“The Garden of Mulai Moussa, Morocco, 18th Jan. 1836.
“My dear Brother,—I fear from what has accidentally transpired, that it is the Emperor’s intention to detain me here for some time. I have little cause for regret, this not being the season for me to cross the chain of Atlas, and any hurry on my part would only lead to suspicion, which might prove highly injurious to my projects. According to the Sultan’s directions, I started from Tangier with my caid [káïd, or captain] and his ten soldiers, accompanied, [for] the first two hours, by thirty of the consular corps: the good wishes of all, I believe, I possess—Mr. John Hay, the Consul’s son, and M. Crusentolphe, the Swedish Vice-Consul, accompanying me on to Rabat,[133]—eight days’ journey. I found much benefit, and derived great pleasure from the company of these gentlemen, the former of whom is a perfect master of Arabic. I have been also most fortunate in procuring an excellent dragoman,[134] who holds the office of interpreter to the British Consulate at Tetuan, and who has obtained three months’ leave of absence, and is now my paid servant. He has twice attended the English medical men who have been sent for to attend the Sultán, with whom he is a great favourite. To Rabat, the country presents little worthy of observation; a fine fertile plain, rich valleys, with numerous streams, and a succession of mountain ranges reaching as far as the eye will carry one. A little circumstance had nearly deprived me of the great source of safety, and the main stay on which I have to rely. Crossing an arm of the sea, at the Coubba of Mulai Ben Absolam,[135] my mules got into a quicksand, and I was obliged to dismount my soldiers, who had to wade the ford, their horses accompanying the baggage, the ropes being passed round the mules’ necks and haunches to draw them out. Most of my clothes [were] spoiled, and many of my little luxuries destroyed. Our weather, fortunately, was fine, and this induced us to stop and dry our clothes, which keeping us too late to reach our place appointed for encampment, we sent on the Sultán’s letter to have a mona and house prepared at Mehidia.[136] The man mistook the road; and on our arrival, the Governor refused to give anything to either the soldiers, muleteers, or the animals. He had been told all his directions were in the letter, and his only verbal orders were to pay me every respect and hospitality. He took me and my party out to his gardens, got ready a part of his house, provided most amply for the three and my servants, but left both men and beasts starving, they not having had any food, this being Ramadan, for eighteen hours. Starting me in the morning, he gave me an additional escort of thirty men, to take me to Sallee,[137] opposite to Rabat. Arrived there, we were again without our letter; but the Emperor’s son had sent orders about me. I had to make some disturbance here; was detained two days, to wait for an escort of two hundred horse, to be relieved by other two hundred, owing to an insurrection which has just broken out amongst the Zaire, who, it appears, expecting I was coming richly laden, had determined to take me. They had plundered all the parties who had, for the last three days, passed their district. My letter arriving, the Governor altered his tone towards me. I had refused to pay him a second visit, because I was not treated with sufficient respect, and informed him I should appeal to the Sultán on my arrival at this place [Morocco]. He now comes to say my guard is ready, and he intends to accompany me the first two hours, when the Lieutenant-Governor is to take me on to the Commander of the Forces, who is posted at midway between this and the Douar at which I am to sleep. This sight was most beautiful: the variety of dress and arms, the beauty of the Barb horse, and the meeting of sixty of the Oudaia,[138] who, added to my first escort, swelled our party to above three hundred. We had a slight row on the road, [and] took one man, which had nearly set the escort at war. The poor fellow claimed the protection of the Oudaia by a sign which they must acknowledge, and these, with some of their comrades amongst the party who accompanied me from Rabat, separating from the main body, prepared their guns for action. I had some difficulty, with the assistance of my caid, who appealed to their conduct before the person they had to escort. One man [was] severely wounded, and many [were the] losses of turbans, caps, &c. At our halt, having been joined by a large caravan on the road, we covered a considerable space.
“I encamped in the centre: my marquee, my caid’s tent, two tents for my soldiers; Hassan, a sort of consular agent, going to Mazagan, with a little black tent between mine and the caid’s; our muleteers in the rear; our horses and mules in a circle, and surrounded by about sixty soldiers: outside of this, the camels and the rest of the party. We [were] disturbed in the night by a large wolf, who had prowled in amongst us. Of these and the wild boar [there are] many traces. [We were] off early, and at eleven experienced a hurricane, which obliged us all to stop. Our animals [were] unable to face it, and we obliged for safety to dismount. Here our guard left us. All drenched to the skin, [we] proceeded to Dar-el-Beida,[139] and had no sooner got our tents up, than I received a message from Mulai Abdrahman,[140] the Emperor’s second son, to say he had prepared a place for me in the court of the palace, and that it was too dangerous to sleep outside the walls. I went, praying to be excused the fatigue of striking the tents uselessly.
