -the walls of Tangier, where the better class of Europeans live. Raisuli -had many followers, and the Maghzen was powerless against him, while -raids about Tangier and robberies were of almost nightly occurrence. -Yet some of the Europeans, those who felt a sentimental interest in -the independence of Morocco and wanted to see the good old Moorish -ways survive, seemed ready to welcome ‘the really strong man who -was coming to the fore.’ It fell to the lot of an American of Greek -descent, a Mr. Perdicaris, to receive the next pressing invitation to -the interior. Raisuli and a band of followers entered the Perdicaris -home one evening, and after breaking up many things, packing off -others, and maltreating his wife, they escorted the American himself to -their mountain fastnesses. As is the usual way of Western governments -in these matters--I do not intend to suggest another method--the -State Department at Washington demanded from the Sultan the release -of the captive, pressing the demand with the visit of a warship. The -Maghzen, seeing no other way, met Raisuli’s terms, again releasing many -tribesmen, and paying the brigand £11,000, besides establishing him as -governor of Tangier. - -Of course in this capacity the ‘strong man’ superseded the European -Legations in control of the town. The old order of things began to -revive. Moors were beaten on the market-place; Moslems again insulted -Europeans and jostled them in the streets; and soon, the Legations -feared, heads would hang again upon the city gates. So an appeal went -up to the Sultan that Raisuli be displaced, and Abdul Aziz, though he -had evidently pledged himself to Raisuli, readily agreed to the demands -of the European representatives. But the wary governor, getting wind -of a plot, escaped to the mountains before the arrival of the Sultan’s -emissaries; and though troops followed him, burned and pillaged his -home and carried off his women, the fugitive himself escaped to renew -armed hostilities against the Maghzen soldiers. - -Unable to defeat the brigand at arms, after many months Abdul Aziz -decided to employ diplomacy, and Kaid Maclean, old and wise in the -ways of the Moors and trusted by those who knew him, undertook for the -Sultan to convey new pledges to Raisuli and to guarantee them with the -word of a Britisher. But the brigand wanted something more substantial, -and though he had given his word of honour--his _ïamen_--that he -would not molest the Kaid, the old Scotsman was made prisoner when he -arrived; for Kaid Maclean went to meet Raisuli with only half-a-dozen -men, hoping to inspire him with trust and to win his confidence. - -After demanding, I am told, £120,000 (together with the release from -prison of many tribesmen and the return of his women), the brigand -finally agreed to accept the sum of £20,000 and the protection of -a British subject. This last, which was proposed by the British -Government, brings Raisuli of course under the jurisdiction of the -Consular Court, and, to fetch him from the mountains in case he should -be wanted, £15,000 of the £20,000 ransom is deposited to his credit -in a bank, subject to his good behaviour. But I am not sure that the -British Government did an all-wise thing. Foreign protection is -greatly sought after by the Moors. In the case of others who enjoy it -the power is used to plunder their fellows, and Raisuli may be expected -to employ his strength and his new position in some cunning way. The -Moorish authorities, always anxious to avoid encounters with the -consulates and legations, generally allow protected subjects to do what -they please. Raisuli may now exploit his fellow-countrymen with certain -safety, or he may direct the profitable business of gun-running--at -which he has already had considerable experience, like many other -_protégés_ and foreign residents--and no one is likely to protest. - -At any rate it seems hardly fair to protect a villain in this manner. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -DOWN THE COAST - - -Luck with me seems to run in spells. Once on a campaign in the -Balkans I had the good fortune to be on hand at everything; massacre, -assassination, nor dynamite attack could escape me; I was always -on the spot or just at a safe distance off. In Morocco things went -consistently the other way. Beginning with the Casablanca affair when -I was in America, everything of a newspaper value happened while I was -somewhere else. The day the Sultan entered Rabat after his long march -from the interior, I sailed past the town unable to land. Now I was to -be taken to Laraiche, when a month before I had failed to get there to -meet the two score European refugees coming down from Fez. - -We took passage--Weare and I--on the same little steamer by which we -had come to Tangier, bound now down the Atlantic coast, again intending -to stop at Rabat, ‘weather permitting.’ There was not a breath of air; -the sea was ‘like a painted ocean’; every prospect favoured. But our -captain, the Scorpion villain, hugged the coast with a purpose, and as -might have been expected the ship was signalled at Laraiche. We had to -stop and pick up freight, which proved to be some forty crates of eggs -billed for England. Old memories of unhappy breakfasts revived, and, -our sympathies going out to fellow Christians back in London, we argued -with the captain that it was not fair to take aboard these perishable -edibles till he should return from Mogador. But the captain smiled, -putting a stubby finger to his twisted nose, and explained that though -eggs were eggs, the wind might be blowing from the west when the ship -passed back. But though my ill-fortune in Morocco was enough to ruin -the reputation of a Bennet Burleigh, there were always compensations, -and on this occasion we were recompensed with a sight of the most -fascinating port along the Moorish coast. - -As the ship moves into the river cautiously, to avoid the bar, you ride -beneath the walls and many domes of a great white castle, silent, to -all appearances deserted, and overgrown with cactus bushes. Below--for -the castle stands high upon a rock--is an ancient fortress, also -white, which the ship passes so close that it is possible, even in -the twilight, to make out upon the muzzles of the one-time Spanish -guns designs of snakes and wreaths of flowers; and looking over the -parapet you may see the old-time mortars made in shapes like squatting -gnomes. From the ship that night we watched the moon rise and the -phosphorescence play upon the water, and the splendid Oriental castle -took on a fairy-like enchantment. - -[Illustration: THE CASTLE AT LARAICHE.] - -In the morning the little city appeared unlike other Moorish towns; -where they are mostly grey or white, with here and there a green-tiled -mosque, Laraiche affects all manner of colour. Among the white and -blue houses there may be green or orange, yellow or brown or red, and -likewise the inhabitants, curiously, go in for gaily coloured cloaks. -On one side of the river this brilliant city rose from the ancient -walls; on the other a cluster of sand dunes sloped back to the hills -a mile or more away, and behind them, far in the distance, towered -the Red Mountain, which Raisuli has made famous. Great lighters, -things like Noah’s arks, rowed by fifteen, sometimes twenty, turbaned -men, pushed off from the little quay to bring our cargo, and smaller -craft began to cross the river to ferry over country people and their -animals, along with one or two poor, fagged-out letter carriers, who -had come afoot from Tangier, forty miles, overnight. By one of the -smaller boats which came alongside we went ashore, to remain three -days awaiting a further belated shipment of grain that came by camel -train from the interior. We went to the only hotel, kept of course by -a Spaniard, though designed specially to attract the British tourists -of the Forwood line. The walls of the tiny, wood-partitioned rooms -(spacious Moorish halls cut to cubicles) are papered like children’s -playrooms, with pictures from old _Graphics_ and other London weeklies, -planned no doubt to amuse the visitor when it rains, for on such -occasions the streets of Laraiche are veritable rapids. The room which -I occupied hung over the city walls and looked down on the banks of the -river, dry at low tide. Being waked early one morning by some hideous -sounds and muffled voices, we peered cautiously out of the window and -in the dim light discerned a crowd of black-gowned Jews not twenty feet -below, killing a cow. This bank at low tide is the slaughterhouse, -where a dead beast of some kind lay continually. Fortunately the -rising waters carried off the few remains that Jews and Moslems left; -and fortunately, too, the place was not used also as the boneyard, -where animals that have died of natural causes are dragged and heaped -uncovered. Such a spot there is outside the walls of every Moorish town. - -Laraiche is off the great trade routes, and the district round about -is unproductive. For these reasons its poor inhabitants, unable to -own guns and riding horses, are peaceable and submissive. The town as -well as the surrounding country is safe for any Christian, and even -insults for him are few. We went with our ragged old guide, who bore -the fitting name of Sidi Mohammed, up through the Kasbah, as fine a -ruin of Moorish architecture as I have seen, and out through a long -tunnel to the quaint old market-place, broad and white, flanked on -each side by long, low rows of colonnades, the ends, through which the -trains of camels come, sustained by several arches, none the same, -opening in various directions. Certainly the Moors who built this town -were architects and artists too. But the poverty and the degradation -of the place! The houses, dark and wretched; the tea-shops foul and -small and crowded much like opium dens; the people lean and miserable -and cramped with hungry stomachs, dirty and diseased. Though clad in -rags of brightest colours, the average human being is marked over with -pox or something worse, and his head is scaly, the hair growing only -in blotches. Children follow you, with paper patches, the prayers of -some mad saint, tied about their running, bloodshot eyes; old men -hobble by, one lean leg covered with sores, the other swollen huge with -elephantiasis, both bare and horrible. Laraiche is beautiful and awful. - -We saw a funeral here, and I thought we Christians could learn -something from these Moors. In this sad country a man is hardly dead -before they bury him. As soon as the grave can be dug the corpse is -taken on the shoulders of friends, and quickly, to the music of a -weird chant, borne to the grave. Without a flood of agony and an -aftermath