To Europeans, Mr. Cohen Gives This Advice - "Never To
Stay More Than One Night At Any Place." "Mr. Davidson," He Says,
"Stopped So Long At Wadnoun, That All The Desert, As Far As Timbuctoo,
Heard Of His Projects And Travels, And Were Determined To Waylay And
Plunder Him."
But, on the contrary, with respect to my own experience in the Desert,
the people appeared equally hostile or offended at my taking them by
surprise.
Desert travelling after all is mostly an affair of luck. Six
travellers might be sent to Timbuctoo and three return, and three be
murdered, and yet the three who were murdered might have been as prudent
and as skilful as the three who were successful. The Maroquine
Government often shew a perfect Chinese jealousy of Europeans travelling
in the interior. When Doctor Willshire, brother of the Consul, returned
from Morocco, the Government gave orders that "he should be taken
directly to Mogador, and not be allowed to turn to the right hand or to
the left, to collect old stones or herbs." This lynx-eyed government
imagined they saw in Doctor Willshire's botanical and mineralogical
rambles, a design of spying out the powers and resources of the country.
The consentaneous progress of Morocco in the universal movement of the
age, is argued by the merchants from an increased use of chairs, and
knives and forks. Some years ago, scarcely a knife and fork, or a chair
was to be found in this part of Morocco. Now, almost every house in the
Jewish quarter has them.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 93 of 196
Words from 24617 to 24875
of 52536