Yonder Are Two Or Three Tiers Of Batteries, Displaying Heavy Guns
Which Command The Harbour; Above Them You See The Terraces Of The
Town Rising In Succession Like Steps For Giants.
But all is white,
perfectly white, so that the whole seems cut out of an immense
chalk rock, though true it is that you behold here and there tall
green trees springing up from amidst the whiteness:
Perhaps they
belong to Moorish gardens, and beneath them even now peradventure
is reclining many a dark-eyed Leila, akin to the houries. Right
before you is a high tower or minaret, not white but curiously
painted, which belongs to the principal mosque of Tangier; a black
banner waves upon it, for it is the feast of Ashor. A noble beach
of white sand fringes the bay from the town to the foreland of
Alminar. To the east rise prodigious hills and mountains; they are
Gibil Muza and his chain; and yon tall fellow is the peak of
Tetuan; the grey mists of evening are enveloping their sides. Such
was Tangier, such its vicinity, as it appeared to me whilst gazing
from the Genoese bark.
A boat was now lowered from the vessel, in which the captain, who
was charged with the mail from Gibraltar, the Jew secretary, and
the hadji and his attendant negroes departed for the shore. I
would have gone with them, but I was told that I could not land
that night, as ere my passport and bill of health could be
examined, the gates would be closed; so I remained on board with
the crew and the two Jews.
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