of long-extended mourning, the body is consigned to earth, -and the soul that has departed, to the tender mercy of almighty God. An -unmarked sandstone is erected; and if a relative wore a cloak of green -or red before the parting, green or red is his colour still. - -The day we left Laraiche a heavy breeze blew from the sea, white-capped -rollers broke upon the shore, and we knew that Rabat was not to be -reached. We passed on to Casablanca, where, the harbour being better, -we were able to land. Now after all these disappointments we were -resolved to get to Rabat at any cost. If it were necessary, we would -go by land and run the gauntlet of the Shawia tribes, professing to be -Germans deserting from the Foreign Legion; but the French consul saved -us this. From him we obtained permission to go back by torpedo-boat -and to be transhipped, so to speak, to the cruiser _Gueydon_, where -we might stay as long as was necessary, as the ship was permanently -anchored off Rabat. In two days after boarding the _Gueydon_ the -Atlantic calmed, and we left, bidding adieu to our French hosts, to -cross the bar of the Bu Regreg in a twenty-oared Moorish boat. - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -AT RABAT - - -At the time that the Krupp Company were mounting heavy-calibre guns -at Rabat other German contractors proposed to cut the bar of the Bu -Regreg and open the port to foreign trade. But the people of both Rabat -and Sali protested, saying that this would let in more _Nasrani_ and -that the half-dozen already there, who bought their rugs and sold them -goods from Manchester and Hamburg, were quite enough. Up to the time -the French gunboats appeared--preceded by the news of their effective -work at Casablanca--the arrival of twenty Europeans at Rabat would have -given rise to much murmuring and no doubt to a good many threats. -Now, however, more than double that number of Frenchmen alone had come -to the town. From Tangier had come the Minister of France and all -his staff, accompanied by a score of soldiers and marines; and from -Casablanca had followed a troop of correspondents, French and English. -Yet the hapless Moors, stirred as they had never been before, were -required to give them right of way. - -‘Balak! Balak!’ went the cry of the Maghzen soldier, leading the -Christians through the crowded, narrow streets, and meekly, usually -without a protest, the natives stood aside. Most of the people did -not understand. Had not the Prophet said that they should hate the -Christians? Yet now their lord, Mulai Abdul Aziz, Slave of the Beloved, -sat upon his terrace--so rumour vowed--sat with some Frenchmen and -listened towards Ziada to the cannon of some other Frenchmen as they -slaughtered faithful Moslems! At Rabat, besides the townsfolk, -there were refugees from Casablanca; there were tribesmen still in -arms; there were saints who had followed the Sultan from Fez; there -were madmen who are sacred, and impostors who pretended to be mad; -there were soldiers trained to every crime; in short, there were men -from every corner of the variegated empire, any one of whom would -gladly have laid down his life to slay a Christian had the Sultan so -commanded. Yet months have passed and they have kept the peace, though -Frenchmen still slay Moors within the sound of Rabat’s walls. - -A Shawia tribesman who spoke a little English, a tall young man with -dark skin, and an ear torn by an earring at the lobe, met us at the -landing and extended his hand. He took upon himself to help us with -our luggage, and we let him show us the way to the French hotel -lately opened. Of course this man was anxious to serve us as guide -and interpreter, and we were glad to have him. Driss Wult el Kaid -was his name, Driss, son of the Kaid. He had worked for Englishmen -at Casablanca, and from his accent we could tell they had been -‘gentlemen.’ No ‘h’s’ did he shift from place to place, while his -pronunciation of such words as ‘here’ and ‘there’ were always drawled -out ‘hyar’ and ‘thar.’ ‘Now, now,’ he would say with a twisting -inflection, for all the world like an Oxford man wishing to express -the ordinary negative ‘no.’ It was humorous. English of this sort, to -the mind of a mere American, associates itself with aristocracy, while -the face of a mulatto goes only with the under-race of the States. It -was difficult, in consequence, to reconcile the two. But Driss soon -demonstrated that he was worthy to speak the language of the upper -man. The manners and the dignity of a ruling race were his heritage; -and proud he was, though his bearing towards the poorest beggar never -appeared condescending. A gentleman was Driss. ‘Me fader,’ he told us -in fantastic Moro-English, ‘me fader he was one-time gov’nor Ziada.’ - -‘Is he dead?’ - -‘Now, now; he in prison.’ - -‘What for?’ we asked. - -‘Me fader,’ Driss explained, looking sorrowful, ‘he paid ten thousan’ -dollar Hassani for (to be) gov’nor; two year more late ’nother man -pay ten thousan’ dollar more, and he ’come gov’nor; me fader got no -more money, so go prison.’ This was the old story, the same wherever -Mohammedans govern; one man buys the right to rule and rob a province; -over his head another buys it, to be succeeded by a third, and so on. - -We told Driss that this could not happen if the French ruled the -country; it could not happen, we said, in Algeria. - -‘I know, I know,’ said Driss. ‘Me fader he write (wrote) in a book -about Algeria, and he teach me to read. Tell me, Mr. Moore, is it true -a man can give his money to ’nother man and get a piece of paper, then -go back long time after and get his money back?’ - -I told Driss that there were such institutions as banks, which even the -Sultan could not rob; and he believed, but seemed to wonder all the -more what manner of men Christians were. ‘It is fiendish; no wonder -they defeat us; they work together inhumanly,’ he seemed to say; -‘indeed you cannot know our God!’ - -Good old Driss; both Weare and I became very fond of him. In a day he -spoke of himself as our friend, and I believe we could have trusted -him in hard emergencies. He was brave and not unduly cautious, though -occasionally, when we would stop in a road and gather a crowd, he would -say imperatively: ‘Come away, Mr. Weare and Mr. Moore; some fanatic may -be in that crowd and stick you with his dagger. Come on, come on!--I’m -your friend; I don’t want see you dead.’ - -Driss had vanities. He told us his age, twenty-three, and told us in -the same breath that few Moors knew exactly how old they were. He said -his wife--who was only twenty--could read and write a little, informing -us at the same time that very few women could read. He told us that his -wife was almost white. Driss was ashamed of his own colour, and when -a French correspondent asked in his presence if he was a slave, the -poor boy coloured and dropped his head. He had certainly been born of a -slave. - -Still there was nothing humble about Driss. Among his people he was -exceptional and he enjoyed the distinction. He was a Ziada man; he -could read and write; he could make more money than his fellows--and -he hoped some day to acquire European protection; he was fine-looking, -tall, strong, and without disease. - -Driss was a thoroughly clean fellow. He never touched bread without -washing his hands, a custom prevailing among some Moslems but not -general with the Moors. This with him seemed only a matter of habit -and desire of decency, for he was not particularly devout in his -religion. - -‘But you think,’ we said, ‘that all _Nasrani_ are unclean.’ At first -Driss denied this, out of consideration for us, but on being pressed he -admitted that it was the feeling of the ignorant of his race that, like -pigs, all Christians were filthy in person as well as soul. - -We discussed with him the great moral vice of Mohammedan countries, -and he admitted that it was prevalent in Morocco no less than, as we -told him, it prevailed farther east, and that it affected all classes. -He told me that it was the custom of the wealthy father of the better -class of Moors, in order to protect his sons, to make them each a -present of a slave girl as they attain the age of fifteen or sixteen. -Of course, from the Mohammedan point of view, there is nothing immoral -in this; indeed the mothers of sons often advocate it. - -It was the fasting month of Ramadan at the time of our sojourn at -Rabat, and no one could eat except at night. Every evening at six -o’clock a white-cloaked gunner came out of the Kasbah walls and rammed -into his antique cannon a load of powder sufficient, it would seem, -to raise the dead of the cemetery in which it was discharged. For -two reasons--that it was the cemetery and that the Ramadan gun was -here--this was the gathering-place of all Moslems. Often we, too, went -up to see the crowd and to watch with the gunner and the other Moors -for the signal. All eyes were turned, not towards the Atlantic to see -old Sol set, but inland, towards the town, where towered above the low -houses a great white minaret, whence the Muezzin watched the sun and -signalled with a banner of white. At the blast of the cannon a great -shout went up from the hundred small boys gathered about; and, with the -slope of the hill to lend them speed, everybody went hurrying into -the town, the skirts of those who ran fluttering a yard behind them. -In a minute came the boom from the gun of the _m’halla_, the city of -tents, on the hills visible beyond the town walls. When we passed down -the streets to our supper five minutes later, everybody was swallowing -great gulps of _hererah_, Ramadan soup, breaking the long day’s fast. -The little cafés, dingy and deserted during the day, were now brilliant -and crowded, the keeper himself eating with one hand while he served -with the other; and the roadway was studded with little groups of men -who had squatted where they stood half-an-hour before the setting of -the sun, and, spoon in hand, waited for the gun to boom. - -Christians and Mohammedans treat their religions with a curious -difference: where the one is generally ashamed of reverence and never -flaunts his faith, the other is afraid not to make a considerable -show of his. Not a Moor would dare to eat or even touch a drop of -water in the sight of another during Ramadan; though under our window -overlooking the river it was the custom of an old beggar to come daily -at noon, to roll himself into a ball on the ground as if sleeping, and -under the cover of his ragged _jeleba_ make his lunch. Had he been -caught at this he would probably have been stoned out of town. - -One day during Ramadan we were taken by a Jewish merchant, a British -subject, to the house of a wealthy Moor with whom