“I have the honour to remain,
“Your Royal Highness’s very obedient, humble servant,
“John Davidson.”
Early in March, 1836, the Emperor’s health having been restored, his English physician was at length permitted to travel, not, as he wished, to the S.E., but to the S.W.; the route by Tâfilêlt being interdicted by the good-will or jealousy of the Sultán. Mr. Davidson, however, was prepared for this disappointment, and had already taken steps to secure a good reception among the Arabs of Wád Nún, on the north-western border of the Sahrá. On the 7th of March, 1836, he announced his arrival at Agadir, or Santa Cruz, in a letter to his brother, which has furnished the following extracts:—
“I was detained by the snow after leaving Morocco. . . . My reception and stay at court has surprised everybody. I have the most favourable promises of support and assistance, but do not believe quite all that is said, the Sultán having made me promise to return to his empire, and pass some months at Fez, or Mequinez, to instruct his people in the practice of medicine. Leaving Morocco, I attempted the ascent of Atlas, at Trasremoot, but at the elevation of five thousand feet was compelled by the snow to descend. This led me to visit a line of country as yet unseen by Europeans. I inspected more than one hundred villages of Jews and Berbers, was well treated, and orders had been given that at each principal place the governor should come out to meet me with his people under arms; that the principal towns should furnish three hundred fowls, ten sheep, and ten ducats for my maintenance, and provide barley for my horses and mules, and those of my soldiers. At the places where I only passed, the chief of the Jews were to come and make offerings of milk and wine; the former being changed from the primitive or patriarchal offering of bread. These I had to touch and pour a little of each on my horse’s mane. This done, food, both raw and dressed, was offered; and after a sort of song, I was suffered to proceed. At all the valleys they were desired to bring me the productions, and to show me any and all plants used as food or medicines; and on these I had to pronounce an opinion.
“My practice as a medical man has been so fortunate, and my distribution of medicines so general, that I have had work to answer even the questions. During my stay in Morocco, twelve hundred persons passed through my hands, and I had, at one time, the Sultán, several of his Ladies, the whole of the Ministry, the Cadi and Judicial Corps, the Commander of the Forces, and the Four Great Saints, Seedy Ben Abbas, Seedy Abdel Kader, Seedy Bush Eid, and Seedy Omberak,[147] under my care. The Zaire, of whom I wrote to you, and who intended to make me their prisoner, have broken into open warfare, and the people here are only waiting for the Sultán’s departure for the north to commence a disturbance. These people are all favourable to letting me pass, and the Suses and the Waled Abusebas,[148] whom I had been told to fear, have sent to beg of me to come on. My present difficulty is to get out of this empire. I have the Sultán’s order to remain at Terodant,[149] he having no power to protect me beyond this; but Sheik Beirock, of Wadnoon, informs he will; and had I not applied to the Sultán for a letter of protection, he would have taken me and passed me across the Desert, provided I would pay him a consideration.
“He will send me by a route used only by his couriers; but for this, at this season, I must take water and provision for two months, and send on some dromedaries, which will be posted about midway, where I have to halt; and by leaving my tired ones, and proceeding without a stop, I shall be able to pass before the Tuaricks have knowledge of my arrival. All this I feel I can do; but my companion, Abou, is, I am afraid, quite unequal to it. Sheik Beirock’s brother, who is with me, tells me Abou will be a safe passport for me, as soon as I arrive in Soudan: that one of his family is the present Sheik of Timbuctoo, and that his cousin, the son of Abou’s uncle, from whom he was stolen, is now the king of Houssa. He was fully acknowledged at Morocco, and my dragoman had orders from the palace to treat him with respect, as he was a Muley (prince). How we shall get on, I know not. I shall write one letter after I know the Sultán’s intention, but if you should not hear for some months, you may rest satisfied [that] I have passed Wadnoon. I feel that the same Providence which has hitherto preserved and protected me, will guard me through all the difficulties and dangers I am about to encounter. Should I not get on, I shall make a virtue of necessity, return to the Sultán at Fez, and make the best excuse to get to Tâfilêlt. I am, thank God, quite well, and have commenced training, taking two spare meals a-day, living principally on bread, rice, eggs, and weak tea; no wine, and very rarely meat; exposing myself much to the sun, and sleeping in the air.”
The Sultán had commanded Mr. Davidson to wait at Téródánt, the capital of Sús el aksá, about forty miles south-east of Santa Cruz, till he should be able to afford him a secure protection in his progress southwards: but a correspondence already established by the traveller with the Arab chief of Wád Nún, who is in name only subject to the emperor, and has the power of securing a passage across the desert, and impatience of further detention after so long a delay, made him anxiously entreat permission to advance as far as Wád Nún, and instead of remaining at Téródánt,[150] he repaired to Suweïrah or Mogador, about seventy miles due north of Santa Cruz, where he had the advantage of enjoying the society of Mr. Willshire, British Vice-Consul, on whose aid in promoting his views he knew he could rely. From that place he had again an opportunity of addressing the Duke of Sussex.
