This Case Is A Fair Sample Of The
Style In Which The Statistics Of Population In Morocco Are And Have Been
Calculated.
Before the occupation of Algeria by the French, all the cities were
vulgarly calculated at double, or treble their amount of population.
This has also been the case even in India, where we could obtain, with
care, tolerably correct statistics.
The prejudices of oriental and
Africo-eastern people are wholly set against statistics, or numbering
the population. No mother knows the age of her own child. It is
ill-omened, if not an affront, to ask a man how many children he has;
and to demand the amount of the population of a city, is either
constructed as an infringement upon the prerogative of the omnipotent
Creator, who knows how many people he creates, and how to take care of
them, or it is the question of a spy, who is seeking to ascertain the
strength or weakness of the country. Europeans can, therefore, rarely
obtain any correct statistical information in Morocco: all is proximate
and conjectural. [18] I am anxious, nevertheless, to give some
particulars respecting the population, in order that we may really have
a proximate idea of the strength and resources of this important
country. In describing the towns and cities of the various provinces, I
shall divide them into,
1. Towns and cities of the coast.
2. Capital or royal cities.
3. Other towns and remarkable places in the interior [19].
The towns and ports, on the Mediterranean, are of considerable interest,
but our information is very scanty, except as far as relates to the
_praesidios_ of Spain, or the well-known and much frequented towns of
Tetuan and Tangier.
Near the mouth of the Malwia (or fifteen miles distant), is the little
town of Kalat-el-wad, with a castle in which the Governor resides.
Whether the river is navigable up to this place, I have not been able to
discover. The water-communication of the interior of North Africa is not
worth the name. Zaffarinds or Jafarines, are three isles lying off the
west of the river Mulweeah, at a short distance, or near its mouth.
These belong to Spain, and have recently been additionally fortified,
but why, or for what reason, is not so obvious. Opposite to them, there
is said to be a small town, situate on the mainland. The Spaniards, in
the utter feebleness and decadence of their power, have lately dubbed
some one or other "Captain-general of the Spanish possessions, &c. in
North Africa."
Melilla or Melilah is a very ancient city, founded by the Carthaginians,
built near a cape called by the Romans, _Rusadir_ (now Tres-Forcas) the
name afterwards given to the city, and which it still retains in the
form of Ras-ed-Dir, (Head of the mountain). This town is the capital of
the province of Garet, and is said to contain 3,000 souls. It is situate
amidst a vast tract of fine country, abounding in minerals, and most
delicious honey, from which it is pretended the place receives its name.
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