he traded in goods -from Manchester. The house was down a turning off the street of arches, -and the turning came to an end at the Moor’s door, a massive oaken -door with the heads of huge rivets showing every six or seven inches. -It was the width of the narrow street, about six feet, and the height -of one’s shoulder. We approached quietly and knocked lightly, for our -friend told us that the Moor did not care for his neighbours to see -us entering his house. The entrance, which was at one corner of the -square house, led into the courtyard, of which the ornate walls were -spotlessly white-washed, the floor was of green tiles, and the roof, -as is usual, of glass. The reception room, the length of one side of -the house, though but twelve feet wide, had low divans all round the -walls, leaving but a long, narrow aisle the length of the room, to the -right and to the left of the arched entrance. Rising in tiers at each -end were broader divans, to appear as beds one beyond another, though -their luxurious and expensive upholstering, covered with the richest of -native silks, were evidently never displaced by use. About the room, -in cases above the divans, were many little ornaments, noticeably tall -silver sprinklers filled with rose-water and other perfumes; but most -curious to us were the innumerable clocks, most of them cheap things, -all set at different hours in order that their bells should not drown -each other’s melodious clangs. - -Two little slave girls, who giggled at us all the while, brought in -a samovar much after the Russian pattern, and silver boxes of broken -cone sugar and of European biscuits. Our host made tea in the native -fashion, brewed with quantities of sugar and flavoured heavily with -mint; green tea, of course. He filled our cups again and again, though -he would take nothing, till we too wished we respected Ramadan, for -we were told by our Jewish friend that it would be impolite to drink -less than five or six cups. Along with this refreshment the silver -sprinklers were passed us by the giggling little blacks, that we might -sprinkle our clothes, and no doubt they thought we needed perfuming, -though they did not hold their noses, as other Europeans have told -me they often do when close to Nazarenes. Perhaps their master had -instructed them in good behaviour, for he was indeed a gentleman, and -he had travelled on one occasion to London and to Paris. It was at this -point, when the Moor, with immaculate fingers, sprinkled his own long -white robes, that one could appreciate their feeling that we are filthy -people. We wear the same outer garments for months, and they are never -washed; indeed, we wear dark colours that the dirt may not show; here -we had entered upon this gentleman’s precious carpets with our muddy -boots, where a sockless Moor would shift his slippers. And they have -habits too which make for bodily cleanliness, habits which they know we -have not, as, for instance, that of shaving the hair from every part of -the body but the face. Our conversation was chiefly on comparisons of -customs, our host noticing that we shaved our faces, the Moors their -heads, and we remarking--for he was too polite--that we kept on our -shoes when we entered a house, whereas the Moors wore their fezzes or -their turbans. He said that he had beheld in London the extraordinary -sight of a pair of ordinary Moorish slippers set upon a table as an -ornament; and he had seen also the woman sultan, Queen Victoria. - -At Ramadan there are generally continual street festivities during -the eating hours of the night; but the gloom cast over the country by -the presence of the French kept these now to a minimum. There was not -even, in spite of the Sultan’s presence any powder play, a thing which -I was particularly anxious to witness, to learn for myself to what -degree the Moors are hard upon their animals. I know that Moslems are -seldom deliberately cruel; but I know, too, that the vanity of the Moor -makes him ride with a cruel bit and a pointed spur that could reach -the vitals of a horse, and both of these, I have heard, they employ -in a vicious manner in their famous, dashing powder play. But most of -their cruelty is only from neglect, laziness, and ignorance. Camels -wear their shoulders and their necks through to the bone--the sight is -a common one--because their masters do not trouble to pad their packs -properly; two men will ride an undersized donkey already overloaded -with a pack; and, as is the way among all Moslems, an animal when it -comes to die may suffer for weeks or months, yet will not be killed -because ‘Allah gave life, and Allah alone may take it away.’ Still -there is the Moorish sect of _Aisawa_, that in a mad stampede tears a -sheep to pieces in the streets and eats it still palpitating. - -[Illustration: A CAMP OUTSIDE THE WALLS OF RABAT.] - -There were some interesting Englishmen at Rabat, notably the _Times_ -correspondent, W. B. Harris, who has travelled with several Sultans -of Morocco, and lived some time as a Moor in order that he might -learn their ways and penetrate to the farthest reaches of the country -forbidden to the Christian. There was also Mr. Allan Maclean, likewise -an authority on Morocco, now busy with the Maghzen to arrange for the -release of certain prisoners, which Raisuli exacted as one of the -stipulations of Kaid Maclean’s release. There was then the British -Consul, George Neroutsos, an old friend of the Sultan and a man whom -he often consults on matters of European policy. - -With some of the Englishmen we took long rides around the town, passing -several times through the _m’halla_, where we were never welcome; -the camp of Abdul Aziz was in sympathy with Mulai Hafid. We saw the -soldiers who were sent to fight Hafid and joined his ranks with all -their arms. Gradually we saw the army dwindle away until there could -have been no more than four thousand men between the discredited Sultan -and his hostile brother, whose following of tribesmen was reported to -number variously from twenty to sixty thousand men. Had the army of the -French not stood between them and fought the Hafid _m’hallas_, Rabat -would surely have fallen and Abdul Aziz would now be a royal prisoner -safe in the keeping of his brother. For want of money to pay the troops -Abdul Aziz was forced to pawn his jewels; and at last, by a royal -decree, he made good ‘a hundred sacks’ of silver coins that had been -confiscated as counterfeit. It was because of a threatened revolt of -the troops for want of pay that the Spaniards in February occupied the -port of Mar Chica. - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -THE PIRATE CITY OF SALLI - - -Across the river from Rabat and across a stretch of sand half-a-mile -wide, a low line of white battlements, showing but a single gate, -keeps the famous city of Salli, the headquarters of the Moroccan -pirates, who in their day made themselves feared as far as the shores -of England. Every one remembers that it was to Salli Robinson Crusoe -was taken and held in slavery for many months, finally escaping in a -small boat belonging to his Moorish master. For years the corsairs -were the scourge of Christian merchantmen, and up to two centuries ago -they plied their trade, which was deemed honourable among the Moors -and carried with it the title ‘Amir-el-Bahr,’ Lord of the Sea, from -which has come the English word Admiral. It has been but a few years -since Salli could be visited by Europeans, and the inhabitants boast -to-day that not a Christian lives within their sacred walls. They do -not know that the _Times_ correspondent--of whom I have spoken often -already--once stayed amongst them for some time; they remember only -a thin, studious, devout Moslem, who knew the Koran and the history -of Islam as they did not, and had travelled to all the holy places. -Harris told me that greater hospitality and truer courtesy could have -been shown him nowhere than among the descendants of the Salli Rovers. -But the deference, I may add, was to the Moorish garb he wore; to the -man who wears the clothes of an infidel, and, reversing their custom, -shaves his face and lets the hair grow on his head, there is little -common decency accorded. - -Our man would not go with us alone to Salli, though since leaving -Casablanca he and his wife had taken refuge there with the lady’s -parents. To obtain an escort he took us down to the custom-house where -the Basha of Salli came every day to watch the imports. We arrived at -the landing just as the Basha got out of his ferry, a soldier following -him and also a servant carrying his dinner in a plate slung in a -napkin. The governor was a stately Moor of middle age, pock-marked of -course, but clean and intelligent-looking, and we addressed him as a -gentleman, to have our bow but slightly acknowledged. To Driss, who -spoke to him, he intimated that because of the feeling of the people -at this moment he would rather not be seen talking with Europeans. The -Basha then entered the custom-house, and by means of Driss as messenger -conducted negotiations with us, still standing on the landing-place. -The negotiations were extensive of course, and after half-an-hour, -receiving and replying to various unimportant questions--Were we -anxious to see Salli to-day? Would not to-morrow do as well? Had we -any reason for going there?