Life in Morocco and Glimpses Beyond | Page 5

are supposed to have done, though they certainly came to a standstill,
and have suffered all the evils of four centuries of torpor and stagnation.
Civilization wrought on them the effects that it too often produces, and
with refinement came weakness. The sole remaining state of those
which the invaders, finding independent, conquered one by one, is the
little Pyrenean Republic of Andorra, still enjoying privileges granted to
it for its brave defence against the Moors, which made it the high-water
mark of their dominion. As peace once more split up the Berbers, the
subjected Spaniards became strong by union, till at length the
death-knell of Moorish rule in Europe sounded at the nuptials of the
famous Ferdinand and Isabella, linking Aragon with proud Castile.
Expelled from Spain, the Moor long cherished plans for the recovery of
what had been lost, preparing fleets and armies for the purpose, but in
vain. Though nominally still united, his people lacked that zeal in a
common cause which had carried them across the straits before, and by
degrees the attempts to recover a kingdom dwindled into continued
attacks upon shipping and coast towns. Thus arose that piracy which
was for several centuries the scourge of Christendom. Further east a
distinct race of pirates flourished, including Turks and Greeks and

ruffians from every shore, but they were not Moors, of whom the Salli
rover was the type. Many thousands of Europeans were carried off by
Moorish corsairs into slavery, including not a few from England. Those
who renounced their own religion and nationality, accepting those of
their captors, became all but free, only being prevented from leaving
the country, and often rose to important positions. Those who had the
courage of their convictions suffered much, being treated like cattle, or
worse, but they could be ransomed when their price was forthcoming--a
privilege abandoned by the renegades--so that the principal object of
every European embassy in those days was the redemption of captives.
Now and then escapes would be accomplished, but such strict watch
was kept when foreign merchantmen were in port, or when foreign
ambassadors came and went, that few attempts succeeded, though
many were made.
Sympathies are stirred by pictures of the martyrdom of Englishmen and
Irishmen, Franciscan missionaries to the Moors; and side by side with
them the foreign mercenaries in the native service, Englishmen among
them, who would fight in any cause for pay and plunder, even though
their masters held their countrymen in thrall. And thrall it was, as that
of Israel in Egypt, when our sailors were chained to galley seats
beneath the lash of a Moor, or when they toiled beneath a broiling sun
erecting the grim palace walls of concrete which still stand as witnesses
of those fell days. Bought and sold in the market like cattle, Europeans
were more despised than Negroes, who at least acknowledged
Mohammed as their prophet, and accepted their lot without attempt to
escape.
Dark days were those for the honour of Europe, when the Moors
inspired terror from the Balearics to the Scilly Isles, and when their
rovers swept the seas with such effect that all the powers of
Christendom were fain to pay them tribute. Large sums of money, too,
collected at church doors and by the sale of indulgences, were
conveyed by the hands of intrepid friars, noble men who risked all to
relieve those slaves who had maintained their faith, having scorned to
accept a measure of freedom as the reward of apostasy. Thousands of
English and other European slaves were liberated through the

assistance of friendly letters from Royal hands, as when the proud
Queen Bess addressed Ahmad II., surnamed "the Golden," as "Our
Brother after the Law of Crown and Sceptre," or when Queen Anne
exchanged compliments with the bloodthirsty Ismáïl, who ventured to
ask for the hand of a daughter of Louis XIV.
In the midst of it all, when that wonderful man, with a household
exceeding Solomon's, and several hundred children, had reigned
forty-three of his fifty-five years, the English, in 1684, ceded to him
their possession of Tangier. For twenty-two years the "Castle in the
streights' mouth," as General Monk had described it, had been the scene
of as disastrous an attempt at colonization as we have ever known:
misunderstanding of the circumstances and mismanagement throughout;
oppression, peculation and terror within as well as without; a constant
warfare with incompetent or corrupt officials within as with besieging
Moors without; till at last the place had to be abandoned in disgust, and
the expensive mole and fortifications were destroyed lest others might
seize what we could not hold.
Such events could only lower the prestige of Europeans, if, indeed, they
possessed any, in the eyes of the Moors, and the slaves up country
received worse treatment