Among the renegades are to be found the scourings from all regions of the earth; Spain, France, Russia, Belgium, Prussia, Turkey, Tartary, Egypt, and the whole coast of Africa. Nigritia and Central Africa may be added to the list; as the slaves may rather be considered outcasts who find a home, than free men reduced to servitude. Poles they have here in Africa, it is true; but as “_condottieri_” only. There are representatives of every race, and records of every conspiracy and rebellion. They number four hundred in the camp, and two thousand throughout Morocco. The police is so strict, that it is impossible that one of them should ever return. Dante might here have got the suggestion for his inscription over the gates of hell. There were formerly a great many emigrants from Algiers. They have died and wasted away: as the French colonization has advanced, they have retreated before it: they have preferred abandoning the graves of their fathers, their homes, their substance, their friends, to living where the Fih ruled. Such an emigration must not be compared to that of Poland, or to the victims of any European revolution. There was here no dread of vengeance and no proscription. They departed in anguish of heart, and Morocco for them was no land of promise. Of many who had acknowledged themselves as Fih subjects, that have come to Gibraltar in a state of destitution, not one has ever applied at the consulate for pecuniary relief. The Consul has repeatedly proffered assistance; it has in every case been declined. This getting out of the way of their conquerors is strikingly pictured in the address of an old Moor to the captor of Gibraltar:-- “SIRE,--What have I done to your race? I lived in Seville when your great-grandfather, the King Don Fernando, besieged and took that place, and I went to Xerez. Then came your grandfather, Don Alonzo, and conquered Xerez, and I went to live at Tarifa. Then came your father, Don Sancho, and took Tarifa. Finding that we could not live in any city of Spain, I came to Gibraltar: now you have come by sea, besieged and taken it. I beg that you will order a vessel for me, that I may cross the sea, and not see so much sorrow before my eyes.”[202]