--each of which was delivered singly, at -last a soldier came and said that he would go with us but we must wait -till he went and fetched another. This is the way when one is not -welcome. - -Finally permitted to cross the river, we ploughed through the sands -and passed the boneyard outside the walls to the narrow gate, where we -waited again till yet another soldier came; and in this order, one man -in front and two behind us, we entered upon the sacred cobbled streets, -now not too crowded, for it was Ramadan, when folk are active most -at evening and before the sun is high. In the quarter of good homes, -through which we passed first, only little children in the care of -youthful slave girls seemed to be abroad; and it is hard to say which -we most alarmed. There was in every instance first a surprised start, -then a quiet flurry. Little girls in long dresses, wearing but one -long earring and distinguishable from boys only by having two patches -of hair on their otherwise shaven heads, would shift their slippers, -grab them up in their hands, and go tearing off, their cloaks flying, -to disappear into a broad, low, arched doorway, and down the steps -behind. The black girls, older, snatched the babies they were tending, -covered their faces, and shuffled off to call the women. As we passed, -the single uncovered eye of many women, white and black, lined the door -held an inch ajar, and once, at our glance, one of the women growing -modest slammed the heavy thing and--we judged from the yell--caught -the nose of one of her sisters. Sometimes they came and peered over -from their low-walled roofs, pointing us out to their children, the -first infidels perhaps many of them had seen; and on these occasions we -always watched, for the streets were sometimes but a yard wide and we -were easy marks had any of them spat. - -There can be no mistake about the records of history, which state that -thousands of Christian slaves, many of them British, were sold on the -great white market at Salli. The faces of many of the people to-day -are distinctly European. Here there seemed to me to be less mixture of -black blood than in the other towns, many of the people being as white -as Europeans. We saw among the children a boy of five or six years who -would not have looked unnatural in Ireland, and later, in the _mella_ -we came across a little girl with golden hair. At this last we puzzled -our brains--for our inquiries brought no explanation--finally surmising -that some rich Jew, a hundred years ago, had bought her ancestor. - -In the centre of the town is a cone-shaped hill crowded with white, -square houses of the best class, which range themselves round a mosque -and minaret upon the summit. The massive tower, inlaid with tiles of -many colours, once served as beacon for the pirates, though now, like -all the Moorish coast, it sheds no light for Christian ships. When we -asked to see the great mosque, our soldiers made excuses and would have -led us another way, but we adopted the method of turning at the corners -that we chose, leaving the man in the lead to double back from the way -he would set. Of course he always protested, but from experience with -other escorts we knew that to see what is to be seen in Mohammedan -countries one must lead the way oneself, and the greater the protest of -the guard the more one can be certain that one is on the proper track. -The soldiers were anxious to take us promptly to the _mella_, where we -might stay, they said, as long as we pleased; but first we searched out -the mosque and later the market-place. The Sok here is in itself by no -means so imposing as at Laraiche or even at Rabat, and there are to be -seen no characters that are not also at the open ports; but here there -gather Moors and Arabs and Berbers of an intenser religious ardour, -who follow closer the customs of the ages past and whose very faces -show their greater hatred of the Nazarene. - -The people of Salli--largely for their intolerance of Christians and -their glorious rover ancestry--hold a social position second only to -that of the people of Fez and the holy city of Ouzzan, and they are -wealthier as a rule than the inhabitants of other towns; and these are -reasons that holy men and maimed creatures flock here to beg. But at -the time of our visit the presence of the Sultan at Rabat had drawn all -wanderers, beggars, saints, minstrels, and itinerant tradesmen, across -the river, and on the Sok of Salli there was but one poor bard to stop -his story at sight of our unholy apparition. He stopped and refused to -go on, and the people murmuring began to move off, while our soldiers -urged us to pass on with them. - -[Illustration: SHAWIA TRIBESMEN.] - -The walls of the _mella_ were but a few hundred yards away, and there -we repaired at last, where crowds who followed us were beaten back -only to prevent annoyance. We could stop and speak with the Jews and -enter their synagogues and even their houses, and they would pose for -photographs, though many of them now saw a camera for the first time. -Having taken refuge here from the Spanish Inquisition of the fifteenth -century the Jews of Morocco might be expected to harbour prejudices -against the Christian world, but, strangely, nowhere, not in the heart -of the closed country, are they at all fanatic. - -A drove of boys and men, with women trailing on behind, followed us as -we left their walled reservation, and would have come beyond but for -the Moorish keeper of their gate, who raised his stick and shouting -drove them back. It is the law at night that all Jews must be inside -the _mella_ when the gates are closed at seven or eight o’clock; and -this good rule is for their safety, that they may not suffer robbery -and abuse. The Jews of Morocco, oppressed and often robbed, pay the -country’s fighting men for their protection; in Moorish towns they -pay the basha, in the country they pay the kaid or other chief of the -strongest neighbouring tribe. They are protected too by the Government, -because they are thrifty and can be made to pay, under pressure, heavy -taxes. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII - -MANY WIVES - - -We were up on the Kasbah, the high rocky citadel that rises nearly two -hundred feet straight above the notorious bar of the Bu Regreg, taking -in a splendid view of the river’s winding course together with the -city of Salli. When a caravan of unusual size twisted out of Salli’s -double gate and came across the sands to the water’s edge, where a -score of ferry boats nosed the bank, their owners began jumping about -like madmen, frantic for the promised trade that could not escape -them. On market days at Rabat there are always camel trains and pack -trains of mules and horses crossing these sands of Salli to and from -the barges that ferry them over the river for a farthing a man and -two farthings a camel, but they seldom come in trains of more than -twenty. This winding white company, detached in groups of sometimes -four, sometimes forty, stretched from the wall to the water’s edge, a -distance of half a mile; it spread out on the shore, and still kept -coming from the gate. Neither Weare nor I had heard that the Sultan’s -harem would arrive this day, and we had to reproach our faithful Driss -Wult el Kaid, to whom we had given standing orders to move round among -his countrymen and let us know when things of interest were happening. - -‘Plenty time, Mr. Moore,’ said Driss, holding up his brown hands and -chuckling. ‘There are many, many; more ’an three hundred, and many -soldiers, and many Soudanese,’ by which last Driss meant slaves. There -was indeed plenty of time; it took the company all that day and part -of the next to cross by the slow, heavy barges, carrying twenty people -and half-a-dozen animals at each load, and rowed generally by two men, -sometimes by only one. - -We descended from the Kasbah and made our way down the street of shops, -the Sok or market street, as it is called, and out through the Water -Port to the rock-studded sands upon which the caravan was landing. It -was an extraordinary sight. The tide was out, and the water, which at -high tide laps the greenish walls, now left a sloping shore of twenty -yards. The boats when loaded would push up the river close to the other -shore, then taking the current off a prominent point, swing over in an -arc to the Rabat side. Empty, they would go back the same way by an -inner arc. On our side they ran aground generally between two rocks, -when the black, bare-legged eunuchs, dropping their slippers, would -elevate their skirts by taking up a reef at the belts, and jump into -the water to take the women to dry land on their stalwart backs. Only -in rare instances did much of the woman’s face show--and then she was -a pretty woman and young; those old or pock-marked were always careful -to cover, even to the extent of hiding one eye. Nevertheless the wives -of the Sultan as they got upon the backs of his slaves gathered their -_sulhams_ up about their knees, displaying part of a leg, in almost -every case unstockinged, and always dangling a heelless slipper of red -native leather. In Morocco, as I have indicated before, the costumes -of men and those of women are practically the same except for fullness -and, in the case of nether-garments, colour. The short trousers of a -man, for instance, are generally brown and his slippers never anything -(when new) but yellow. - -The Sultan’s wives with few exceptions were covered in white _sulhams_; -round their heads were bands of blue ribbon knotted at the back, fixing -their hoods and veils for riding. While the slaves brought up the -luggage, working with a will like men conducting their own business, -the women held the mules and horses, covered with wads of blanket, -all of Ottoman red, and mounted with high red Arab saddles. The women -were usually subdued and to all appearances modest, though all of them -would let their black eyes look upon the infidels longer than would the -modest maid of a race that goes unveiled. But of course we were a sight -to them not of every day. Now and then a lady whose robe was of better -quality than most, seemed distressed about some jewel case or special -piece of luggage, and worried her servant, who argued back in a manner -of authority. It was evident the slaves had charge each of a particular -lady for whom he was responsible. - -As soon as these blacks had gathered their party and belongings all -together, they loaded the tents and trunks two to a mule, and lifted -the women into the high red saddles, always ridden astride; then, -picking up their guns, they started on to the palace, leading the -animals through the ancient gate and across the crowded town, shouting -‘Balak! Balak!’ Make way, make way! Once they had begun to move, the -eunuchs paid no attention to any man, not deigning even to reply to the -dog of a boatman who often followed them some hundred paces cursing -them for having paid too little, sometimes nothing at all, when much -was expected for ferrying the _Lai-ell_ of the Sultan. - -The caravan had been a long time on the road from Fez. Travelling only -part of the day and camping early, it had taken a fortnight to come a -distance little more than 150 miles. The Sultan had brought with him -twenty of his favourites, trailing them across country rapidly, when he -had hurried to this strategic place at the news that Mulai Hafid had -been proclaimed Sultan at his southern capital and would probably race -him to Rabat. - -[Illustration: A FEW OF THE SULTAN’S WIVES.] - -But why Abdul Aziz brought with him any of his wives is a question. -Perhaps they had more to do with it than had he; and perhaps it -was for political reasons. At any rate (I have it from the Englishman -quoted before) his harem bores him; to the songs and dances of all his -beauties he much prefers the conversation of a single European who can -tell him how a field gun works, what it is that makes the French--or -any other--war balloon rise, and explain to him the pictures in the -French and English weeklies to which he subscribes. He has here a -motor-boat, which he keeps high and dry in a room in the palace, -and the German engineer who makes its wheel go round is a frequent -companion. - -It is said in Morocco that while other Sultans visited their wives -all in turn, showing favouritism to none, the present youthful High -Shereef has cut off all but half a score, and never sees the mass of -them except _en masse_. And it is said, too--among the many current -stories regarding his European tendencies--that for these ten ladies he -has spent thousands of pounds on Paris gowns and Paris hats to dress -them in and see what European women look like. It naturally suggests -itself that the poor fellow is hopelessly puzzled, and on a point that -would of course catch his scientific mind: while the women of Paris are -apparently built in two parts and pivoted together, those of his own -dominions are constructed the other way. According to the ideas of the -Orient the waist should be the place of largest circumference. