M. Rey gives us this flattering tableau as a social picture of Morocco.
Covetous governors are continually succeeding one another, they are ever
eager of enjoying the advantages of their position; their thirst for
plunder is so much the more intense, as they are not allowed time to
satisfy it, so they prey on the people. The inhabitants of towns and of
the country live in rags in miserable hovels. What raiment! what food!
mortality is dreadful, the children are invalids, and the women,
especially in the country, are condemned to do the work of beasts of
burden; such is the picture of society.
I have quoted these few passages from the "Mémoire" of M. Rey, because
he was resident many years in Tangier, and his account of the country
discovers talent and intelligence, but is, of course, coloured with a
strong anti-English feeling. Mr. Hay wrote on the back of his
Mémoire,--"All that is said in reference to Great Britain is false and
malicious." M. Rey's opinions of the Moors and the present governors are
still more bitter and unjust.
I had an interview with El-Martel-Warabah, government auctioneer of
slaves, from whom I obtained details respecting the slave-trade in
Tangier and Morocco generally. There is no market for slaves in Tangier.
The poor creatures are led about the town as cattle, particularly in the
main street, before the doors of the principal merchants, where they are
usually disposed of. No Jew or Christian is permitted to buy or hold a
slave in this country. Government possess many slaves, and people hire
them out by the day from the authorities. The ordinary price of a good
slave is eighty dollars. Boys, at the age of nine or ten years, sell the
best; female slaves do hot fetch so much as male slaves, unless of
extraordinary beauty. Slaves are imported from all the south.
The Sultan levies no duty on the sale or import of slaves. When one runs
away from his master, and takes refuge with another, the new master
usually writes to the former, offering to buy him; thus slaves are often
enticed away. They are sometimes allowed to abscond without their owners
troubling themselves about them, their master's being unable either to
feed or sell them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account