“Mogador, March 18th, 1836.
“Sir,—After a fruitless attempt to cross the western branch of Mount Atlas, owing to the unusual quantity of snow, I have been obliged to come to this place, which affords me another opportunity of taking advantage of your Royal Highness’s condescension in permitting me to address you. Having received the Sultán’s consent to cross the mountains for the purpose of visiting the Jews, I left Morocco for Mesfywa, and taking the route by Trasremoot, reached an elevation of 5,000 feet; but here the loose character of the snow, and the uncertainty of the track, obliged me to abandon my project. I was accompanied in this journey by a Rabbi, from the district of Coubba or Cobba, to which place it was my intention to have proceeded. From this man I received much curious information, and have yet great hopes of reaching the people of whom he spoke, and to whom he belongs, before I return to England. He informed me that in this place, nearly as extensive as that in which the city of Morocco is situated, there are not less than 3,000 or 4,000 Jews living in perfect freedom, and following every variety of occupation; that they have mines and quarries which they work, possess large gardens and extensive vineyards, and cultivate more corn than they can possibly consume; that they have a form of government, and have possessed this soil from the time of Solomon; in proof of which he stated [that] they possess a record bearing the signet and sign of Joab, who came to collect tribute from them in the time of the son of David; that the tradition of their arrival here runs thus:—‘Crossing the Great Sea to avoid the land of Egypt, they came to a head of land with a river; that here they landed, and following the course of this leading westward, but going toward the south, they came to a spot where they found twelve wells and seventy palm-trees. This at first led them to suppose that they had by some means got to Elim; but finding the mountains on the west, they were satisfied that they had reached a new country: finding a passage over the mountains, they crossed and took up their dwelling in this valley, first in caves, which exist in great numbers, then in others which they excavated, and after this began to build towns; that at a distant period, they were driven across the mountains by a people that would not acknowledge them, and that some remained at Diminet, Mesfywa, and other places on the western side of the range.’ Looking at the map, and following this man’s observations, it is perfectly easy to trace them. They must have reached the gulf of Tremesen, and taking the river Muluwia, or Mahala, have reached Tâfilêlt, where, to this day, are twelve wells planted round with seventy palm-trees, and which many of the Jews call Elim; and from this they [must] have taken the pass to which I attempted to get. Knowing the interest your Royal Highness takes in all that refers to the history of the Jews, I have offered this man fifty dollars to obtain a copy of the record upon a skin of the same size and pattern as that which contains it, and ten dollars for the copy of two tombstones to which the Jews make their pilgrimages, and these he promises to send to the Jew agent in Morocco in six months, provided I do not in the mean time visit Coubba. On asking him, if at any period they had a great accession to their number, or if he knew anything of the breaking off of the tribes, he seemed anxious to drop the subject, and told me that the more learned men whom I should see at Coubba could better inform me; that from time to time, Jews came to them, but that these tombs and the writings they possess contain all their history. This man returned with me. I was most anxious to know the meaning of the names of some of the towns: he told me what the Moors call Mesfywa is Oom Siwá, the Mother of Siwá,[151] one of their families which crossed [the mountains]; that Ourïka[152] of the Moors, distant thirty miles, was ’Rebka, founded by one of their daughters, and that most of these places had originally Hebrew names. At Ourïka he left me. I continued for eight days to visit the towns inhabited by the Jews, to the number of above one hundred, and I should say that on this side there are more Jews dwelling with the Berbers in the mountains than resident in Morocco. They have all the same account of Coubba, and have a great belief in the Cabāllists, who they say still exist, and who receive direct communication from Heaven. I here send your Royal Highness a few of the names of the principal towns, but having lost my Rabbi interpreter, cannot procure the meaning of them: Argum, Rōōsempt, Towra, Towright, Ai Tattab, Tamazert, Zowisiderhald, Tedēēli, Tisgin (very large, two hundred families), A Mismish (one hundred and fifty families), Sefélmal, to the town on the Wad el Fis.”
The remainder of this letter is taken up with an account of a singular physiological phenomenon, if Mr. Davidson was not misled by erroneous information. He says that he had been told hermaphrodites are found in great numbers in the empire of Morocco, that they are avoided as impure, and specially mentioned in the Muselman law; that the Sultán’s minister, Sídí Ibn Idrís, one of the best-informed persons in the empire, assured him that there are numbers of them at Fez. The only individual called a khunthá, or hermaphrodite, whom Mr. Davidson had an opportunity of examining, was one of those cases of imperfect formation which are occasionally met with in Europe.