After expelling the Mahometans from Spain, the
Christians (Spaniards and Portuguese) pursued them to Morocco, and built
a line of forts on its coasts. Those have all now been abandoned except
four, held by Spain. England destroyed the fortifications and abandoned
Tangier, which she had obtained through Portugal. To blockade Tangier at
the present time, would do more harm to England than Morocco, by cutting
off the supply of provisions for Gibraltar.
"The navy of Morocco was never very great. It was the audacity and
cruelty of its pirates which frightened Christendom. During the maritime
wars of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Emperor of Morocco
remained neutral, which was a great benefit to the Christian belligerent
powers. Spain must be at peace with Morocco; she must either be an
active friend, or an enemy. The policy of Morocco, in former times, was
so well managed, that it made all the Christian powers pay a certain
tribute to that country, to insure themselves against the piracy of its
cruisers.
"The history of the diplomatic relations of Europe with Morocco,
presents only a chronicle of shameful concessions made by the European
powers to the Moorish princes. At the end of the eighteenth century, the
Sultan of Morocco declared that, 'Whoever was not his friend was his
enemy,' or, in other words, that 'he would arm his cruisers against
every flag which did not float upon a consular house at Tangier.'
"Muley Abd Errahman sent his corsairs to sea in 1828 to frighten the
European powers into treaties.