“On entering the town I was received by his guard, who galloping close to me, fired their guns so near my face that I was nearly blinded. [The Prince is] a poor, puny boy, but having a very intelligent, wary Mentor. He had the orders of his father to bid me welcome. From this to Azamor,[141] on the Omer Begh,[142] where I met with the best of all receptions; the Governor accompanied me to Morocco with sixty horse. We ascended the three steps to the plain of Morocco. On the last night, at a place called Swynia, I was robbed of your gold watch and part of Abou’s clothes. They have since been returned. On crossing a kantarah[143] over the Tensift, I was met by a party of soldiers commanded by a caid, to bid me welcome in the Emperor’s name, his Majesty being out reviewing his cavalry. They were to conduct me to the ruins I now inhabit. I was taken round the walls by Haha, the place of the lepers, who have not the privilege of entering the city. This added above six miles to my already long journey. I found this place greatly in ruins: it must have been splendid. My room, which is bed-room and parlour and all, is thirty-eight feet long, eighteen wide, twenty-six high, richly ornamented, but without the slightest article of furniture. This forms one room of a square, the other parts [being] occupied by my servants, the caid, his soldiers, &c. And I have this day an accession of fifty persons, with the Emperor’s father-in-law, who has come to pay his respects, this being the season of the feast after Ramadan.[144] The old Moor, Seedy Mulai Ben Alee Abdrahan, has paid me a visit, and has become a patient. This evening I had to see his ladies, all fancying they were ill, [and eager] to see the Christian after two days’ quiet (as they call it), that is, not travelling. I was ordered to be in readiness as soon as it became dark, to go and see the Minister. A person would come for me, and I was to put on a cloak, and follow with a dragoman. At seven, an old Moor, with two soldiers carrying lanthorns, came for me. I was surrounded, as soon as I was out of my gate, by soldiers, and taken, as well as I could judge, about two miles, through large masses of ruins, crowded bazaar,[145] (the people giving way,) and numerous narrow streets. Not a word; but at each gate my guard pronounced the word El Hadge, and we passed. Arrived at a low door-way, a black slave asked for the word—this was pronounced—and then my dragoman and I were ushered into a narrow passage in total darkness. Through the court-yard into which this opened we observed several persons pass out; when a small door opening behind us, the Minister (whom we had seen at the palace in the morning) was waiting to receive us. Tea was brought, and in the centre of this room stood a single chair, on which I was to sit. I was then bade welcome in the name of the Sultán, [and was told] that I was to consider myself his guest; that I had only to wish, and it should be granted; that his master was only waiting for the fast to terminate, when he would see me. A host of fulsome compliments!
“I was then shown the vegetable productions of the country used as medicines; requested to report upon them; and questioned as to the progress of medical science. I spoke of the countries I had visited, and was assured that I should find more to be pleased with in my reception here. I was then asked to feel the Minister’s pulse, and report on his health; then to know if I would examine his black ladies, two of whom were but so-so,—a pretty job! I played my part well. Orders were given that no one be admitted. I was then told that the Lieutenant-Governor of the Meshwar[146] would come in the morning, and take me to all the Sultan’s palaces and gardens, and that a guard would be at my command whenever I wished to go out. I shall describe all these to you when I get home. I am under a strict espionage, and worried to death with patients. I saw the Sultan whilst passing through his palace, and have received his orders to visit him on Friday. His favourite wife is ill, and the difficulty is how to let me see her. I have refused to prescribe for her, without. The court physician is here twice a-day, and I have assisted him in one or two cases, and he thinks there never was such a doctor. A Seidlitz powder astonished him beyond all belief. I go next week to Atlas to visit some strange cities inhabited by Jews. Of these I shall write to his Royal Highness. El Hadge is here again, to say the Sultán has sent him to say that five of his guard will be here in the morning to conduct me to the great markets, and after this to an inspection of the cavalry, and to ask if anything can be done to make me more comfortable.”
Notwithstanding his incessant and wearisome occupation as both physician and apothecary to the Maroquine Court, Mr. Davidson found leisure for scientific inquiries, not forgetting those to which his attention had been particularly directed by H. R. H. the President of the Royal Society, who with his well-known condescension had desired this enterprising traveller to correspond with him. The result of his first inquiries was communicated in these terms:—
“Morocco, 3d February, 1836.
