Life in Morocco and Glimpses Beyond Part 19

The Amba.s.sador protested that if the remainder of the demands were to be refused, he was ent.i.tled to at least as much as the French representative had had to shut his mouth last time he came to Court, and affected overwhelming indignation at the treatment he had received.

"Besides," he added, "I have the promise of His Majesty the Sultan himself that certain of them should be paid in full, and I cannot abandon those. I have informed my Government of the Sultan's words."

"Dost suppose that my master is a dog of a Nazarene, that he should keep his word to thee? Nothing thou may'st say can alter his decision.

The claims that have been allowed in writing shall be paid by the Customs Administrators on thy return to Tangier. Here are orders for the money."

"I absolutely refuse to accept a portion of what my Government demands. I will either receive the whole, or I will return empty-handed, and report on the treacherous way in which I have been treated. I am thoroughly sick of the procrastinating and prevaricating ways of this country--a disgrace to the age."

"And we are infinitely more sick of thy behaviour and thine abuse of the favours we have granted thee. Our lord has expressly instructed me to tell thee that in future no excess of the rights guaranteed to foreigners by treaty will be permitted on any account. Thy protection certificates to be valid must be endorsed by our Foreign Commissioner, and the nature of the goods thou importest free of duty as for thyself shall be strictly examined, as we have the right to do, that no more defrauding of our revenue be permitted."

"Your words are an insult to my nation," exclaimed the Amba.s.sador, rising, "and shall be duly reported to my Government. I cannot sit here and listen to vile impeachments like these; you know them to be false!"

"That is no affair of mine; I have delivered the decision of our lord, and have no more to say. The claims we refuse are all of them unjust, the demands of usurers, on whom be the curse of G.o.d; and demands for money which has never been stolen, or has already been paid; every one of them is a shameful fraud, G.o.d knows. Leeches are only fit to be trodden on when they have done their work; we want none of them."

"Your language is disgraceful, such as was never addressed to me in my life before; if I do not receive an apology by noon to-morrow, I will at once set out for Tangier, if not for Greece, and warn you of the possible consequences."

The excitement in certain circles in Athens on the receipt of the intelligence that the Emba.s.sy to Morocco had failed, after all the flourish of trumpets with which its presumed successes had been hailed, was great indeed. One might have thought that once more the brave h.e.l.lenes were thirsting for the conquest of another Sicily, to read the columns of the _Palingenesia_, some of the milder paragraphs of which, translated, ran thus:--

"A solemn duty has been imposed upon our nation by the studied indignities heaped upon our representative at the Court of Morocco. Greece has been challenged, Europe defied, and the whole civilized world insulted. The duty now before us is none other than to wipe from the earth that nest of erstwhile pirates flattered by the name of the Moorish Government....

"As though it were insufficient to have refused the just demands presented by Kyrios Mavrogordato for the payment of business debts due to Greek merchants, and for damages acknowledged to be due to others for property stolen by lawless bandits, His Excellency has been practically dismissed from the Court in a manner which has disgraced our flag in the eyes of all Morocco.

"Here are two counts which need no exaggeration. Unless the payment of just business debts is duly enforced by the Moorish Government, as it would be in any other country, and unless the native agents of our merchants are protected fully by the local authorities, it is hopeless to think of maintaining commercial relations with such a nation, so that insistence on these demands is of vital necessity to our trade, and a duty to our growing manufactories.

"The second count is of the simplest: such treatment as has been meted out to our Minister Plenipotentiary in Morocco, especially after the bland way in which he was met at first with empty promises and smiles, is worthy only of savages or of a people intent on war."

The _h.e.l.lenike Salpinx_ was hardly less vehement in the language in which it chronicled the course of events in Morocco:--

"Notwithstanding the unprecedented manner in which the requests of His Excellency, Kyrios Dimitri Mavrogordato, our Minister Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary at the Court of Morocco, were acceded to on the recent Emba.s.sy to Mulai Abd er-Rahman, the Moors have shown their true colours at last by equally marked, but less astonis.h.i.+ng, insults.

"The unrivalled diplomatic talents of our amba.s.sador proved, in fact, too much for the Moorish Government, and though the discovery of the way in which a Nazarene was obtaining his desires from the Sultan may have aroused the inherent obstinacy of the wazeers, and thus produced the recoil which we have described, it is far more likely that this was brought about by the officious interference of one or two other foreign representatives at Tangier. It has been for some time notorious that the Sardinian consul-general--who at the same time represents Portugal--loses no opportunity of undermining Grecian influence in Morocco, and in this certain of his colleagues have undoubtedly not been far behind him.

"Nevertheless, whatever causes may have been at work in bringing about this crisis, it is one which cannot be tided over, but which must be fairly faced. Greece has but one course before her."

XXVI

PRISONERS AND CAPTIVES

"Misfortune is misfortune's heir."

