Nor Will The People Avail Themselves Of Any Opportunity Of
Purchasing A Thing Cheap When It Is Cheap; They Simply Provide For Their
Hourly Wants.
They act in the literal sense of 'Take no thought for the
morrow, but let the morrow take care of itself.' As to the Jews, they
feast one day and fast the next." With regard to the excitement then
existing, M. Authoris observed.
"This Government, on hearing rumours of
Spanish and French expeditions against the country, must naturally make
use of what power it has, the Holy War power, to excite the people in
their own defence. The Moors cannot discriminate Gazette intelligence.
When a worthless newspaper mentions an expedition being fitted out
against Morocco, the Emperor immediately sees a fleet of ships within
sight of his ports, and hears the reports of bombarding cannon." The raw
levies of Shedmah and Hhaha continued to enter the town, but only a
small number at a time, lest they should alarm the inhabitants. They
went about, peeping into houses, and wherever a door was open they would
walk in, staring with a wild curiosity.
I had some conversation with my Moorish friends respecting the abolition
of slavery. An old doctor observed, "The English are not more humane
than other nations, but God has decreed that they should destroy the
slave-trade among the Christians. This, however, is no praise to them,
for they could not resist acting according to the will and mind of God.
As for the Mussulmen, what they do is for the benefit of slaves,
especially females, who, one and all, are doomed to death; [29] but,
when purchased by the slave-dealers, their lives are spared, and they
are made True Believers. Still, the Mussulmen would assist the English
in destroying the ships which carry slaves;" (as if the Moors had any
fleet).
The number of slaves in this city is from eight hundred to one thousand.
It is difficult to ascertain any thing like the exact number, the
opulent Moors having many negress slaves, with whom they live in a state
of concubinage. Young, rich, and fashionable Moors, I was told for the
first time in a Mahommedan country, have become disgusted with the old
habit of managing and taking a wife early, and adopt the immoral
practice of buying female slaves, by which they avoid, as they say, the
trouble and expense of marrying females of their own rank in Moorish
society. A good Mussulman must however, marry once in his life. Slaves
are imported via Wadnoun from Timbuctoo and Soudan, and even from the
western coast. Negroes of the Timbuctoo market are more esteemed than
those of Guinea, being a stronger and more laborious race. The common
price of a slave in Mogador is from 60 to 90 ducats; one day a beautiful
African girl, freshly exported from the interior, was sold for 160
ducats, or about L20 sterling. This is considered an extraordinary high
price.
Slaves are sold by criers about the streets in Morocco, and most towns,
and not in bazaars, as in the East. But the most remarkable feature of
slavery in this part of the world, is the Christian or European slavery
carried further south, in the regions extending on the line of coast
below Wadnoun, and the adjacent Sahara. Something like a regular system
of Christian slavery is there going on, whilst its head-quarters are not
more than five or six days' journey from this residence of the European
Consuls. This white slavery consists in seizing shipwrecked sailors,
numbers being fishermen from the Canary Islands. We know little about
these poor captives, although we are so near Wadnoun, and are
continually trading with Sous and this country. Mr. Davidson casually
mentions them in his journal.
It is a settled and religious practice of merchants to keep Europeans
ignorant of the south and the Desert; we only hear of these captives now
and then, when one escapes, and after being bought and sold by a hundred
different masters, is fortunate enough to be redeemed; of his companions
in shipwreck, the escaped captive rarely knows anything. They are gone:
they are either drowned near the coast, plundered and massacred, or
carried far away into the Desert, and perhaps for ever. Formerly vessels
navigated through the channel (if it may be so called) of the Canary
Islands and the Wadnoun coast, by which they often got on shoal water,
and were cast away; in this manner, whites were enslaved. Happily now,
masters of vessels have become acquainted with this dangerous coast.
They pass to the east of the Canaries, and fewer vessels are shipwrecked
hereabouts.
The Spanish fishermen of the Canaries are chiefly now made captives.
These poor people are either seized when becalmed near the coast, or
captured on being cast on shore by the furious trade-winds, which sweep
these desolate shores (often nine months out of twelve) and carry utter
destruction with them. The wild and wandering Bedouins in bad weather,
with the true storm scent of the wrecker, patiently watch the coasts,
pouncing on their prey, with the voracity of the vulture, as it is
thrown up from the deep, along the inhospitable shore. Having got the
shipwrecked men in their possession, they act with the cunning and
avarice of slave-dealers, and are aided by the still craftier Jews, who
always render it very difficult for the consular agents to redeem these
unhappy captives. For although a Jew, by the Mahometan law, cannot
purchase slaves, yet by buying them-through Mussulmen, who share in the
profits, from the Arabs who first seized the captives, the slaves are
frequently kept back months in the Desert, being parted from one another
before they can be ransomed.
Sometimes the Arabs alluringly question their captives to see if they
understand any mechanical arts, which are greatly esteemed, being very
useful in these almost tenantless regions; and should they discover that
they do, they carry them away into hopeless captivity, through the wilds
of the Desert, refusing to sell them at any price or offer of ransom.
But those who cannot, or will not make themselves useful, are generally
redeemed by the Mogador Consuls, should they escape being massacred in
the quarrels of the Arabs for the booty when they are first captured.
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