“Sir,—I have deferred taking advantage of your Royal Highness’s condescension in permitting me to address you, hoping that I should ’ere this have made my excursion to the five villages in the valley of the Southern Atlas inhabited by Jews, who differ much from any I have yet met with. Hitherto I have been able to glean but little from the few who visit the city, which is principally supplied by them with charcoal; but having this day received the Sultan’s permission to proceed and to continue my journey to Wadnoon (from which place I hope to join a caravan now collecting, to proceed to Soudan), should I succeed in this, I should not have an opportunity of addressing your Royal Highness; an honour of which I shall ever feel most proud.
“The Jews of Atlas are far superior, both physically and morally, to their brethren residing among the Moors. Their families are numerous, and each of these is under the immediate protection of a Berber (the aboriginal inhabitants of North Africa), patron, or master. They have, however, their own Sheik, a Jew, to whose jurisdiction all matters are referred. Differing from the Jews residing amongst the Moors, who are punished by the Mussulman laws, they are not in the same state of debasement or servitude; their case is one of patron and client, and all enjoy equal privileges, and the Berber is bound to take up the cause of the Jew upon all emergencies. They all carry arms, and serve by turns with their patrons. They state [that] they did not go to the Babylonish captivity; that they possess many writings; that they have a city cut out of the solid rock, with rooms above rooms, in which they dwelt upon [their] first coming to this country; and that there are some writings carved in these rocks which they attribute to some early Christians who came and drove them into the valley [which] they now inhabit. As I purpose making some few days’ stay amongst them, under the plea of searching for medicinal plants, I hope to be able to furnish your Royal Highness with some interesting particulars respecting these people, and to discover if these reports be true. I have received an invitation from their patriarch, who wishes to be informed the day before I visit them; it being his intention (having heard I had paid some attention to the sick Jews residing here) to come out to meet me. Your Royal Highness will scarcely credit the ignorance and debasement of the Jews of Morocco. The chief of the Millah, their quarter, was astonished to hear that the Bible used by the Christians contained the Psalms of David; and much more so, to hear that the Psalms were sung daily in our churches. I have endeavoured in vain to learn anything from them on your Royal Highness’s question as to the change of their time. I have been detained above a month in this city, owing to the indisposition of the Sultan, and the sickness of many of his favourites, and have been appointed court-physician. My stock of medicines is nearly exhausted, and having to see, upon an average, fifty patients a day, and compound the whole of the medicines myself, my own health has begun to suffer. Although I am fed from the royal table, I have no time to take my food; my patients coming at break of day, and remaining till dark; and I am seldom able to prepare the necessary medicines before midnight.
“I have a respite, if it may be so called, having to go to the Sultan every morning, but then all his ladies have something to ask for; and before I see his Highness I have to write from the mouths of the eunuchs all the ladies’ complaints, and bring them something the next day. This is unknown to his Highness, to whom I have respectfully refused to prescribe, unless I can [see] my patients. The head-physician has been ordered to spend two hours a-day in my room, to learn my treatment, and his son is to come in the evening, and see the mode of compounding medicines. The common Moorish doctors, who have but one remedy, firing, have been sent to perform their cures before me; I have had to make a report upon the state of medical science in all the countries I have visited, and to examine the few medicines they use, and state my opinions. Having accidentally stated [that] I believed many of their complaints arose from the manner of preparing their food, I have had to taste all the Sultan’s dishes, to mix simple drinks for him, and to look at the soil in which his vegetables are cultivated. But all to no purpose; they prefer their own plan to any recommendation of mine. I am happy, however, to inform your Royal Highness, that by strictly complying with their wishes, and having been more than [ordinarily] fortunate in my practice, I have made many friends, succeeded in removing suspicion, and obtained from the Sultán the promise of every assistance. He has presented me with a fine horse, given me a guard of ten soldiers, and promised me one hundred to escort me to Wadnoon, where his territory finishes. I am in treaty with the Sheik of Wadnoon, having offered him one thousand dollars if he will ensure my life to Timbuctoo; and the only difference now is between accident or climate. But as I well know that every accident will be construed into climate, I will not pay the sum till he places me in the city. I beg now most respectfully to present my humble duty to your Royal Highness, and with my fervent prayers that your Royal Highness’s health may be perfectly established,