The constant
occupation of Muley Abd Errahmnan is to replenish the imperial treasury.
Commerce, which was neglected by his predecessors, has all his
attention. The cruelty of the former sultans is exchanged for the
avarice of the present. The history of these Shereefian princes is a
chain of unheard-of atrocities. The present sultan keeps not a single
promise when his interests interfere."
M. Rey gives us this flattering tableau as a social picture of Morocco.
Covetous governors are continually succeeding one another, they are ever
eager of enjoying the advantages of their position; their thirst for
plunder is so much the more intense, as they are not allowed time to
satisfy it, so they prey on the people. The inhabitants of towns and of
the country live in rags in miserable hovels. What raiment! what food!
mortality is dreadful, the children are invalids, and the women,
especially in the country, are condemned to do the work of beasts of
burden; such is the picture of society.
I have quoted these few passages from the "Memoire" of M. Rey, because
he was resident many years in Tangier, and his account of the country
discovers talent and intelligence, but is, of course, coloured with a
strong anti-English feeling.
