Travels in Morocco, Vol. 1. | Page 3

or short journeyings, we shall soon find, by our own sad experience, that African travel can only be successfully prosecuted piecemeal, bit by bit, here a little and there a little, now an island, now a line of coast, now an inland province, now a patch of desert, and slow and painful in all their results, whilst few explorers will ever be able to undertake more than two, at most three, inland journeys.
"Failures, disasters, and misadventure may attend our efforts of discovery; the intrepid explorers may perish, as they have so frequently done, or be scalped by the Indian savage in the American wilderness, or stabbed by the treacherous Bedouin of Asiatic deserts, or be stretched stiff in the icy dreary Polar circles, or, succumbing to the burning clime of Africa, leave their bones to bleach upon its arid sandy wastes; yet these victims of enterprise will add more to a nation's glory than its hoarded heaps of gold, or the great gains of its commerce, or even the valour of its arms.
"Nevertheless, geographical discovery is not barren ardour, or wasted enthusiasm; it produces substantial fruits. The fair port of London, with its two parallel forests of masts, bears witness to the rich and untold treasures which result from the traffic of our merchant-fleets with the isles and continents discovered by the genius and enterprise of the maritime or inland explorer. And, finally, we have always in view the complete regeneration of the world, by our laws, our learning, and our religion. If every valley is to be raised, and every mountain laid low, by the spade and axe of industry, guided by science, the valley or the mountain must first be discovered.
"If men are to be civilized, they must first be found; and if other, or the remaining tribes of the inhabitable earth are to acknowledge the true God, and accept His favour as known to us, they also, with ourselves, must have an opportunity of hearing His name pronounced, and His will declared."
My husband would, indeed, have rejoiced had he lived to witness the active steps now taken by Oxford and Cambridge for sending out Missionaries to Central Africa, to spread the light of the Gospel.
Among his unpublished letters, I find one addressed to the Christian Churches, entitled "Project for the establishment of a Christian Mission at Bornou," dated October, 1849. He writes: "The Christian Churches have left Central Africa now these twelve centuries in the hands of the Mohammedans, who, in different countries, have successfully propagated the false doctrines of the impostor of Mecca. If the Christian Churches wish to vindicate the honour of their religion--to diffuse its beneficent and heavenly doctrines--and to remove from themselves the severe censure of having abandoned Central Africa to the false prophet, I believe there is now an opening, _via_ Bornou, to attempt the establishment of their faith in the heart of Africa."
He ends his paper by quoting the words of Ignatius Pallme, a Bohemian, the writer of travels in Kordofan, who says "It is high time for the Missionary Societies in Europe to direct their attention to this part of Africa (that is, Kordofan). If they delay much longer, it will be too late; for, when the negroes have once adopted the Koran, no power on earth can induce them to change their opinions. I have heard, through several authentic sources, that there are few provinces in the interior of Africa where Mohammedanism has not already begun to gain a footing."
It would be a great solace to me should this work be received favourably, and be deemed to reflect honour on the memory of my lamented husband; and, in the hope that such may be the case, I venture to commit it into the hands of an indulgent public.
J.E. RICHARDSON.
London, November 15, 1859.

CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME
INTRODUCTION
PREFACE

CHAPTER I
.
Policy of the Court of Morocco.--Its strength.--Diploplomatic Intercourse with England.--Distrust of Europeans.--Commercial Relations.

CHAPTER II
.
Arrival at Tangier.--Moorish Pilgrims in Cordova.--Address of the Anti-Slavery Society.--Mr. D. Hay, British Consul.--Institut d'Afrique.--Conveyance of Eunuchs in vessels under the French Flag.--Franco-Moorish Politics.--Corn Monopolies in Morocco.--Love and veneration for the English name--Celebration of the Ayd-Kebir, or great festival.--Value of Money in Morocco.--Juvenile Strolling Singer.--General account of the city of Tangier.--Intercourse between the Moorish Emperor and the Foreign Consuls.--Cockney sportsmen.--The degrading of high Moorish Functionaries.--How we smuggle Cattle from Tangier to Gibraltar.--The Blood-letting of plethoric Placemen.

CHAPTER III
.
The Posada.--Ingles and Benoliel.--Amulets for successful parturition.--Visits of a Moorish Taleb and a Berber.--Three Sundays during a week in Barbary.--M. Rey's account of the Empire of Morocco.--The Government Auctioneer gives an account of Slavery and the Slave Trade in Morocco.--Benoliel as English Cicerone.--Departure from Tangier to Gibraltar.--How I lost my fine green broad-cloth.--Mr. Frenerry's opinion of Maroquine Affairs.

CHAPTER IV
.
Departure from Gibraltar to Mogador.--The Straits.--Genoese Sailors.--Trade-wind Hurricanes on the Atlantic Coast of Morocco.--Difficulties of entering