56 A Visit to Ceuta. [JULY, 



angle caused an impediment to our liberation. A council was called, 

 at the head of which the commanding officer of engineers presided. Sen- 

 tence was however pronounced in favour of our innocence, and to the 

 great disappointment of our accuser we were liberated ! 



Convicts often make their escape from this fortress into Barbary, which 

 is not difficult at periods of low tide, which leaves the beach sufficiently 

 dry to pass along the sea-shore to the Moorish lines, if they can escape 

 the vigilance of the Spanish sentries. The only condition on which the 

 Moors consent to protect the fugitives is that of their becoming Mahom- 

 medans : if they do not apostatize, they are delivered back to the Spa- 

 niards. Certain religious ceremonies render the adoption of his faith, 

 an inconvenient and dangerous experiment at an advanced period of life; 

 but there is no alternative for them : the punishment which awaits their 

 return is more dreadful than the one proposed ; they therefore generally 

 consent to the latter, and make up their minds to settle in the country. 

 Notwithstanding the change of costume, and the disguise of the shorn 

 head and turban, it is easy to discover these converts from the genuine 

 Moors. Such is the zeal of the Mahommedans to convert Christians that 

 they are satisfied thus to force their faith upon them ; but the moment the 

 unfortunate renegade has submitted to all they require, they openly ma- 

 nifest their contempt, and give him to understand his progeny even to 

 the third generation can only then be considered pure Mussulmen. They 

 watch over him to prevent his escape from the country, any attempt at 

 which would cost him his liberty, perhaps his life ! 



I recollect meeting with a renegade at work in the gardens of the 

 American consul at Mount Washington near Tangiers. Beneath his 

 turban there appeared features more Hibernian than Arabesque. In reply 

 to a question asking him to what country he belonged, he answered in 

 the true vernacular of the Emerald Isle, <( that his country was that in 

 which he found his bread." A tender cord was touched ; but he conti- 

 nued, "that in his youth he had been a sailor shipwrecked on the coast; 

 that a number of wild Arabs had fallen on the captain and the crew, whom 

 they had murdered ; but that his life had been spared in pity to his youth, 

 on consenting to become a Mahommedan." 



The real truth of Sidi Abdallah's shorn head, which I afterwards 

 learnt, was this : He had remained in Spain after the peninsular war, in 

 which he had served. Some slight misdemeanors had caused him to 

 be transported to Ceuta, from whence he had made his escape. On his 

 way across the country he observed a woman washing clothes at a brook. 

 Sidi Abdallah, then Tom O'Reilly, or some such name, boldly advanced 

 towards her ; but the nearer he approached, the more closely did the lady 

 muffle herself up in her shawls. This, instead of serving him as a warn- 

 ing to retire, only tended to whet the edge of his youthful curiosity ! 

 He found means, by dint of money, to induce the damsel to exhibit her 

 face ; but soon regretted the expense he had been at, for she was one of 

 those ugly, broad-nosed, thick-lipped creatures, with the complexion of a 

 mummy, belonging to the half-castes. He turned from the sight in dis- 

 gust, when he found his path intercepted by half a dozen Moors, who 

 had witnessed his interesting interview with the lady, and had determined 

 on making him pay the penalty of his impertinent curiosity ! He 

 was placed in confinement, and was doomed to die ! On consideration of 

 his inexperience of Moorish customs, he was however offered the alterna- 

 tive of marrying the woman and becoming a Mahommedan, which he 

 thought proper to accept. 



