Both quarters are surrounded by walls, not very thick or high, but which are a sufficient protection, against the depredations of the mountaineers, or Arabs of the plain. The port is formed by a curve in the land and the isle of Mogador, which is about two miles from the mainland.
This isle, on the verge of the ocean, contains some little forts and a mosque, and its marabout shrines sparkle in the sun. It is a place of exile for political offenders. When the French landed, at the bombardment of Mogador, they released fifty or sixty state prisoners, some of whom had been Bashaws, or ministers of this and former reigns. The isle, however, is finely situate off the Atlantic, fanned and swept by healthy gales, and the prisoners suffer only seclusion from the Continent. The exiles never attempt to escape, but quietly submit to their destiny.
In the port, there are only ten or twelve feet of water at ebb tide, so that large vessels cannot enter, but must lie at anchor a mile and a half off the Western battery, which extends along the north-western side of the port. Such vessels do not lie there except in the summer months, and then with extreme caution, being, as they are, right off in the Atlantic, on one of its most dangerous coasts. There are some tolerable batteries, but they cannot long resist a European bombardment, which was demonstrated by the French.
Colonel Keating says, "As far as parapets, ramparts, embrasures, cavaliers, batteries, and casemates constitute a fortress, this town is one; but the walls are flimsy, the cavaliers do not command, the batteries do not flash, and the casemates are not bomb-proof. The embrasures are so close that not one in three upon the ramparts could be worked, if they were mounted, which they are not. All their guns, which have been only twelve months here, are already in very bad order, from exposure to the climate and surf. The casemates are so damp, that their interior is covered constantly with a thick nitrous incrustation." Nevertheless, the Moors have such a superstitious veneration for fortifications built by a parcel of renegades, that they will not permit Christians to walk on these ramparts. But what is most unfortunate for the defence of Mogador, the water could be instantly cut off by destroying its aqueduct.
The population is between thirteen and fifteen thousand souls, including four thousand Jews, and fifty Christians, who carry on an important commerce, principally with London and Marseilles. Excepting Tangier, it is now the only port which carries on uninterrupted commercial relations with Europe.
Mogador is situate in the midst of shifting sand-hills, that separate it from the cultivated parts of the country, which are distant from four to tweleve miles. These sands have an extraordinary appearance on returning from the interior; they look like huge pyramidal batteries raised round the suburbs of the city for its defence. The inhabitants are supplied with water by means of an aqueduct, fed by the little river, or rill of Wai Elghored, two miles distant south. The climate hereabouts is extremely salubrious, the rocky sandy site of the city being removed from all marshes or low lands, which produce pestiferous miasma or fever-exhaling vegetation. Rarely does it rain, but the whole tract of the adjoining country, between the Atlas and the sea, is tempered on the one side by the loftiest ranges of that mountain, and on the other, by the north-east trade winds, blowing continually. Mogador is in Lat. 31° 32' 40" N., and Long. 9° 35' 30" W.
The environs offer nothing but desolate sands, except some gardens for growing a few vegetables, and a sprinkling of flowers, which, by dint of perseverance, have been planted in the sand of the sea-shore. This is a remarkable instance of human culture turning the most hopelessly sterile portions of the world to account. These sands of Mogador are only a portion of a vast and almost interminable link, which girdles the north-western coast of the African continent, and is only broken in upon at short intervals, from Morocco to Senegal, like a shifting, heaving, and ever-varying rampart against the aggressions of the ocean. Both wind and sea have probably equally contributed to the formation of this vast belt of shifting sands.
The distance from Tangier to Mogador, by ordinary courier, is twelve days, but no traveller could be expected to perform the journey in less than twenty days.
Other courier distances are as follows:
Tangier to Rabat 4 days
Rabat to Fez 2 days
Fez to Mickas 12 hours
Rabat to Morocco 8 days
Mogador to Morocco 2½ days
Mogador to Santa Cruz 3 days
Mogador to Wadnoun 8 days
Santa Cruz to Teradant 1½ days