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV - -GOD SAVE THE SULTAN! - - -The principal cause of the Moorish revolution, which threatens to -terminate the reign of Abdul Aziz, was his tendency--up to a few months -ago--to defy the religious prejudices which a long line of terrible -predecessors had carefully nurtured in his people. The incident of -the mosque of Mulai Idris at Fez was his culminating offence. To the -uttermost corners of the Empire went the news that the young Sultan -had defiled the most holy tomb of the country through causing to be -taken by force from its sacred protection and murdered one of the -Faithful who had slain a Christian dog. To the punishing wrath of the -dishonoured saint and of the Almighty has been put down every calamity -that has since befallen either the Sultan or the Empire; and the Moors -will tell you that by this act has come the ruin of Morocco. It was in -dramatic fashion that the feeling Driss, our man, stopped abruptly in -the street when I mentioned the affair. We were nearing a picturesque -little mosque with a leaning palm towering above it, and good old Driss -was urging me to turn away and not to pass it--because he was a friend -of mine and did not want me stoned. ‘Driss,’ said I, ‘they would not -dare; the Sultan is here and they know that even a mosque won’t save -them if they harm a European now.’ Driss stopped short and turned upon -me. ‘You know that, Mr. Moore,’ he said with emphasis, ‘that about the -Mulai Idris! That was the finish of Morocco!’ - -While with such breaches of the Moslem law Abdul Aziz has roused among -the people a superstitious fear of consequences, he has also, by -lesser defiances of recognised Moorish customs, sorely aggravated them. -His many European toys--the billiard table, the costly photographic -apparatus, the several bicycles, and the extravagant displays of -fireworks--while harmless enough, were regarded by the Moors with no -good grace. But worst of all these trivial things was, to the Moors, -the young man’s evident lack of dignity. At times he would ride out -alone and with Christians (who were his favourite companions), whereas -the Sultans before him were hardly known to appear in public without -the shade of the authoritative red umbrella. - -An Englishman who knows Abdul Aziz and has for years advised him, tells -me of a ride they took together accompanied only by their private -servants, when the Court was formerly at Rabat, five years ago. The -Sultan left the palace grounds with the hood of his _jeleba_ drawn well -down over his face, his servant likewise thoroughly covered in the -garment that levels all Moors, men and women, to the same ghost-like -appearance. Sultan and man met the Englishman outside the town walls at -the ruins of Shella, a secluded place grown over with cactus bushes, -and rode with him on into the country fifteen miles or more. On the way -back they encountered a storm of rain, and drenched to the skin, their -horses floundering in the slipping clay, they drew up at the back walls -of the palace and tried to get an entrance by a gate always barred. - -‘What shall we do?’ asked the Sultan. - -‘Get your servant to climb the wall,’ said the Englishman. - -‘No; you get yours,’ said Abdul Aziz, always contrary. - -So the Englishman’s servant climbed the wall, dropped on the other -side, and made his way to the palace, where he was promptly arrested -and flogged for a lying thief, no one taking the trouble to go to see -if his tale was true. After the Sultan and the Englishman had waited -for some time, they rode round to another gate and entered. Then -the unfortunate servant of the Christian was set free and given five -dollars Hassani to heal his welted skin. - -But things have changed. On the present visit of the Sultan to Rabat -he no longer rides out except in great State; and this he does (on the -advice partly of that particular Englishman of the wall adventure) -every Friday regularly. - -In September, while Abdul Aziz was on the road from Fez, hastening to -anticipate his brother in getting to this, the war capital of Morocco -(where, as the Moors say, the Sultan might listen with both ears, to -the North and to the South), public criers from the rival camp of Mulai -Hafid declared that Abdul Aziz was coming to the coast to be baptized -a Christian under the guns of the infidel men-of-war. But this lie was -easy to refute without the humiliation of a deliberate contradiction. -Though at Fez it has always been the custom of the Sultan to worship -at a private mosque within the grounds of his palace, it is likewise -the custom for him at Rabat to go with a great fanfare and all his -household and the Maghzen through lines of troops as long as he can -muster, to a great public mosque in the open fields between the town’s -outer and inner walls. - -It was with a party of Europeans, mostly English correspondents, that -I went to see the first Selamlik here. In the party there was W. B. -Harris of the _Times_, and Wm. Maxwell of the _Mail_, as well as Allan -Maclean, the brother of the Kaid. We had as an escort two soldiers -from the British Consulate, without whom we could not have moved. The -soldiers led the way shouting ‘Balak! balak!’ as we rode through the -narrow crowded streets. But in all the throng no other Europeans were -to be seen, until some way out we met at a cross-road and mingled for -a moment with the delegation of French officials and correspondents, -bound also for the great show. - -Passing the _Bab-el-Had_, the Gate of Heads (fortunately not decorated -at this time), the road led through grassy fields to a height from -which is visible the whole palace enclosure. We could see, over the -high white walls, the two lines of stacked muskets sweeping away in -a long, opening arc from the narrow gate beside the mosque to the -numerous doors of the low white-washed palace. Behind the guns the -soldiers sat, generally in groups on the grass, only a few having life -enough to play at any game. Considerably in the background were groups -of women, garbed consistently in white, and heavily veiled. - -Our soldiers, always glad to spur a horse, climbed through a break in -the cactus that lined the road and led a hard canter down the slight, -grassy slope, straight for one of the smaller gates. Two sentries -seated on either side, perceiving us, rose nervously, retired and swung -the doors in our faces, the rusty bars grating into place as we drew -up. Our soldiers shouted, but got no answer, and we rode round to the -_Bab_ by the mosque, which could not be closed. As we drew up here -a sentinel with arbitrary power let in two negro boys, clad each in -a ragged shirt, riding together on a single dwarfed donkey not tall -enough to keep their long, black, dangling legs out of the dust. But we -could not pass--no; there was no use arguing, we could not pass. Slaves -went in and beggars; the man was anxious, and shoved them in--but no; -we, we were not French! - -While our soldiers argued, the Frenchmen came up and passed in; then -the guard, seeing we looked much like them, changed his mind and -permitted us, too, to enter. - -[Illustration: CHAINED NECK TO NECK--RECRUITS FOR THE SULTAN’S ARMY.] - -[Illustration: ABDUL AZIZ ENTERING HIS PALACE.] - -For some distance we passed between the lines of stacked guns, -attracting the curious gaze of everybody, especially the women, who -rose and came nearer the soldiers. One youth, a mulatto, got up and -took a gun from a stack, and pretending to shove a cartridge -into it, aimed directly at my head. The incident was, as one of the -Englishmen suggested, somewhat boring. - -Within a hundred yards of the palace we got behind the line and took -up our stand. We had not long to wait. Shortly after the sun began to -decline a twanging blast from a brassy cornet brought the field to its -feet. - -There was no hurry or scurry--there seldom is in Mohammedan countries. -The soldiers took their guns, not with any order but without clashing; -the women and children came up close; tribesmen, mounted, drew up -behind. The Sultan’s band, in white, belted dresses, with knee -skirts, bare legs, yellow slippers, and red fezzes, began to play a -slow, impressive march--‘God save the King!’ with strange Oriental -variations. It would not have been well if the Moors had known, and our -soldier, for one, was amazed when we told him, that the band played the -Christian Sultan’s hymn. - -The mongrel soldiers, black and brown and white, slaves and freemen, -presented arms uncertainly, as best they knew how; the white-robed -women ‘coo-eed’ loud and shrill. A line of spear-bearers, all old men, -passed at a short jog-trot; following them came six Arab horses, not -very fine, but exceedingly fat, and richly caparisoned, led by skirted -grooms; then the Sultan, immediately preceded and followed by private -servants, likewise in white, except for their chief, a coal-black negro -dressed in richest red. Beside the Sultan, who was robed in white and -rode a white horse, walked on one side the bearer of the red parasol, -and on the other a tall dark Arab who flicked a long scarf to keep -flies off his Imperial Majesty. In and out of the ranks, disturbing -whom he chose, ran a mad man, bellowing hideously, foaming at the -mouth. This, on the part of Abdul Aziz, was indeed humouring the -prejudices of the people. - - - - -CHAPTER XV - -MANY SULTANS - - -It is generally put down to the weakness of Abdul Aziz that Morocco has -come to its present pass, and there is no doubt that had the youthful -Sultan possessed a little more of firmness he would not have come -now to be a mere dependent of the French. But Morocco has long been -doomed. Even in the days of the former Sultan, who ruled the Moors as -they