Nevertheless,
Since Then The Emperor Has Actually Applied To The British Consul To
Allow Eunuchs To Be Brought Down The Mediterranean In English Steamers,
In The Same Way As These Were Brought From Malta To Gibraltar In The
Prometheus - As, Forsooth, Servants And Passengers.
And on the refusal of
our consul to sanction this illicit conveyance of slaves by British
vessels, the Emperor applied to the French consul, who condescended to
hoist the tri-coloured flag for the transport of slave-eunuchs!
This is
one way of mitigating the prejudices of the Shereefian Court against the
French occupation of Algeria. Many slaves are carried up and down the
Mediterranean in French vessels.
The keeper of an hotel related to me with great bitterness, that the
French officer who came with me from Gibraltar had left Tetuan for
Algeria. The officer had ordered a great many things of this man,
promising to pay on his return to Tangier. He deposited an old hatbox as
a security, which, on being opened by the hotel keeper, was found to be
full of greasy paper. At Tetuan, the officer gave himself out as a
special envoy of the Emperor of the French.
My good friends, the Moors, continue to speculate upon the progress of
the French army in Algeria. I asked a Moorish officer what he thought of
the rumoured French invasion of Morocco. He put the backs of his hands
together, and locking together his fingers to represent the back of a
hedgehog, he observed emphatically; "Impossible!
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