Notwithstanding the sober and taciturn character of the Moor, he can sometimes indulge himself in pleasantry and caricature. The Moors have made caricatures of the three last emperors, assisted by some Spanish renegade artist: these Princes are Yezid, Suleiman, and Abd Errahman. Yezid is represented as throwing away money with one hand, and cutting off heads with the other, depicting his ferocity in destroying his enemies, and his generosity in heaping favours on his friends. Suleiman is represented as reading the Koran, in the character of a devout and good man. The present Sultan is hit off capitally, with one hand holding a bag of money behind him, and with the other stretched out before him, begging for more.
H B could not have better caricatured the three Shereefian Sultans. The Moors affirmed that Muley Abd Errahman will keep faith with no one where his avarice is concerned, and, when he can, he will sell a monopoly twice or thrice, receiving money from each party. Of his meanness and avarice, I adduce two anecdotes. Four years ago, Muley-Abd Errahman ordered some blond for his Harem from Mr. Willshire. Just when I was leaving Mogador, his Imperial Highness graciously returned it to our merchant with the message—"It's too dear." Not long before, a man was murdered upon the neutral land of two adjacent provinces, and a thousand dollars were taken from his baggage. In such cases, the Governor of the district is mulcted both for the murder and robbery. The Emperor claimed two thousand dollars from one of the provinces, for the father of the murdered man. This province escaped upon the plea that the murder had not been committed within its territory. The other province refused to satisfy the demand for the same reason. His Imperial Highness then made both provinces pay 2,000 dollars each, keeping one two thousand for himself, for the trouble he had of enforcing payment.
The people of Sous not long ago had a quarrel, which the Emperor fomented. Its Sheikhs fought; his Imperial Highness sent troops to turn the balance of the fray, and to pacify the country. Then, he made the belligerents pay each 40,000 dollars, as pacification-money, the value of which he levied on slaves. In this politic way, the Imperial miser replenishes his coffers, and "eats up" his loving subjects.
I made the acquaintance of Mr. Treppass, the Austrian consul, and Chancellor of the French consulate. Mr. Treppass has been upwards of twenty years in this country, and was himself once an Imperial merchant, but sold his business, preferring a small stipend and his liberty, to being a vassal of the Emperor, fed in luxury and lodged in a fine house. We had a long conversation upon the various topics connected with this country.
Mr. Treppass says, the present system of the court is resistance to all innovation, to all strangers. But the pressure of the French on the Algerine frontier is agitating the internal state of this country. Money, which in other countries goes a long way, will almost do every thing with the Government of Morocco. It will also effect much with the people. Some fifty years ago, a Geneose merchant, resident in Mogador, had the two provinces of Hhaha and Shedma under his control, and could have made himself Sultan over them; this he effected solely by the distribution of money. The Sultan of the time was in open war with a pretender; his Imperial Highness begged for the assistance of the all-powerful merchant. The merchant bought the affections and allegiance of the people, and firmly established the Sultan on his throne.
The influence of the merchant was now prodigious, and the Sultan himself became alarmed. Not being able to rest, and being in hourly dread of the Genoese, the Sultan ordered his officers to seize the merchant secretly, and put him on board a vessel then weighing anchor for Europe. When the merchant was placed on board, this message was delivered to him—"Our Sultan is extremely obliged to you, sir, for the great services you rendered him, by establishing him on his throne! but our Sultan says, 'If you could place him on the throne, you could also pull him off again.' Therefore you must leave our country. Our Sultan graciously gives you a portion of your wealth to carry away with you!" The officers then shipped several chests of money, jewels, and other valuables to be placed to the account of the merchant, and the Sultan-making Genoese quitted Morocco for ever.
The Moors reported to me that the French were building some factories, with a fort, upon some unclaimed land along the coast, equidistant between Aghadir and Wadnoun. It is probably near Fort Hillsboro of the maps, and which Mr. Davidson calls Isgueder. A Moor was accused by the authorities of Mogador of being mixed up with the transaction, and immediately sent to the south, where he has not been heard of since. Another report is that the French are only building a factory. The spot of land has near it a small port and a good spring of water; quantities of bricks and lime have been deposited there; French vessels of war from the Senegal have been coasting and surveying up and down, touching at the place.
The new port is called Yedoueesai. I inquired particularly respecting this project; but Mr. Treppass stated positively, that the French had wholly abandoned the idea of establishing commercial relations with the Sheikh of Wadnoun, or any tribes thereabouts, whatever might have been their original intentions. Vessels of war have frequently visited the coast of Wadnoun, finding it the worst in all Africa. They, however, now maintain friendly relations with the Sheikh, in the event of shipwrecks or other disasters, happening to French vessels.
Nevertheless, it was at the particular request of the French Consul of Mogador, that his Government broke off all communications with the Sheikh, the Emperor having repeatedly complained to the Consul against this intercourse assuming a commercial or diplomatic character. [34] The whole coast, from the port of Mogador to the river Senegal, has been, within the last few years, surveyed by the French vessels of war, particularly by Captain E. Bouet; and there is sufficient evidence in the reports of the people, and the remonstrances of the Maroquine Government, to prove that the French did attempt a settlement on the part of the coast above stated, but that it failed.
The French took the idea of the undertaking from Davidson, who proposed to Lord Palmerston to enter into communication with the Sheikh of Wadnoun, and establish a factory on the coast, somewhere about the river Noun, just below Cape Noun. A British vessel of war was sent down with presents for the Sheikh, and to ascertain the whereabout of the fine harbour reported to exist there by the Sheikh and his people. This attempt of our government was as fruitless as that of the French afterwards. Indeed, at the very time an English brig of war was searching about for this port, and seeking an interview with the Sheikh of Wadnoun on the coast, Davidson was murdered on the southern frontier just as he was penetrating the Sahara.