The Sultan
Has No Other Military Defence, Except The Natural Difficulties Of The
Country, Or The Hatred Of His People To Strangers.
He does not permit
the exportation of horses, nor of barley, on which they are often fed.
[17]
But the defeat of the Emperor's eldest son, Sidi Mahomed, at the Battle
of Isly, who commanded upwards of forty thousand of these cavaliers, has
thrown a shade over the ancient celebrity of this Moorish corps, and
these proud horsemen have since become discouraged. On that fatal day,
however, none of the black bodyguard of the Emperor was brought into
action. These muster some thirty thousand strong. This corps, or the
Abeed-Sidi-Bokhari, [18] are soldiers who possess the most cool and
undaunted courage; retreat with them is never thought of. Unlike the
Janissaries of old, their sole ambition is to _obey_, and not to _rule_
their sovereign. This fidelity to the Shereefs remains unshaken through
all the shocks of the empire, and to the person of the Emperor they are
completely devoted. In a country like Morocco, of widely distinct races
and hostile tribes, all naturally detesting each other, the Emperor
finds in them his only safety. I cannot withhold the remark, that this
body-guard places before us the character of the negro in a very
favourable light. He is at once brave and faithful, the two essential
ingredients in the formation and development of heroic natures.
It will, I trust, not be deemed out of place to consider for a moment
the warlike propensities and qualities of the negro.
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