Coming to more modern times, in 1791, the Sultan sent to the Governor of Gibraltar for a doctor to cure his son, at that time governor in the province of the Sus. An Army surgeon called Lemprière was chosen, and, disembarking at Agadhir, journeyed to Tarudant. As far as anything is known, he is the first European who entered Tarudant since the sixteenth century, when it is certain that merchants from Holland used to journey to the annual fair. He crossed the Atlas from Bibouan to Imintanout (by the same pass, in fact, which I attempted in last October), and arrived in safety at Mogador. He gives us little or no information about the Sus, but vaguely speaks of mines, says that the country about Tarudant was fertile and well cultivated, and describes the pass he crossed as skirting along tremendous precipices, which, to my certain knowledge, is not the case.
After him comes Jackson, who published his account of the Empire of Morocco in 1809. Ball, in his appendix to Hooker’s “Morocco and the Great Atlas,” refers to Jackson’s book as being the most copious ever written about the Sus. Certainly he had special advantages, for he passed sixteen years in Mogador and Agadhir (now closed to trade), spoke Arabic and Shillah, but all he says does not amount to much. The map he made Ball considers inferior to that of Chenier, published a hundred years before his time. And so of Admiral Washington, Gerhard Rohlfs, Gate11, and Oskar Lenz. They all say little, for the good reason little is known. Although the last three travellers passed through the land, they went disguised, in terror of their lives, and are believed to have known little or no Arabic. So that it comes to this: All that we know with certainty is that a province called the Sus exists, that it stretches from close to Agadhir to the Wad Nun, a distance of some two hundred miles, with a varying breadth of about seventy at the north, where it is bounded by the Atlas mountains, the Wad Sus, and the province of the Ha-ha to a hundred or more at the extreme south, as no one knows how far the boundaries of the province stretch up the waters of the river Nun.
Round about Agadhir the country has been visited, and is reported to be very like the provinces of Shiadma and the Ha-ha, which bound it to the north, that is, it is in general configuration flat and sandy, with stretches here and there of reddish argillaceous soil, but both soils greatly grown over with thorny bushes, and here and there well cultivated. Politically the province owns the Sultan of Morocco’s sway, but his authority extended lately but to Tarudant, the district called Taserouelt, in which is situated the Zowia of Si Hamed O’Musa, now represented by Sidi Haschem, and to the great Arab tribe of the Howara who occupy the country between Fonti and Tarudant. Up to the banks of the Wad Nun, where there are Arab tribes again (but wild and independent of the Sultan), most of the inhabitants of the country are of the Berber race. This race, the original inhabitants of the country before the Arab conquest, has never been entirely conquered, and between them and the Arab conquerors a strong enmity exists.
The chief trade of the province has always been with Mogador since the port of Agadhir was closed by the great-grandfather of the present Sultan. It consists of wool and camels’ hair, goat-skins and hides, bees’ wax, a little gold dust, ostrich feathers, gum-arabic, cattle and sheep, almonds, and all the products of the Sahara, for most of the trade from the western portion of that district comes to Mogador. In return, they take Manchester goods, powder, tea, sugar, cheap German cutlery, and all the wonders which human nature has to suffer to produce, and enrich the manufacturers of Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, Liège, Roubaix, and the like in turning out. So thus the situation briefly stood.
A province, large and wealthy, the mouth of trade with the Sahara, supposed to contain rich mines, though on this head nothing is known with certainty, except that a little copper is worked near Tarudant, though the natives say gold, silver, iron, and magnetic ironstone exists; fertile in climate, thickly populated, and ill affected to its ruler; fanatical and largely swayed by a sort of general Witanegemot known as the “Council of the Forty,” and yet the population bound to get all supplies of European goods through the one port of Mogador.
Many and various have been the attempts to open trade direct. Pirates and filibusters, and traders with a moral sense of what was due to civilisation and to themselves, had all attempted many times to supply the poor heathen with their European trash, but never with success. Sometimes they landed, were taken prisoners, and a “diplomatic question” was superinduced until they were released. At other times they disappeared on landing and were never heard of, but still reports poured into Mogador of the great riches of the Sus. These riches to my mind are non-existent, for I have known hundreds of Susi traders, merchants, camel-drivers, tribesmen, “saints” and acrobats, from Taserouelt, but never saw a Susi who was rich.
In general, I found them tall, thin, dark-coloured men, very intelligent, fanatical, great travellers, petty traders; now and then ostrich hunters, and sometimes slave-dealers, but all were poor, although when asked they always talked about gold-mines and the riches of their land, and showed an evident desire that the various ports along the coast should be left open for European trade.
Then came the death, about four years ago, of the late Sultan Mulai-el-Hassan (may God have pardoned him!), and the disturbances consequent on the accession of a minor to the throne. The Susis without doubt thought the time suitable for movement, and no doubt hoped to be independent, and to buy powder, tea, and sugar and cotton goods, without the trouble of coming up to Mogador. Rebellions more or less partial took place throughout the province, and were subdued.
About two years ago, in Mogador, appeared one Captain Geyling, a Jewish Austrian subject, who, by some means or another, got into communication with certain discontented chiefs, whom he induced to sign a treaty with him to open up a port, start trade with the interior, work the mines, and generally to allow the country to be brought under the humanising influence of European trade. This done, he straight repaired to London, and tried to form a company, but found out, as Lydgate did before him, that “lacking money he mighte never speede.”
Then came a hiatus, which perhaps some of the gentlemen who planked their money down may like to fill up for the benefit of those who take an interest in unofficial efforts to extend the shadow of our flag.