understood and gave them a government the likes of which they say -they wish they had to-day, the tribes were constantly at war with one -another and with him. Continual rebellions in Morocco proper left Mulai -Hassan no time to subdue the Berber tribes to the south, nominally his -subjects; and when in his age he set upon a long-projected pilgrimage -to the birthplace of his dynasty, Tafilet, he could venture across the -Atlas mountains only after emissaries had begged or bought from the -Berbers the right of way. - -The tragic death of Mulai Hassan while on the march, and the manner -in which the throne was saved to Abdul Aziz, his favourite son, made -graphic reading in the summer of 1894; and they will serve to-day to -illustrate the sad, chaotic state of the whole poor Moorish empire. -The old Sultan was not well when he returned from Tafilet, but serious -disorders throughout the country allowed him to rest at Marakesh, his -southern capital, only a few months. Proposing to move on to Rabat, -thence to Fez, punishing lawless and rebellious tribes that had risen -while he was away, he set out from Marakesh with an army composed of -many hostile elements, conscripts kept together largely by their awe of -him and hope of loot. They came to but the first rebellious district, -that of the Tedla tribes, when Mulai Hassan fell seriously ill and was -unable to go on. But after several days the news was spread one morning -that he had sufficiently recovered and would proceed. Only the viziers -and a few slaves--who held their tongues to save their heads--knew that -Mulai Hassan was dead. - -For a day the body, seated within the royal palanquin, was borne along -in state, preceded as usual by many banners, the line of spear-bearers, -and the six led horses, and flanked by the bearer of the parasol and -the black who flicks the silken scarf. Though speed was imperative the -usual halts were made that no suspicion should arise. In the morning -at ten o’clock, the Sultan’s usual breakfast time, the army stopped, -a tent was pitched, and into it the palanquin was carried. Food was -cooked and green tea brewed and taken in, to be brought out again as -if they had been tasted. At night the royal band played before the -Sultan’s vast enclosure. But the secret was not to be kept long in a -climate like that of Morocco in summer; and lest the corpse should tell -its own tale, at the end of a long day’s march, as the army pitched its -camp in the evening, the news went out, spreading like a wave through -the company, that the Sultan was dead, and that Abdul Aziz was the -Sultan, having been the choice of his father. - -In an hour the camp split up into a hundred parties, each distrustful -of some other. There was not a tribe but had some blood feud with -another, and now the reason for the truce that had held hitherto was -gone. Men of the same tribe banded together for defence and marched -together at some distance from the others; conscripts from the -neighbouring districts, or districts to the south, took their leave; -private interests actuated now where awe and fear had held before. -Soon the news got to the country, and the tribes through which the -_m’halla_ passed began to cut off stragglers, to plunder where they -could and drive off animals that strayed. - -By forced marches the army at last arrived at Rabat, and those of the -tribesmen who cared to halt pitched their camp on the hills outside -the walls. Promptly that night the Sultan’s body, accompanied by a -single shereef and surrounded by a small contingent of foot-soldiers, -was passed into the town through a hole in the wall--a dead man, it -is said, never going in through the gates--and was entombed, as is -the custom with Sultans, in a mosque. In the morning, when the people -bestirred themselves to see the entry of the dead Hassan, they saw -instead the new Sultan, then sixteen years of age, led forth on his -father’s great white horse, and, shading him, the crimson parasol -marking his authority. - -The secrecy that had been maintained was not intended only to keep the -_m’halla_ intact; primarily the object was to ensure the succession -of the youth then at Rabat, the nearest capital. Had the Maghzen been -in the proximity of Fez or Marakesh, in spite of the Moorish law that -passes on the succession to the Shereef of the dead man’s choice, -Abdul Aziz might not have been the Sultan of Morocco. Uncles and rival -brothers he had many, and high pretenders of other shereefian families -might soon have risen. It was therefore important for the viziers -themselves that the succession should come as a _coup d’état_, and that -they should be on hand to support it with as much of the army as they -could hold together. - -[Illustration: A PRINCELY KAID.] - -[Illustration: THE ROYAL BAND.] - -There were, of course, many heads to be cut off, both politically and -physically. Mulai Omar (a son of Hassan by a negro slave and therefore -half-brother of Abdul Aziz) secured the acknowledgment of Aziz in the -great mosques at Fez, where he held the authority of Khalif, but later -behaved in a most suspicious manner. A black boy whom he sent to stop -the bands from celebrating the accession, being defied, drove his -knife into a drum; and for this the hand that did the work was flayed -and salted and the fingers bound together closed, until they grew fast -to the palm and left the hand for ever a useless stump. Mulai Omar -himself was made a royal prisoner, as was his brother Mulai Mohammed, -Khalif of the southern capital (who has been released only within the -past few weeks in order, it is reported, that he might take command -of the army against Hafid, the trusted brother who became Khalif of -Marakesh and governed there for many years, until recently, after the -affair at Casablanca, when he essayed to become Sultan himself). - -In the ranks of the viziers there was also trouble; Sid Akhmed ben -Musa, the _Hajib_ or Chamberlain, trusted of Hassan and also of the -young Sultan’s mother, who possessed unusual power, became protector -of Abdul Aziz; whereupon, for the safety of his own position if not -from jealousy, Sid Akhmed caused to be removed from office most of his -fellow viziers, filling their places with his own brothers and men who -would do his bidding. The dismissal of the fallen viziers was followed -by their prompt arrest, and all their property was confiscated, not -excepting their concubines and slaves. From a palace second only to -that of the Sultan, the Grand Vizier, Haj Amaati (who had plundered the -country in the most barbarous fashion and put his money in property, -there being no banks), went to prison in a single shirt, and a mongrel -beggar swapped caps with him as he was dragged bound through the -streets. - -Sid Akhmed ruled as dictator, suppressing wayward tribes by vigorous -means, as well, probably, as anyone not a Sultan could, until the -year 1900, when he died. The young Sultan, then being twenty-two, -assumed alone the power of his office, to rule the country in a feeble, -half-hearted way, his object, it would seem, more to entertain himself -than to improve the condition of his passing empire. Morocco needs a -tyrant, for tyranny is the only law it knows; yet Abdul Aziz, raised -to believe himself enlightened, and having no taste for brutality, has -endeavoured to govern easily. - -He was brought up by his mother, a Circassian of evident taste and -refinement, much in the manner of a European child. Kept within her -sight and shielded from immorality, he grew up pure and most unlike his -many brothers. In all Morocco there was no company for him. In mind -there was nothing in common between him and any of his household. Even -his women, brought as presents from the corners of the country, some -from Constantinople, had for him only temporary charm. It was natural -that a young man of his temperament and education, trained to abhor -the vices and the crimes to which the Moors are given over, should -become more interested in Western things, and should seek to reform -his country. But Abdul Aziz had been weakened as well as preserved -by his training, and when he came to authority it was without the -determination and without the courage of his youth and of his race. In -no sympathy with his Court or with his countrymen, it was natural for -him to surround himself with men with whom he could be intimate, and -the retinue that he acquired were Europeans, mostly Englishmen. - -European things, which were to him as toys, began to fascinate him, -and his purchase of them soon became a scandal in Morocco. Bicycles, -motor-cars, cameras, phonographs, wireless telegraphs, and Western -animals for his zoo, were ordered by the Sultan on hearing of them. -An English billiard table was brought from the coast on a primitive -wooden truck built specially, for it was too heavy to bring camel-back -and there are no carts in Morocco. The Sultan could not go to Europe, -but Europe could come to the Sultan. He heard of fireworks and gave -a lavish order, engaging also a ‘master of fireworks’ to conduct -displays in his gardens. He bought a camera made of gold and engaged a -photographer. Of course the Sultan’s extravagant purchases attracted to -Fez many Europeans bent only on exploiting him. Hundreds of thousands -he spent on jewels, which when deposited in the Bank of England -brought for him a loan of about a tenth the original cost. He bought a -motor-boat and kept it high and dry in his palace, though he employed -a German engineer to run it. From the Krupp company, at a cost of many -millions, he bought two heavy-calibre guns, as unmanageable to the -Moors as white elephants to monkeys. Any agent for European arms could -get an order from him, and his arsenal became a museum of European guns. - -It was easy to swindle the Sultan. An American came to Fez to persuade -him to send ‘a Moorish village’ to the Exposition at St Louis. Being -unaccredited, the man could get no proper introduction from the -American Minister at Tangier, but by a clever ruse he saw the Sultan -nevertheless. The American brought with him to Fez a bulldog with false -teeth. Through some of his European _entourage_ the Sultan heard of -the dog and ordered it to be brought to him; but the dog could not -go without its master, who obtained from the Sultan some 40,000_l._, -spending, I am told, perhaps 2,000_l._ on the Moorish village. - -While spending money in this fashion--which might in itself have made -Morocco bankrupt--Abdul Aziz took no trouble to collect his taxes. -To bring to order a tribe careless about paying them, it is often -necessary for the Sultan to lead his forces in person. But Abdul Aziz -after one or two campaigns left his army to the command of Ministers; -and