Travels in Morocco, Vol. 1. | Page 5

opened Morocco by the other and opposite
system of a pacific mission. The parties forming the mission, pretended
to have obtained from the Emperor permission for Europeans "to travel
in Morocco without let or hindrance whithersoever they will." But the
opposition press justly ridiculed the pretensions of the alleged
concession, as the precarious and barren result of a mission costing
several million of francs. Even an Englishman, but much more a
Frenchman--and the latter is especially hated and dreaded in all the
Maroquine provinces, would have considerably hesitated in placing
confidence in the safe conduct of this jealous Court.
The spirit of the Christian West, which has invaded the most secret
councils of the Eastern world, Persia, Turkey, and all the countries
subjected to Ottoman rule, is still excluded by the haughty Shereefs of
the Mahometan West. There is scarcely any communication between
the port and the court of the Shereefs, and the two grand masters of
orthodox Islamism, this of the West, and that of the East, are nearly
strangers to each other.
All that Muley Errahman has to do with the East, appears to be to
procure eunuchs and Abyssinian concubines for his harem from Egypt,
and send forward his most faithful, or most rebellious subjects [2] on
their pilgrimage to Mecca.

Englishmen are surprised, that the frequent visits and uninterrupted
communications between Morocco and Gibraltar, during so long a
period, should have produced scarcely a perceptible change in the
minds of the Moors, and that Western Barbary should be a century
behind Tunis. This circumstance certainly does not arise from any
inherent inaptitude in the Moorish character to entertain friendly
relations with Europeans, and can only have resulted from that
crouching and subservient policy which the Gibraltar authorities have
always judged it expedient to show towards the Maroquines.
Our diplomatic intercourse began with Morocco in the reign of Queen
Elizabeth; and though on friendly terms more or less ever since,
Englishmen have not yet obtained a recognised permission to travel in
the interior of the country, without first specially applying to its
Government. Our own countrymen know little of Morocco, or of its
inhabitants, customs, laws, and government; and, though only five or
six days sail from England, it must be regarded as an unknown and
unexplored region to the mass of the English nation.
Nevertheless, in spite of the Maroquine Empire being the most
conservative and unchangeable of all North African Mussulman states,
and whilst, happily for itself, it has been allowed to pursue its course
obscurely and noiselessly, without exciting particular attention in
Europe, or being involved in the wars and commotions of European
nations, Morocco is not, therefore, beyond the reach of changes and the
ravages of time, nor exempt from that mutability which is impressed
upon all sublunary states. The bombardments of Tangier and Mogador
have left behind them traces not easily to be effaced. It was no ordinary
event for Morocco to carry on hostilities with an European power.
The battle of Isly has deeply wounded the Shereefians, and incited the
Mussulman heart to sullen and unquenchable revenge. A change has
come over the Maroquine mind, which, as to its immediate effects, is
evidently for the worst towards us Christians. The distrust of all
Europeans, which existed before the French hostilities, is now enlarged
to hatred, a feeling from which even the English are hardly excepted.
Up to the last moment, the government and people of Morocco
believed that England would never abandon them to their unscrupulous
and ambitious neighbours.
The citizens and merchants of Mogador could not be brought to believe,

or even to entertain the idea that the British ships of war would quietly
look on, whilst the French--the great rivals and enemies of the
English--destroyed their towns and batteries. Most manifest facts and
stern realities dissipated, in an hour when they little thought of it, such
a fond delusion. From that moment, the moral influence of England,
once our boast, and not perhaps unreasonably so, was no longer felt in
Morocco; and now we have lost almost all hold on the good wishes and
faith of the Mussulman tribes of that immense country.
As to exploring the empire of Morocco, or making it the way of
communication with Soudan or Central Negroland, this is now
altogether impracticable. The difficulties of Europeans travelling the
Maroquine States, always great and perilous, are now become nearly
insuperable. This suspicious distrust, or ill-feeling has communicated
itself contagiously to the tribes of the South as far as the Desert, and
has infected other parts of Barbary. The Engleez, once the cherished
friends of the Moors, are looked upon more or less as the abettors of
French aggressions in North Africa, if not as the sharers with them of
the spoil. In the language of the more