The system of the payment of Custom House officers, inaugurated in 1860, was dwelt on by Sir John in support of his argument. He suggested that adequate salaries should be paid to all Government officials, who would thus be deprived of excuse for peculation, and, if they proved dishonest or extortionate, might be punished without mercy. He recommended a great reduction of the army, and, in order to check false returns, urged that proper lists of the troops still enrolled should be carefully drawn up. He proposed that authorised tax-gatherers should be appointed and the whole population equally taxed without exemption of Sherífs or of Government officials; that the payment of taxes should be strictly enforced; that tax-gatherers should only hold office for a year, so that the incoming official might act as a check on the proceedings of his predecessor; that the supervisors of markets should be required to deposit a certain sum as security before taking office, this sum to be forfeited if they were convicted of malpractices. He also recommended the entire abolition of the system of presents, and urged that all officials, from the Sultan downwards, should be strictly forbidden to accept gifts.
If these reforms were introduced, Sir John assured the Sultan, peace and prosperity would soon reign in Morocco, and his empire would rise in the scale of nations.
It was not till the middle of December that Sir John left Fas on his homeward journey. The last camp before reaching Tangier should have been by the side of the river Mishra el Hashef. In summer this is a mere stream; in winter, when Sir John arrived at its bank, it was swollen into a deep and turbulent torrent. The previous week some Moorish soldiers had attempted to cross, and several of them were carried away and drowned in the flood; but the Arabs, who live near the banks, declared that, by waiting, the party might risk a detention of several days; though, on the other hand, the flood might decrease in a few hours. At present they believed it could be swum in safety. Sir John, always impatient of delay, and anxious moreover to catch the mail from Tangier next morning, decided on starting, and plunged into the river on his horse. Two powerful Arab swimmers accompanied him, swimming in an upright position just down stream of the rider. Horse and men were carried by the current some distance down, to a difficult landing place on the muddy banks. Here they reached the opposite side in safety, though the water had washed over the saddle. Miss Hay followed in the same manner and, with her father, galloped off towards Tangier. Four hours’ hard riding saw them under their own roof.
CHAPTER XVIII.
JOÃO, THE PORTUGUESE GUNSMITH.
On the journey from Tangier to Fas, about three days’ march from the former place, the Mission passed through the town of El Ksar, near which is the famous battle-field where the Portuguese King, Don Sebastian, was killed in 1578. In connection with this battle Sir John wrote the following story.
During one of my hunting expeditions as a young man, I was surprised to see that one of the Moorish hunters, a noted marksman, named Ali Bufra, possessed a gun with a very long barrel of twisted iron, upon which was engraved, in European characters, the words ‘João Renauda, ano 1582.’
Ali was very proud of this weapon, maintaining that no gun barrel, ancient or modern, could be compared to it. Curiosity has since prompted me to inquire into the history and origin of this gun, and from various sources I gathered the materials upon which I have based the following tale.
Mulai Mohammed, Sultan of Fas, having been dethroned by his uncle, Mulai Abdelmalek, fled to Lisbon, where he sought the assistance of Don Sebastian, King of Portugal, to recover his throne.
King Sebastian, then a youth of twenty-two, and renowned for his valour, moved by feelings of compassion and generosity towards the unfortunate Sultan, and also by ambitious projects of conquest, acceded to the petition of Mulai Mohammed, in opposition to the advice of his mother, Queen Catherine, who had been Regent during his long minority.