gradually his troops dwindled away, and, his moral force weakening, -gradually, tribe by tribe, almost the entire country discontinued to -pay taxes. At last only the garrison towns could be depended on for -revenue. - -News of his European tendencies spread throughout the land. The -influence of Kaid Maclean in the army was known and resented. -Photographs of the Sultan had been seen by many of the Faithful. -Finally, it was reported that he had become a Christian. - -In 1902 a pretender, Bu Hamara, proclaimed himself Sultan, and -established his claim to divine appointment by feats of legerdemain. -According to a story current among Europeans, one of his ‘tricks,’ in -gruesome keeping with the country’s cruelty, was the burying of a live -slave with a reed for him to speak and breathe through. Bu Hamara by -this means called a voice from the grave, and after he had called it, -placed his foot upon the tube. When the grave was opened the slave was -found really to be dead. - -Bu Hamara came near to capturing Fez. - -Raisuli rose to power and successfully defied the Maghzen forces. - -With Abdul Aziz things went from bad to worse, till, hopelessly -bankrupt, with a following of perhaps ten thousand men, mostly -volunteers, he came to Rabat in September of last year, roused to this -move when his brother Hafid was proclaimed at Marakesh. Since then -Fez has also proclaimed Hafid, and the army that came with Aziz has -dwindled away, until it numbers now hardly four thousand men. Besides -these he has but the petty garrisons, who find it convenient to remain -in the barracks of coast towns. - -Abdul Aziz, now thirty years of age, is a pale-faced quadroon with a -black, immature beard and a thin moustache. He is above medium height -and well built, of a healthy though not athletic appearance. His manner -in the presence of official visitors is seldom easy; his words are -few and constrained. With private guests whom he knows, however, he -is gay and often familiar. He speaks gently and slowly, I am told, -occasionally placing his hand on one’s shoulder, and all who know -him like him. He seems anxious that things shall go well, but he is -more a student than a man of action. He is vain of his enlightenment, -of which he has a somewhat exalted opinion; and he is jealous of his -prerogatives. He tells Europeans who visit him that his brother Hafid -(who is almost black), was of course brought up differently from -himself, that while possessing some good qualities, he is of course a -man of little education, and that his head has been turned to declare -himself Sultan. Abdul Aziz says he will not punish Hafid--when the -rebellion is put down and he is captured--except to imprison him in -some princely palace. - - * * * * * - -The historic empire of Morocco has to all intents come to an end. -Whether the French or a combination of European Powers control -hereafter, it remains that the once great empire has passed as an -independent State. In name perhaps its independence will survive for -many years; the Sultan Abdul Aziz may return to Fez and gain again, -with the aid of the French, the loyalty of the interior that is lost -to him; and he may--he will, no doubt, he or another Sultan--continue -to conduct negotiations with foreign countries. But his control of -his own land will be hereafter as of a man on an allowance from the -revenues that will go to his creditors, chiefly to France and Spain, -and his dealings with other Powers must be for the future in obedience -to dictation from those creditors. - -As an empire with vassal States, Morocco has passed indeed these -many years; as an independent country, it is to-day little more than -an unproductive territory peopled sparsely with disunited tribes, -acclaiming several Sultans, supporting none, warring hopelessly against -invaders. Like Turkey-in-Europe, this backward State on the borders of -civilisation has long been doomed. Abdul Aziz made some feeble attempts -to graft upon it Western institutions; but the change can be wrought by -Western forces only and with modern arms. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI - -THE BRITISH IN MOROCCO - - -Not very many of the European residents of Morocco are fond of the -French invaders. Even, in many instances, Frenchmen hate them. They -condemn consistently the disorders that the armies of France--the -Spanish are not very active--have brought to Morocco; and still more -they lament the influx of other Europeans, generally, as they point -out, of the worst sort; dishonest speculators, adventurers and ‘dive’ -keepers, unfortunately the usual vanguard of Western civilisation. -Frenchmen of the old days are wont to sentimentalise about the ‘Moghreb -defiled’; Germans have no love for the soldiers of France; Englishmen -resent the subordinate position, which for three years they have been -required to take. - -In Eastern countries where Europeans are few, there is always intense -rivalry and much bitter feeling between the races. In Morocco the -great jealousy, until the signing of the Anglo-French agreement, was -between the British and the French. For many years the agents of France -and those of England, consuls as well as diplomatists, merchants, and -even simple residents, had struggled against each other for trade, for -social prestige, and for greater influence with the Sultan and the -Moorish government. When the British Minister would go to Fez, the -Frenchman was always prompt on his heels; nor did the former--though -perhaps with more show of modesty--ever allow the Minister of France to -get to his credit an extra visit or a larger present. - -The intimacy between Kaid Maclean and the Sultan grievously annoyed -the French, and they accused the Kaid of exploiting Abdul Aziz. On -the other hand, though the Kaid was in the employ of the Sultan, -he was engaged also to act as agent of the British government at -the Maghzen. In loans and contracts the conflict was generally more -between the Germans and the French; and on these occasions scandals -of rival bribery and of diplomatic influence being brought to bear -in the interests of the rival bankers or contractors, as the case -might be, were always rife. British Ministers do not often aid the -subjects of the King in gathering private contracts, and British -interest in Morocco has always been primarily political. British trade -with Morocco, actual or potential, was never of any considerable -importance--except to the British traders in the towns of the coast, to -whom the rivalry of course extended, growing often more acute. - -In 1904 all this was changed by a stroke of the pen. England and France -came to an understanding, the one waiving claims in Egypt, the other -withdrawing politically from Morocco. The following year the German -Emperor, who had not been consulted, volunteered an objection to the -French scheme for policing certain coast cities and border towns and -organising a Morocco State Bank. Intimidating the French--though -Great Britain ‘agreed to support them in any attitude they should -take,’ which meant, I am convinced, even to the extent of war with -Germany--the Kaiser brought about a conference of the Powers, which -came to be known by the name of the Spanish town at which it was held. -The Algeciras Conference, after deliberating for months, finally in -compromise decreed that France should be accompanied by Spain in her -scheme, which was definitely limited. - -The accord between France and England was a blow to British residents -in Morocco. As long as they had been in the land they had held, in the -fear and the regard of the Moors, the paramount position, and now that -position was handed over to their foremost rivals. They felt that -they as Englishmen could not consistently change their attitude at the -dictation of their Government at home--nor did they change except for -the worse. - -Their jealousy has now turned to enmity, which is often intense. In the -smaller towns French and British consular agents are not on speaking -terms and avoid each other in the streets. Englishmen are friendly with -the Germans, upholding the anti-French policy of the German Government -and decrying the ‘weakness’ of their own, all the while sympathising -with the unfortunate Moor and his disintegrating empire. To the large -towns new consuls have been sent out, generally from both France and -England, and new Ministers have gone to Tangier, and this makes things -easier in diplomatic circles, where the French policy is supported -consistently. Otherwise the same old merchants and residents are there, -both French and English, with the same old hates. - -How the Englishman rails against his Government! How he storms at the -English Press! How he writes, in passionate language, in his _Moghreb -al Aksa_, the little weekly English paper! I have in mind a thin, wiry -little man, past middle age, who wears a helmet and dresses in a brown -suit of tweeds. Having plenty of leisure he puts in much of his time -writing for London papers; but they will have none of his spirited -essays. So he prints them in the _Moghreb_. They are headed, ‘How -Long Will England Close Her Eyes?’ ‘How Long Will the English Press -Refuse to Print the Truth?’ ‘How Long Will the Patient Moor Refrain -from Massacre?’