Alas! why should we respect the national existence of any community of
Mahometans? Have we effaced from our memory their treachery and inhuman
cruelty in India; their utter worthlessness in Turkey; their neglect in
taking advantage of the richness with which nature has blest the
countries in their possession; and their conquest from Christendom of
one of the fairest portions of Europe.
Civilization cries aloud for retribution on a race whose religion
teaches them to regard us as "dogs." Surely, far from protecting and
cherishing, we should hunt them out of the fair lands they occupy, and
force them back on the deserts which vomited them forth on our ancestors
ten centuries ago. Brief periods of glory at Bagdad, Cairo, and Granada,
should not protect those who are now slaves to the lowest vices that
degrade human nature. No administrative reforms are at all practicable;
their moral maladies have attacked the vital element; the sole cure is
conquest, and the substitution of Christian Governments in Northern
Africa, and Turkey in Europe and Asia. Russia, France, Austria, Greece,
and Spain are weary of the excesses of their savage neighbours; none can
be honestly inclined to stay their avenging swords.
I have, in these prefatory remarks, extracted a few particulars from the
short chapter on Morocco, contained in my work on the "French in
Africa," and in advocating a crusade against the Mahometan races, I
believe I am recording the sentiments of millions of Europeans.
It now only remains for me to give expression to that universal feeling
of regret which prevails among my countrymen at the untimely fate of
poor Richardson, and to offer my congratulations that he has bequeathed
to us so pleasing an addition to his former works as the following
narrative of his "Travels in Morocco."
L. TRENT CAVE, F.R.G.S.
Author of "The French in Africa."
Army and Navy Club,
November, 1859.
PREFACE.
The present unsettled state of affairs in Morocco, in consequence of the
War in which she is now engaged with her more powerful and ancient
enemy--Spain, must, I conceive, render any information regarding a
region so little known peculiarly acceptable at the present moment.
In Morocco, my late husband laboured to advance the same objects which
had previously taken him to Central Africa, viz., the amelioration of
the condition of the strange and remarkable races of men who inhabit
that part of the world. He aimed at the introduction of a legitimate
commerce with a view, in the first instance, to destroy the horrible and
revolting trade in slaves, and thus pave the way for the diffusion of
Christianity among a benighted people. While travelling, with these high
purposes in contemplation, he neglected no opportunity of studying the
geography of the country, and of obtaining an insight into the manners,
customs, prejudices, and sentiments of its inhabitants, as well as any
other useful information in relation to it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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