"Afakume el Arabe, makine fal el Arabe,
El Hashema, u zin, u temara, fie el Arabe."
"Bravo, O Arabs! there is none equal to the Arabs:
Excellent is the modesty, beauty, and virtue of the Arabs."
Footnote 118:[ (return) ] Elder Brother of the present Emperor of Marocco, Muley Soliman.
Footnote 119:[ (return) ] A pace similar to that which European cavalry go when charging.
These eulogiums were not lost on the ladies, who increased the spirit of the dance. When this amusement had continued about three hours, the cuscasoe, meat, and vegetables were brought in, as a supper. The Moors ate plentifully; but the abstemious Arabs ate very little; the ladies partook of sweet cakes and dates; they very seldom chew meat, but when they do, they think it gross to swallow it, they only press the juices from the meat, and throw away the substance. The manners of these damsels were elegant, accompanied with much suavity and affability, but very modest and unassuming withal: indeed, they were all individuals, as I afterwards learned, belonging to respectable and ancient Arab families, who could not resist the exhortations of their sheik to amuse and entertain his guests. The manners of these Arabs, their elegant forms, sparkling black eyes, long black eye-lashes, which increased the beauty of the eye, adding character to the countenance, seemed to make an indelible impression on the whole party. The ladies wore robes of Indian muslin, girdles of gold thread, interwoven with silk of the Fas manufacture; and their shawls of silk and gold were displayed in various elegant devices. We were given to understand by Delemy's captains, on our return to the sheik's castle, that we had been entertained with extraordinary honours: we certainly were highly gratified, and my friend Signor Andrea declared he had never seen better dancing at Venice, his native place. Among the Arabs was an old man of ninety, who appeared very desirous of an European establishment at Tomie. He related several anecdotes of his life; and, among others, the money he had gained, by purchasing goods of vessels which came forty or fifty years before to Tomie for water, with which he said he used to exchange gums and almonds, feathers and ivory, for linens, cloths, and spices. I am disposed to think these vessels were Portuguese; for this coast is but little known to the English. The ladies having returned home, we prepared to leave this douar early in the morning; and with no small regret did I quit this abode of simple and patriarchal hospitality; a pleasing contrast was here formed to the dissipation and pleasure of civilised life--to the life of fashionable society, where the refinements of luxury have multiplied their artificial wants beyond the proportion of the largest fortunes, and have brought most men into the class of the necessitous, inducing that churlish habit of the mind, in which every feeling is considered as a weakness, which terminates not in self, unlike those generous sympathies of the Arabs, where every individual seems impelled to seek, as they express it, (ê dire el khere fie nes) "to do good to men." The effect of luxury, dissipation, and extravagance, (where the fortune is not large enough to support them,) tends to render man selfish upon principle, and extinguishes all genuine public spirit, that is, all real regard to the interests and good order of society; substituting in its place, the vile ambition and rapacity of the demagogue, which, however, assumes the name of patriotism. This contrast between the temperance and sobriety of these Bedouin or primitive Arabs, and the luxury and dissipation of civilised life, was the more remarkable, when we observed among this rude people such extraordinary and mutual exercise of benevolence, manly and open presence, honesty and truth in their words and actions.--On our return to Delemy's castle, in Shtuka, the Prince asked me, what observations I had made respecting Tomie; I told his Royal Highness that it was an open roadstead, and not a convenient place for ships to lie. The Prince appeared pleased at this report; but Delemy had rendered to Muley Abdsalam so many essential services, that the latter could not, in courtesy, refuse him any thing. When Delemy found that my report to the Prince did not realise his expectations, offers were made to me, supported by every possible encouragement, to form a commercial establishment at Tomie, which, as was observed, being advantageously situated for trade, being in the neighbourhood of the gum, almond, and oil countries, would offer advantages to the merchants which they could not expect at Santa Cruz, or Mogodor. Accordingly, I was urged to send to Europe for ships, with assurances that the duty on all imports, as well as exports, should be only two per cent. ad valorem. A house was offered to be built for me, according to any plan I might choose to suggest, free of expense. The people were desirous of having a commercial establishment in their country, and would have done any thing to accomplish this object. The extensive connections which I had throughout Suse, Sahara, and even at Timbuctoo, would have facilitated my operations; but my connections in England were not such as to enable me to engage advantageously in this enterprise, I was obliged, therefore, though reluctantly, to decline it, although, if otherwise situated, I might have realised an independent fortune in two or three years at Tomie, besides having a most favourable opportunity of opening a trade with Timbuctoo, and other territories of Sudan.
I now felt a strong inclination to visit the port of Messa, which was reported to have been about two centuries before, a considerable port of trade, and the capital of Suse, when that country was a separate kingdom, and the state-prisoners were banished to Sejin-messa [120], (commonly called Segelmessa in the maps;) as the state prisoners of Marocco have been from time immemorial, and are to this day sent to Tafilelt, which territory lies contiguous to, and west of Sejin-messa. We started for Messa in the morning, and reached the town in the afternoon. Delemy sent a strong guard with me for protection, with an injunction to his friend the fakeer of Messa, to treat me as his friend and guest, and to do whatever he could to gratify my curiosity in every respect. The country about Messa is very picturesque, and productive: the river also abounds with romantic scenery, it has a sandbar at its entrance to the ocean, which is dry at low water; but it was once navigable several miles up, as was reported to me. On the south bank of the river, about two miles from the sea, is a gold-mine, in the territory of a tribe hostile to Delemy, but the influence of the Fakeer, who is held in reverential awe, enabled us to examine it without danger. What they told us was the entrance, was filled with immense large pieces of rock-stone; and I was informed, that when the Christians left the place, (the Portuguese, no doubt,) they placed these stones at the entrance of the mine, to prevent the natives from getting access to it. In the bed of the river, near the sea, is a mine of silver; the ore is in very small particles, like lead-coloured sand, intermixed with mud. I sent a small quantity of this to England to be analysed; and it produced, as I was informed, just enough to pay the expenses of analysation. I sent also several specimens of gold and silver ore, which I collected in various parts of Suse; but I apprehend that sufficient attention was not paid to them, and they also scarcely paid for the analysation. I sent also to the Honourable Mr. Greville, brother to the late Earl of Warwick, a great many basaltick and other stones, collected in the mountains of Barbary, which that gentleman considered valuable. After remaining two days at Messa, I returned to Shtuka. I was again urged to form an establishment at Tomie; but, limited as my connection was in England, I did not feel competent to the undertaking, and was obliged, reluctantly indeed, but finally, to decline it.
Footnote 120:[ (return) ] Sejin Messa signifies the prison of Messa.
The garden of Delemy, where we encamped, is stocked with very fine vines from the mountains of Idautenan, [121] a mountainous and independent country, a few miles north of Santa Cruz; these grapes were of the black or purple kind, as big as an ordinary-sized walnut, and very sweet flavoured, as much superior to the finest Spanish grapes, as the latter are superior to the natural grown grapes of England. Large pomegranates, exquisitely sweet, the grains very large, and the seed small, brought from Terodant; figs, peaches, apricots, strawberries, oranges, citrons of an enormous size, water-melons, weighing fifty pounds each, four of which were a camel load, together with culinary vegetables of every description. This garden was watered by a well, having what is called a Persian wheel, worked by a horse, having pots all round the perpendicular wheel, which, as they turn round, discharge their contents into a trough, which communicated to the garden, and laid the beds under water. This is the general mode of irrigation throughout west and south Barbary, as well as in Sudan.