--and such like. I suggested to him one evening as we -sat with several other Europeans at a table at a new French café (it -was not thoroughly consistent for the little man to patronise the -place) that in all Morocco there were hardly enough Europeans to make -a massacre, as massacres go in the East; were there fifty bonâ-fide -Britishers in the land? - -Fifty or a million, he replied vehemently, they had been sold by the -Government at home. What an absurd thing to do, to hold the high hand -in Morocco and pass it over to the French for relinquishing some paper -claim on Egypt! But what could be expected from a man like the Earl -of Lansdowne, himself half French? It was no use pointing out that -the British Government on this occasion had sacrificed a few British -subjects for what appeared to be the good of the many; that British -exports to Morocco had never amounted to more than two millions a year; -that the potential value of the country is not promising; that the -French are treaty-bound to keep the open door; that the cost to France -in money, to say nothing of blood, may never be repaid with revenues or -even with trade. - -That the French will ever withdraw from Morocco is exceedingly -doubtful, and this is a sore grievance to British residents, who long -hoped that one day England might control the country. Only a European -war, or the serious danger of one that would defeat France, would -cause her now to take leave. It is the custom of European Governments, -when invading conquerable territory coveted by others, to protest the -temporary character of their ‘mission’; and if other proof were needed -of the intentions of France the very constant repetitions of the French -Government that it will adhere to the Act of Algeciras would tend to -rouse suspicion. - -But there is reason for the French, indeed necessity for them, to -control Morocco. Europe is too near Morocco for the country to be left -to anarchy and ignorance and their consequences. Some European Power -or Powers must represent Europe there, while the establishment of one -other than France would be a constant menace to Algeria and would throw -upon France the obligation of devoting to the expense of her colony -a greater outlay than it would cost to conquer the Moorish Empire. -France must remain in Morocco; and the French--those soldiers and -diplomatists whom I have seen and talked with, at any rate--welcome -the opportunity that the Shawia tribes have given them, and make the -most of it. The assurances of the French Government are of course only -diplomatic. Assurances of a temporary occupation were vouchsafed when -Tunis was invaded. Nor is it only France that follows this diplomacy. - -It is for the reason that events threaten to make permanent a certain -French occupation that a few Britishers would like to create a -difference between France and Great Britain, to annul the Anglo-French -agreement. For, should France be stopped--as she is likely to be -without British support--it will mean that no country shall regulate -Morocco and that another situation like that of the Turk in Europe will -be established, to run on an untold term of years. This is what these -partisans would like to bring about, because their hostility to the -French, beginning in trade and political rivalry, has become now one -of sentimental sympathy with the Moors. - -The case for Morocco is put by the Sultan Mulai Hafid himself in an -appeal to the Powers of Europe presented to their Ministers at Tangier -in February (1908). The argument has the Eastern fault of waiving -rather than undermining the case for France, as, in one instance, where -it speaks of peace with Europeans in provinces and cities where there -are no foreign troops, a peace that obtains in the interior because the -few European residents have left, and in the coast towns because of the -lesson of Casablanca. In a ‘free rendering’ of the Arabic original, the -correspondent of the _Morning Post_, R. L. N. Johnson, an authority -on Morocco and the author of several literary books pertaining to the -country, interprets this picturesque document as follows:-- - - ‘In the name of the Most Merciful God, save from whom is neither - device nor might. (Here follow the royal seal, the name of the - Foreign Minister addressed, and the customary salutations.) - - ‘On behalf of the people of Morocco, one and all, many of whom are - actual sufferers from what has befallen their dwellings, their - brethren, and their families, I lay before you my plaint. - - ‘What has been done to them is an offence against Treaties and common - justice. He who demands his right has no pretext for needless, - inhuman violence and brutality, nor is such action compatible with - dealings between the nations. Nor is there wrong to any (Power) in - our nation deposing its Monarch on reasonable grounds. He has proved - his incapacity, he has neglected every interest of the State, and - he has followed a line of conduct which would not be tolerated by - the believers of any faith. I call your attention to the terrible - calamity which has afflicted the people of Morocco, relying upon your - well-known frank recognition of the truth. Thus you can hardly keep - silence on what has happened and is happening in this country. From - time immemorial your folk have lived among us, for trade and other - purposes, without any object of filching our land, exactly as they - would live in other friendly countries, and in the manner laid down - in the Madrid Convention, which was framed upon a knowledge of the - conditions of life in Morocco. - - ‘It may be you have heard rumours of a declaration of war (_Jehad_). - That declaration was made solely with the object of calming the - exasperation of my people at the wholly unjust invasion of their - land and the occupation of their soil. These invaders are to-day - preventing our people from carrying on their everyday affairs - according to our time-honoured customs. I was desirous of appointing - Governors in Shawia who should be responsible to myself for the - preservation of order, but obstacles [the French army--F.M.] were - placed in my way, and to avoid a conflict which would have led - to terrible bloodshed I abstained. My one desire is to restore - tranquillity among my people, so as to bring back general welfare. - - ‘As to the army now occupying the Casablanca district on the pretext - of pacifying it and protecting foreigners, this is my duty towards - the whole of Morocco--that is to say, to protect both Moslems and - Europeans in their lives and property. I ask nothing better than - to follow the path of justice, that these troops may evacuate that - land and leave it to its lawful owners. They have but to depart and - no further trouble need be feared. But assuredly so long as they - remain peace is impossible. You have watched this going on for six - months. Have you also watched the conditions of the other provinces - and cities where no other intervention has taken place? Are not the - people, yours and mine, living in peace and harmony? Absolutely - nothing has occurred to hurt any person or place, nor, thank God, - has any European been molested, despite all that our brethren have - suffered. The wiser among the French nation recognise this, without - being able to remedy the mischief done. As to those of lesser - understanding who declare us to be anti-European, they speak falsely - and without a shadow of reason. Our acts speak for themselves, and - disprove the lies which have been thrown broadcast over the world. - The wise know this, and that the authors of such calumnies are - monsters rather than human. - - ‘As for the dethronement of Mulai Abdul Aziz, this was not only the - will of the nation, but was done by the decision of the lawful court - of Ulema, who judged him. Surely there is no crime in deposing a - Sultan on the just ground that he is unfit to govern. It was done not - long ago in Turkey. It has happened among the other Powers. - - * * * * * - - ‘I now ask you to give me a faithful answer, and I will abide by the - truth. On what principle of international law can there be armed - intervention between a nation and the monarch it has deposed? I wait - for your reply in the firm belief that, on careful review of the - situation, your answer cannot fail to reflect a bright lustre upon - your judgment and justice. - - ‘In peace. This 24th Haeja, 1325.’ - -Europeans in Morocco are mostly sympathisers with Mulai Hafid; and -their hopes for the success of his Holy War lead them often--no doubt -unconsciously--to exaggerate the difficulties of the French and to -enlarge upon the numbers of the tribesmen opposing them. Though Hafid -declared that his purpose in proclaiming the _Jehad_ was only to unite -the tribes in support of him, he has been drawn by this proclamation -into war with the French. The forces that have been recruited by his -deception have either pressed him or have taken upon themselves to -combat the French invasion; and their opposition would seem to make it -impossible for the French to recognise Hafid as Sultan. For this would -be tantamount to a defeat of the French in the minds of the ignorant -Moors. On the other hand Hafid’s position is now exceedingly difficult; -for him it is either to fight or to surrender to his brother. - - * * * * * - -In leaving Morocco it would be picturesque to say with Pierre Loti: -‘Farewell, dark Moghreb, Empire of the Moors, mayst thou remain yet -many years immured, impenetrable to the things that are new! Turn thy -back upon Europe! Let thy sleep be the sleep of centuries, and so -continue thine ancient dream! May Allah preserve to the Sultan his -unsubdued territories and his waste places carpeted with flowers, there -to do battle as did the Paladins in the old times, there to gather in -his rebel heads! May Allah preserve to the Arab race its mystic dreams, -its immutability scornful of all things, and its grey rags; may He -preserve to the Moorish ruins their shrouds of whitewash, and to the -mosques inviolable mystery!’ - -But for my part there is no sentimental feeling for Morocco. That a -government is old is no reason, for me, that it should be maintained. -Because the Moors have always ridden horses, I see no reason why they -should not ride in carriages or even in trains. In fact, I sympathise -with the unfortunate beasts of burden and with the suffering Moors -themselves. I was not affected, like the great French writer, more -by the beauty and the romance of the country than by the horror and -distress; and, instead of his fair sentiment, I say: Let in the French! -For the Moghreb I should like to see a little less of crime, a little -less of base corruption, a little less of ignorance and needless -suffering, a little less of cruelty, a little less of bestial vice. The -French can do some little for Morocco, and no other Power can go in. I -say, Let in the French! - -[Illustration: MAP OF MOROCCO] - -Yet a last word, to the French: You boast your knowledge of -Mohammedans; do you know that the Moors dread you for what they have -heard from their fathers you did in the early days in Algeria? Nor have -your methods about Casablanca reassured them. You have slain wantonly, -even under General Drude. General d’Amade has penetrated the country -time after time and accomplished ‘enormous slaughter.’ But for what -purpose? This is all unnecessary. It would seem that your object has -been to provoke further hostility, that you may have excuse to continue -your occupation and to extend it. This is undoubtedly good politics; -but rather unfair to the ignorant Moors, don’t you think? And is it -good for your soldiers, Algerians or Europeans, to use them in this -fashion? - - -THE END. - - - - -TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES: - - - Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_. - - Superscripted text is preceded by a carat character: Geog^l. - - Obvious typographical errors have been corrected. - - Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized. - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PASSING OF MOROCCO *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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