52 A Visit to Ceuta, 



which already in the distance leap into the skies. The beautiful azure 

 of these mountains, the refracted hues which glitter and sparkle on their 

 sides, the huge shapes they assume, look as if Nature had sported with 

 these masses of earth to show man his vanity and insignificance ! They 

 already give the beholder a faint idea of their gigantic parent, the snow- 

 clad Atlas, from whose refreshing breath in the plains of Morocco the 

 languishing Arab inhales a vigour to support the exhaustion of that 

 burning zone. 



The fore-ground of this picture is the most verdant copse and cover, 

 in which game lies as thick as in a preserve. At a short distance in the 

 uplands is seen the solitary castle of the Moorish alcalde ; and here and 

 there are scattered Martello watch-towers, from whose tops the wild 

 head of the Arab sentinel is now and then seen. 



A Spanish escort of cavalry accompanied us to the Moorish lines, 

 where we roused the guard from their tents. They arose from their 

 straw as fantastically dressed as mad Tom in Lear. On seeing a party 

 of English they exclaimed, " Ah good English, fine English !" that 

 talisman flattery not being forgotten even here, where so little occasion 

 exists for bringing its power into action. We despatched one of the 

 grisly messengers with a small present to the alcalde. He bounded 

 over bush and heather to the lone castle like a wizard. In the distance 

 we saw his emphatic explanatory gestures of who the strangers were, and 

 what they wanted. He soon returned with the permission required to 

 shoot over the country, and explained to us " that the land was all our 

 own," a figurative Moorish compliment ! 



The town of Ceuta is chiefly of Portuguese and Spanish construction, 

 and is extremely clean and healthy. The salubrity of the climate, and 

 its total exemption from the fevers which ravage the opposite coast of 

 Spain, is proverbial. It is infinitely preferable to Gibraltar, where the 

 eternal Levanter darkens the sky, and covers the skin with a damp 

 vapour ; where the subtle white dust of the rock creeps into the closest 

 recesses ; and where the natural heat of the climate is augmented by a 

 reflexion of the sun's rays from the stupendous sides of a perpendicular 

 white mountain, rendering the temperature almost insupportable. 



Some of the best regiments in the Spanish service are kept here in 

 garrison, which amounts to about six thousand men a force by no means 

 too great to defend the place, to keep the prisoners in order and the 

 Moors in respect. One particular part of the town is allotted to the 

 residence of the Moorish inhabitants, who chose to remain here at the 

 time of the conquest of Ceuta by the Portuguese. This quarter is the 

 only part of the town not of European structure. The low flat-roofed 

 Moorish houses are here preserved ; and the Moors of Ceuta retain their 

 costume, religion, and privileges, the same as in a Mahommedan country 

 privileges which have been secured to them by different grants of the 

 Spanish monarchs. They, in return, are bound to furnish a guard for 

 his Spanish Majesty's service, and are once or twice a year mustered as 

 a matter of form. They are governed by their own alcaid or chief, 

 whose dress on state occasions is very splendid, over which he wears a 

 scarlet bernous * trimmed with gold lace. It is not generally the custom 



* The bernous is a mantle with a hood or cap. In bad weather this hood is drawn over 

 the turban ; and then the mantle itself, which is generally hanging on the back, is drawn 

 round the body. The woof is of cotton and silk, impervious to water from its close texture. 



