[34]There are no remains of houses or other buildings within the solid walls which were erected on the north and west side of this small arsenal. There are two wide gates adjoining each other through which the galleys were hauled up and placed in safety. The gateways are of beautiful solid brick masonry; the north wall is of stone; on the south-eastern side high ground rises from this enclosure. On the top of the hill there are the remains of a rude ‘Campus Aestivus.’ About a mile up the river are the ruins of a Roman bridge leading to Tangier, the Tingis of the Romans; the chief arch of this interesting monument fell in 1880. The date of the arsenal and bridge is, I believe, the year 1 A.D.
[35]About twenty miles from Trafalgar.
[36]House of succour.
[37]Readers may be shocked that such barbarities are practised by the Moors; but they are a thousand years behind the civilised world, and surprise can hardly be felt when we remember that a sentence of mutilation was carried out in England little more than 300 years ago. Camden’s Annals for the year 1581 contain an account of the mutilation of one Stubbs, for publishing an attack upon Queen Elizabeth’s proposed marriage with the Duke of Alençon. The historian was an eyewitness of the scene, which has been utilised by Sir Walter Scott in the Fortunes of Nigel, chap. xiii.
[38]A Moorish beehive is made from the bark of the cork-tree. In the summer months, when the sap rises, a vertical incision about four feet long is made through the cork to the inner bark, and the part to be removed, having been cut above and below, is hammered with a heavy mallet. The cork is separated from the stem of the tree, and being elastic, is taken off entire. Two circular pieces of cork are inserted in the orifices at each end and fastened with wooden pegs. The bees close with wax the cracks which may appear. The hive is warm, and keeps out both wet and sun.
[39]Mr. Reade was Consul, Mr. Green Private Secretary. The latter, as Sir William Kirby Green, succeeded Sir John Hay as Minister to the Court of Morocco in 1886.
[40]Jebel Kebír, now known as ‘The Hill.’
[41]These were troops from the seat of war not yet disbanded. The Sultan evidently desired to impress Mr. Hay with the strength of his army.
[42]The duties on the export of wheat and barley were never added to those noted above, in spite of Sir John’s constant and unceasing endeavours.
[43]In allusion to the manner in which, in ancient times, Jews and Christians in Morocco were put to death. The victims were suspended by large iron hooks through the flesh of their backs; one of these hooks was still to be seen on a gate of the city of Marákesh in 1846; or a spit was run through their bodies, and they remained transfixed till death put an end to their tortures.