_Moorish Proverb._

Externally the gaol of Tangier does not differ greatly in appearance from an ordinary Moorish house, and even internally it is of the plan which prevails throughout the native buildings from fandaks to palaces. A door-way in a blank wall, once whitewashed, gives access to a kind of lobby, such as might precede the entrance to some grandee's house, but instead of being neat and clean, it is filthy and dank, and an unwholesome odour pervades the air. On a low bench at the far end lie a guard or two in dirty garments, fitting ornaments for such a place. By them is the low-barred entrance to the prison, with a hole in the centre the size of such a face as often fills it, wan and hopeless. A clanking of chains, a confused din of voices, and an occasional moan are borne through the opening on the stench-laden atmosphere. "All hope abandon, ye who enter here!" could never have been written on portal more appropriate than this, unless he who entered had friends and money. Here are forgotten good and bad, the tried and the untried, just and unjust together, sunk in a night of blank despair, a living grave.

Around an open courtyard, protected by an iron grating at the top, is a row of dirty columns, and behind them a kind of arcade, on to which open a number of doorless chambers. Filth is apparent everywhere, and to the stifling odour of that unwashed horde is added that caused by insanitary drainage. To some of the pillars are chained poor wretches little more than skeletons, while a cable of considerable length secures others. It is locked at one end to a staple outside the door under which it pa.s.ses, and is threaded through rings on the iron collars of half a dozen prisoners who have been brought in as rebels from a distant province. For thirteen days they have tramped thus, carrying that chain, holding it up by their hands to save their shoulders, and two empty rings still threaded on show that when they started they numbered eight. Since the end rings are riveted to the chain, it has been impossible to remove them, so when two fell sick by the way the drivers cut off their heads to effect the release of their bodies, and to prove, by presenting those ghastly trophies at their journey's end, that none had escaped.

Many of the prisoners are busy about the floor, where they squat in groups, plaiting baskets and satchels of palmetto leaves, while many appear too weak and disheartened even to earn a subsistence in this way. One poor fellow, who has been a courier, was employed one day twenty-five years since to carry a despatch to Court, complaining of the misdeeds of a governor. That official himself intercepted the letter, and promptly despatched the bearer to Tangier as a Sultan's prisoner. He then arrested the writer of the letter, who, on paying a heavy fine, regained his liberty, but the courier remained unasked for. In course of time the kad was called to his account, and his son, who succeeded him in office, having died too, a stranger ruled in their stead. The forgotten courier had by this time lost his reason, fancying himself once more in his goat-hair tent on the southern plains, and with unconscious irony he still gives every new arrival the Arab greeting, "Welcome to thee, a thousand welcomes! Make thyself at home and comfortable. All before thee is thine, and what thou seest not, be sure we don't possess."

Some few, in better garments, hold themselves aloof from the others, and converse together with all the nonchalance of gossip in the streets, for they are well-to-do, arrested on some trivial charge which a few dollars apiece will soon dispose of, but they are exceptions. A quieter group occupies one corner, members of a party of no less than sixty-two brought in together from Fez, on claims made against them by a European Power. A sympathetic inquiry soon elicits their histories.[19] The first man to speak is h.o.a.ry and bent with years; he was arrested several years ago, on the death of a brother who had owed some $50 to a European. The second had borrowed $900 in exchange for a bond for twice that amount; he had paid off half of this, and having been unable to do more, had been arrested eighteen months before. The third had similarly received $80 for a promise to pay $160; he had been in prison five years and three months. Another had borrowed $100, and knew not the sum which stood yet against him. Another had been in prison five years for a debt alleged to have been contracted by an uncle long dead. Another had borrowed $50 on a bond for $100. Another had languished eighteen months in gaol on a claim for $120; the amount originally advanced to him was about $30, but the acknowledgment was for $60, which had been renewed for $120 on its falling due and being dishonoured.

Another had borrowed $15 on agreeing to refund $30, which was afterwards increased to $60 and then to $105. He has been imprisoned three years. The debt of another, originally $16 for a loan of half that amount, has since been doubled twice, and now stands at $64, less $17 paid on account, while for forty-two measures of wheat delivered on account he can get no allowance, though that was three years ago, and four months afterwards he was sent to prison. Another had paid off the $50 he owed for an advance of $25, but on some claim for expenses the creditor had withheld the bond, and is now suing for the whole amount again. He has been in prison two years and six months. Another has paid twenty measures of barley on account of a bond for $100, for which he has received $50, and he was imprisoned at the same time as the last speaker, his debt being due to the same man. Another had borrowed $90 on the usual terms, and has paid the whole in cash or wheat, but cannot get back the bond. He has previously been imprisoned for a year, but two years after his release he was re-arrested, fourteen months ago. Another has been two months in gaol on a claim for $25 for a loan of $12.

The last one has a bitter tale to tell, if any could be worse than the wearisome similarity of those who have preceded him.

[19: All these statements were taken down from the lips of the victims at the prison door, and most, if not all of them, were supported by doc.u.mentary evidence.]

