Though All The Coast-Cities Were
Captured, Mogador Should Never Be Surrendered."
Some of the credulous Moors said, "The Shereefs will come from Tafilet,
led on by our Lord Mahomet, and destroy all the cursed Nazarenes.
The
Sheerefs will fire against the French leaden balls, and silver balls."
Another observed to me, "If a fleet should come here, it will be
immediately sunk, because our Sultan has ordered every ball to hit, and
none to miss."
This is not unlike what a Turk of Tripoli once said to me about the
Grand Signor and his late reforms. "The Turks will soon be civilized,
because the Sultan has given an order for all the Turks to be
civilized." The large guns of the forts were practised, and the guns of
the grand battery loaded. The infantry continued to practise on the
beach of the port: their manoeuvres were very uncouth and disorderly,
they merely moved backwards and forwards in lines of two deep. The
French Consul, Monsieur Jorelle, discontinued his usual promenade, to
prevent his being insulted, and so to avoid the the painful necessity of
demanding satisfaction.
Mr. Willshire, being well known to the Mogador population, had not so
much to fear. Here is the advantage of a long residence in a country.
The French Government lose by the frequent changing of their consuls.
Still, M. Jorelle was right in not exposing himself to the mob, or the
wild levies who had come from their mountains. The fault of the Governor
was, in exciting the warlike fanaticism of the tribes of the interior
against the Christians, which he ought to have known the city
authorities might have extreme difficulty in keeping within bounds. No
European could pass the gates of the city without being spat upon, and
cursed by the barbarous Berbers.
I paid a visit to M. Authoris, the Belgium merchant, and the only
European trader carrying on business independently of the Emperor. He
represented the commerce of the country to be in a most deplorable
condition. "There is now nothing to buy or sell on which there is a gain
of one per cent. The improvidence of the people is so great that, should
one harvest fail, inevitable famine would be the result, there not being
a single bushel of grain more in the country than is required for daily
consumption. 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.
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