Start for Tetuan — Vegetation of the low country — Serpent charmers — Twilight in the forest — The Fondak — Stormy night on the roof — Breakfast on the hill — Riff Mountains — A Governor in chains — Fate of high officials in Marocco — Valley of Tetuan — Jew quarter of the city — Ascent of the Beni Hosmar — Vegetation of the Mountain — A quiet day — Jewish population — Ride to Ceuta — Spanish campaign in Marocco — Fortifications of Ceuta — Return to European civilisation — Spanish convict stations in Africa. On April 10 we started, rather late, for Tetuan, leaving our tents and heavy baggage at Tangier. Our pompous interpreter, Hadj Bel Mohammed by name, whose huge blue spectacles seem to be permanent appendages of the Victoria Hotel, we found forward and intrusive in manner, and indolent and inefficient in action, and altogether of no account as a companion to travellers. Of the two soldiers who formed the escort—one recognised by his taciturnity the inferiority of his position; but the other by his quaint appearance and jocular disposition afforded us much amusement, if not much reliable information. This little fellow is properly called Hadj Mohammed, but he seems to be familiarly known among the English visitors to Tangier by the name of Bulbo. There was nothing military about him, except a very long gun which, throughout our journey, remained carefully covered up in an intricate red cloth case. If by any chance his aid had really been required, and such an unlikely suggestion were admitted as that Bulbo would have done anything else than put spurs to his horse and run away, he would have been driven to beg the attacking party to give him a quarter of an hour’s delay to get ready for action. The distance from Tangier to Tetuan is only about forty miles; but we decided on stopping for the night at the Fondak,[1] a solitary Moorish caravanserai, about thirty miles distant from Tangier. Hurrying past the accumulations of offal and filth that are shot over the seaward face of the city wall, and indulging in a ten minutes’ gallop over the sandy beach, we left the seashore; and, after riding some way through deep sandy lanes, before long reached a stretch of low cultivated land that extends westward from Tangier to the hills that divide this from the neighbouring provinces of Laraish and Tetuan.