Our Governor has given an order to my people to kill any man coming into my garden at night. This order is published: so we are safer from thieves than you are in England. I have generally some dozen fine fellows, armed to the teeth, who guard my garden all night, and who seek for no other compensation than to be my friends.
The promise made by the robber was faithfully kept, and Mr. Hay reaped the reward of his leniency in after years, as, by this clan at least, his property was always respected.
An indefatigable sportsman, Mr. Hay delighted in expeditions into remote districts of the country in pursuit of game. It was thus in part that he acquired his intimate knowledge of the character of the people. Brought into personal contact with the wild tribesmen, in circumstances which strongly appealed to their natural chivalry, he gained an influence among them which he was often able to turn to useful account. A good illustration of his power of dealing with the native races is afforded by his suppression of piracy among the Rifians. The story is told in his own words.
Before the year 1856, vessels becalmed on the Rif coast between the Algerian frontier and the Spanish fortress Peñon, which is situated about sixty miles to the eastward of the Moorish port of Tetuan, were frequently captured by Rifian ‘karebs,’ large galleys manned by thirty or forty men, armed with long guns, pistols, and daggers.
When a vessel becalmed, drawn by the current, approached the Rif coast, especially in the vicinity of the village of Benibugaffer, near Cape ‘Tres Forcas,’ about fifteen miles to the westward of the Spanish fortress of Melilla, the natives launched their ‘karebs,’ hidden in nooks on the rocky coast, or buried under sand, and set out in pursuit, firing volleys as they neared the vessel. The crew, if they had not escaped in the ship’s boats when the piratical craft hove in sight, were made prisoners, but were not in general ill-treated unless they attempted to offer resistance.
On landing, they were compelled to labour in the fields, receiving a daily allowance of very coarse food. The captured vessel was rifled of cargo and rigging, and then burnt, so as to leave no vestige.
In the year 1851 a British vessel was taken by the ‘karebs’ of Benibugaffer.
In pursuance of instructions from H.M.’s Government, a strong representation was made by me to the Sultan of Morocco, then Mulai Abderahman, demanding that the pirates should be chastised, that compensation should be given to the owner of the vessel, and that energetic steps should be taken by His Sherifian Majesty to put a stop to these piratical acts of his lawless subjects of the Rif.
The Sultan, on the receipt of this demand, dispatched officers from his Court to the Rif country with a Sherifian edict to the chieftains, directing that the sums demanded for the destruction of British property should be paid, and threatening, if further piracies were committed, to send a force into the Rif to chastise his rebellious subjects.
No attention was paid to this edict, for though the Rifians acknowledge the Sultan of Morocco as ‘Kaliph[24] Allah,’ H.M. being a direct descendant from the Prophet, and though they allow a governor of Rif extraction to be appointed by him to reside amongst them, they do not admit of his interference in the administration of government or in any kind of legislation, unless it happens he is voluntarily appealed to in cases of dispute.