Some Foolish People At Gibraltar Told Ben, That The Streets Of
London Were Paved With Gold, Or, At Any Rate,
That, inasmuch as he (Ben)
had in his time entertained so many Englishmen at his hospitable
establishment at Tangier (for
Which, however, he was well paid), he
would be sure to make his fortune by a visit to England. I afterwards
met Ben accidentally in the streets of London, in great distress. Some
friends of the Anti-Slavery Society subscribed a small sum for him, and
sent him back to his family in Gibraltar. Poor Ben was astonished to
find as much misery in the streets of our own metropolis, as in any town
of Morocco. Regarding his co-religionists in England, Ben observed with
bitterness, "The Jews there are no good; they are very blackguards." He
was disappointed at their want of liberality, as well as their want of
sympathy for Morocco Jews. Ben thought he knew everything, and the ways
of this wicked world, but this visit to England convinced him he must
begin the world over again. Our cicerone is very shrewd; withal is
blessed with a good share of common sense; is by no means bigoted
against Mahometans or Christians, and is one of the more respectable of
the Barbary Jews. His information on Morocco, is, however, so mixed up
with the marvellous, that only a person well acquainted with North
Africa can distinguish the probable from the improbable, or separate the
wheat from the chaff.
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