[ 538 ] [Nov. 



A VISIT TO TANGIERS. 



(From the Journal of a Recent Traveller.) 



TANGIERS is the first African town which meets the eye on entering 

 the Straits of Gibraltar ; it is the residence of all the European Consuls 

 for the empire of Morocco, and is considered the only part in this 

 kingdom in which Europeans can reside with any thing like comfort or 

 security. This town first belonged to the Romans and afterwards to 

 the Goths, and was given up to the Mahommedans by Count Julian. It 

 was taken, in 1471, by the Portuguese, and given to Charles II., king 

 of England, in 1662, as a marriage portion with the Princess Catherine 

 of Portugal. The English abandoned it in 1684, after having destroyed 

 the mole and fortifications. 



The inhabitants, amounting to about 15,000, chiefly derive their 

 support from their traffic with the opposite coast of Spain, particularly 

 Gibraltar, and are much more tractable than the Moors of any other 

 part of Barbary, from their more constant intercourse with strangers. 

 The place would by no means be a disagreeable residence, did not the 

 Moors so strongly oppose any innovation of their old customs, or the 

 introduction of any improvement. Such is their repugnance to derive 

 any benefit from European example, that although the resident Consuls 

 have repeatedly offered to pave and cleanse the principal streets at their 

 own expense, it has not been allowed for fear of exciting a preference 

 for European customs.* 



My first visit to this place was in the George the Fourth steam-boat, 

 in the year 1828. These vessels the Moors call " boxes of fire ;" they 

 eagerly inquired if such machines were used by the Grand Seignor, 

 and on being answered in the negative their curiosity to view its con- 

 struction became greatly damped. The effect produced by an English 

 military band, which accompanied a party of officers of the garrison of 

 Gibraltar in this excursion, will not be easily forgotten by those who 

 witnessed it. During the day several pieces of music were played in 

 the balcony of the English Consul's house, a scene which had never 

 before been witnessed in Barbary. The whole population issued from 

 their houses, the lame, blind, and even the bed-ridden ; its real amount 

 was perhaps never known till that hour. The sounds of the trombone 

 and clarionet, like the wand of Harlequin, set them all in motion, and 

 roused those who never dreamed of passing their thresholds but on their 

 route to the grave. They could scarcely credit the musicians were 

 human beings, and testified their joy in every sort of rude antic ; even 

 women thronged the streets, and every place from which a sound could 

 reach the ear. It was a music of the spheres which has ever since 

 overwhelmed the Barbary professors in their own nothingness ! 



There is nothing notable in the town of Tangiers except the Alcassaba 

 of the Bashaw and the Mosque, which is a plain neat building, kept 

 extremely clean. Ali Bey speaks of having endowed this mosque with 

 water, which was then kept, according to his account, in pitchers ; it 

 however at present possesses a handsome fountain in the midst of the 

 area, and likewise a clock, the gift of one of the European Consuls. 



* There is a well at Tangiers, over which are two slight Gothic arches, said to have 

 been built by the English. In consequence of its having been dug by Christians, the 

 Moors declare the water (although the best in the place) is not drinkable, and only give 

 it to their horses. 



