I have had two private audiences of the Sultan[52] since the public audience. He and I have become great friends. He is about 6 feet 2 inches high, very handsome, of a slim and elegant figure, very dignified in his manner, but gentle, with a sad expression of countenance. I think he is about twenty-seven years of age. His colour about the same shade as that of Hajot[53]. Features very regular. He has taken the greatest interest in the telegraph apparatus sent to His Sherifian Majesty by the British Government. It has been placed in the garden of his palace between two summer-houses. I stood with the Sultan at one end, and a sapper, sent by Government to work the instrument, and the Engineer officers at the other. The first message he received in Arabic letters was ‘May God prolong the life of Mulai Hassan.’ Several messages were interchanged. I left the room to communicate with the officers, and the Sultan took possession of the instrument, and, as the letters are in Arabic, he sent one himself. The sapper was delighted with his intelligence. He wanted to have wires put between the palace and my house to enable him to talk to me, he said, but there is no time. He has agreed to allow of a cable[54] being laid between Tangier and Gibraltar, but not inland as yet, for he declares that his wild subjects would destroy the wires. I have got, however, the thin end of the wedge inserted for telegraphic communication. He agrees also to the Mole at Tangier, and other improvements on the coast, and has removed some restrictions on trade, so, after much negotiation, ‘un petit pas en avant’ is made. He told me that he cannot introduce many of the improvements he desires, from the fear of raising an outcry against himself by some of his ignorant subjects. He also tells me that his father, before his death, had followed my advice, to give salaries to the Governors of the Southern provinces, and thus check the system of corruption and robbery practised by these grandees in office to enrich themselves. I hear that the inhabitants of these provinces are happy and contented. His Majesty hopes to introduce the same system into the Northern provinces, and he sent the Governor-General of half his empire to listen to my advice.
This country is an Augean stable, and I cannot sweep it; but as the Sultan is well disposed, we are doing our little best to aid him.
He invited us all to witness the feast of the Mulud—an unprecedented favour, for even in Tangier the authorities think it prudent to recommend Christians and Jews to keep aloof from the wild tribes who assemble on such occasions.
The chiefs from the Arab provinces and the Berber mountains, with their followers, amounting to several thousand men, had come to the feast to bring presents to His Majesty. The Sultan, with all his grandees and regular and irregular troops, proceeded to a picturesque site two miles beyond the town.
The Sultan sent us a guard of honour and orders to the commander to allow me and my friends to take up any position we liked. Each chief with his retinue formed a line and advanced towards the Sultan, bowing low from their horses. His Majesty gave them his blessing, which was proclaimed by the Master of the Ceremonies, and then they wheeled round, cheering, and galloped off. Some thirty governors or chiefs were presented. The scene was beyond description. Imagine the brilliant costumes of the Sultan’s troops; the flowing white dresses of the wild Berber; the massive walls and bastions of Fas in the distance, with minarets and palm-trees o’ertopping them; undulating hills covered with castles and ‘kubba’-topped tombs, interspersed with orange-groves, olive-trees, and luxuriant vegetation; a shining river flowing at our feet, and the snowy range of the Atlas in the distance, and you have a picture which was wonderful to behold.
No people can behave better than the ‘Fassien’ have this time, and even the swarms of Berbers we meet are civil to us. The Sultan sent a message to us (we were all in our ‘armour’) that he was very glad we had come to the feast, as he wished to show all his subjects that I was his honoured guest and friend.
This is a very chilly place. Last time I was here, in 1868, I had dysentery, and now I have a frightful cold. Water everywhere; air hot outside, but cold in the house.
After the Mission had returned to Tangier, he writes to the same correspondent in July 1875, on the reforms which he was endeavouring to introduce:—
Yes, we are sitting in Congress at the request of the Moorish Government about the various improvements. The Representatives (with the exception of the Don) support the Moorish Government. The silly Spaniards like not that Morocco should improve and that our young Sultan should become popular. They always talk (sub rosâ) about Morocco as destined for a Spanish colony, and they fear lest the Moors should become too strong for them, or that, by improving the country and commerce, Foreign Powers should put their veto on the petty system of menace and bullying to which the Dons have resorted since the war of 1860.
Later on he writes to Mrs. Norderling about the Sahara scheme. A plan had been proposed, and a company was to be formed, with the object of flooding the Sahara by means of a canal cut on the West African Coast, in the belief—it was said—of thus re-creating a great inland sea in place of a sandy desert. On this subject he writes:—