1830.] The Spanish Presidio on the Coast of Earbary. 51 



dominions would be a terror that would force that power into a compli- 

 ance with any thing we might dictate. The Moors have a perfect 

 horror of a train of field artillery, and it is almost absurd to mention at 

 what odds the English could fight with such weapons. They are the 

 worst gunners in the world even on land batteries. They can neither fire 

 with celerity, nor have they any accurate idea of simply adjusting the 

 length of a fuse to the distance intended to throw a shell. Such is the 

 known deficiency of the Moors in gunnery, that the Emperor of Morocco 

 is obliged to send his subjects to Europe to have them instructed in that 

 art. This necessity gave rise to a circumstance in which the ludicrous 

 and tragic are so blended, that, notwithstanding the fatal part of the 

 transaction, it is difficult Jo repress a smile at their superstitious prejudices. 



Six Moors were sent to Gibraltar, to be instructed in the art of gunnery. 

 Whilst practising at Europa Flats, under the command of an English 

 officer, and assisted by a party of English gunners, one of the guns, from 

 some defect, burst, and strewed the platform with the limbs of three of 

 the unfortunate Moors. Strange to say, the English artillerymen all 

 remained unhurtr The Moors looked upon this providential exception 

 in favour of the English not exactly as the effect of chance, but rather as 

 some invisible design to punish them alone j for, at a subsequent muster, 

 they could not be brought to their work ; they insisted on returning to 

 their own country, exclaiming, { ' No, no ! we see how your English guns 

 refuse to kill Christians ! we will not stay here to be sacrificed !" 



There is some share of blame due to our Ministry to have given back 

 Ceuta to the Spaniards, at a time, it was well known from experience, 

 there existed a necessity of keeping a depot near to so important a fort- 

 ress as Gibraltar, which is totally dependent for provisions (even vege- 

 tables) on foreign resources. It may perhaps be urged, that we could not 

 retain a place which we merely held in trust during the Peninsular war, 

 to prevent its falling into the hands of the French, who would thereby 

 have contested with us the mastery of the Mediterranean. By the same 

 rule that it would have been an annoyance to us in their hands, it may 

 become so in possession of the Spaniards, with whom we might at one 

 time have negotiated for its retention on very easy terms. Spain would 

 readily have consented to any proposition of the sort ; it would have been 

 a rod, with which we could have chastised the Moors, and it would at all 

 times have afforded the most valuable relief to the garrison of Gibraltar. 

 It may not be so easy a matter as is supposed to retake it when required. 

 There is scarcely any means so sure of keeping the Moors in subjection 

 as to establish a footing on their territory, an advantage which perhaps 

 we shall discover hereafter. 



CEUTA* is only six leagues distant from Gibraltar across the straits. 

 It lies midway between Tangiers and Tetuan, in the most charming and 

 romantic country the eye ever beheld. From the " Hacho," or signal 

 station on the top of the mountain, which forms the extreme end of the 

 bay, the prospect is the finest that can be imagined. It commands an 

 entire view of the straits east and west, and the opposite mountains of 

 Spain, the Sierra Nevada. On the land side the view is bounded south- 

 ward by the long blue line of the lower range of the Atlas mountains, 



* Ceuta is supposed to have been built by the Carthaginians, and afterwards appertained 

 to the Romans, by whom it was colonized. It next became the metropolis of the places 

 which the Goths held in Hispania Transfretana, and was after that abandoned to the Arabs 

 and the Moors by Count Julian. It was taken by the Portuguese in 1415. 



G 2 