"Some years ago," he says, "I and my two brothers, Drees and Ali, borrowed $200 from a Jew of Mequinez, for which we gave him a notarial bond for $400. We paid him a small sum on account every month, as we could get it--a few dollars at a time--besides presents of b.u.t.ter, fowls, and eggs. At the end of the first year he threatened to imprison us, and made us change the bond for one for $800, and year by year he raised the debt this way till it reached $3000, even after allowing for what we had paid off. I saw no hope of ever meeting his claim, so I ran away, and my brother Drees was imprisoned for six years. He died last winter, leaving a wife and three children, the youngest, a daughter, being born a few months after her father was taken away. He never saw her. By strenuous efforts our family paid off the $3000, selling all their land, and borrowing small sums. But the Jew would not give up the bond. He died about two years ago, and we do not know who is claiming now, but we are told that the sum demanded is $560. We have nothing now left to sell, and, being in prison, we cannot work. When my brother Drees died, I and my brother Ali were seized to take his place. My kad was very sorry for me, and became surety that I would not escape, so that my irons were removed; but my brother remains still in fetters, as poor Drees did all through the six years. We have no hope of our friends raising any money, so we must wait for death to release us."

Here he covers his face with his hands, and several of his companions, in spite of their own dire troubles, have to draw their shrivelled arms across their eyes, as silence falls upon the group.

As we turn away heartsick a more horrible sight than any confronts us before the lieutenant-governor's court. A man is suspended by the arms and legs, face downwards, by a party of police, who grasp his writhing limbs. With leather thongs a stalwart policeman on either side is striking his bare back in turn. Already blood is flowing freely, but the victim does not shriek. He only winces and groans, or gives an almost involuntary cry as the cruel blows fall on some previously harrowed spot. He is already unable to move his limbs, but the blows fall thick and fast. Will they never cease?

By the side stands a young European counting them one by one, and when the strikers slow down from exhaustion he orders them to stop, that others may relieve them. The victim is by this time swooning, so the European directs that he shall be put on the ground and deluged with water till he revives. When sufficiently restored the count begins again. Presently the European stays them a second time; the man is once again insensible, yet he has only received six hundred lashes of the thousand which have been ordered.

"Well," he exclaims, "it's no use going on with him to-day. Put him in the gaol now, and I'll come and see him have the rest to-morrow."

"G.o.d bless thee, but surely he has had enough!" exclaims the lieutenant-governor, in sympathetic tones.

"Enough? He deserves double! The consul has only ordered a thousand, and I am here to see that he has every one. We'll teach these villains to rob our houses!"

"There is neither force nor power save in G.o.d, the High, the Mighty!

As thou sayest; it is written," and the powerless official turns away disgusted. "G.o.d burn these Nazarenes, their wives and families, and all their ancestors! They were never fit for aught but h.e.l.l!" he may be heard muttering as he enters his house, and well may he feel as he does.

The policemen carry the victim off to the gaol hard by, depositing him on the ground, after once more restoring him with cold water.

"G.o.d burn their fathers and their grandfathers, and the whole cursed race of them!" they murmur, for their thoughts still run upon the consul and the clerk.

Leaving him sorrowfully, they return to the yard, where we still wait to obtain some information as to the cause of such treatment.

"Why, that dog of a Nazarene, the Greek consul, says that his house was robbed a month ago, though we don't believe him, for it wasn't worth it. The sinner says that a thousand dollars were stolen, and he has sent in a claim for it to the Sultan. The minister's now at court for the money, the Satan! G.o.d rid our country of them all!"

"But how does this poor fellow come in for it?"

"He! He never touched the money! Only he had some quarrel with the clerk, so they accused him of the theft, as he was the native living nearest to the house, just over the fence. He's nothing but a poor donkey-man, and an honest one at that. The consul sent his clerk up here to say he was the thief, and that he must receive a thousand lashes. The governor refused till the man should be tried and convicted, but the Greek wouldn't hear of it, and said that if he wasn't punished at once he would send a courier to his minister at Marrakesh, and have a complaint made to the Sultan. The governor knew that if he escaped it would most likely cost him his post to fight the consul, so he gave instructions for the order to be carried out, and went indoors so as not to be present."

"G.o.d is supreme!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.es a bystander.

"But these infidels of Nazarenes know nothing of Him. His curse be on them!" answers the policeman. "They made us ride the poor man round the town on a bare-backed donkey, with his face to the tail, and all the way two of us had to thrash him, crying, 'Thus shall be done to the man who robs a consul!' He was ready to faint before we got him up here. G.o.d knows _we_ don't want to lash him again!"

Next day as we pa.s.s the gaol we stop to inquire after the prisoner, but the poor fellow is still too weak to receive the balance due, and so it is for several days. Then they tell us that he has been freed from them by G.o.d, who has summoned his spirit, though meanwhile the kindly attentions of a doctor have been secured, and everything possible under the circ.u.mstances has been done to relieve his sufferings. After all, he was "only a Moor!"

The Greek consul reported that the condition of the Moorish prisons was a disgrace to the age, and that he had himself known prisoners who had succ.u.mbed to their evil state after receiving a few strokes from the lash.