COAST OF MAROCCO, ETC. 319 



12 miles S. 60' E. ; 19th, 26' 1' N., 24^ 2' W., 12 inUes S. 13» E. ; 2lst, 2V 44' N., 

 -26' 22' W., 12 miles W.S.W. 



Ship Orion, Captain H. Libbey, July 3rd, 1856, lat. 29" 5 N., long. 23^ 30' W., 

 12 miles South. 



Ship Panther, Captain N. G. Weeks, August 10th, 1854, lat. 28" 9' N.,22^ 30' W., 

 12 mUes W.S.W. ; 12th, 23" 32' N., 25" 38' W., 15 miles W.S.W., Ac. Note.— The 

 ship was at this time in the N.E. Trades, which have during the summer reached 

 to the higher latitude. 



Ship Hurricane, Captain St. Very, August 22nd, 1855, lat. 30' 31' N., 18' 0' W., 

 12 mUes S.W. ; 23rd, 27" 11' N., 19' 15' W., 8 miles S. i W. ; 24th, 23" 50' N., 

 19' 25' W., 11 miles S. by W. ; 25th, 21" N., 19^" W., 6 miles S. i W. ; 26th, 

 18" 4' N., 19" 45' W., 7 mUes S. * W. 



Barque Mea, Captain B. Buxton, August 17fch, 1859, lat. 25" 41' N., 21' 14' W., 

 12 mUes South ; 18th, 23" 16' N., 22" 54' W., 8 miles South. 



Barque Adler, Captain E. Thiel, October 27th, 1849, lat. 25' 17' N., 23' 33' W., 

 27 miles S. 31' W. for two days; 30th, 18" 13' N., 25^' 49' W., 13 miles S.W. ; 3l8t, 

 15' 45' N., 26' 35' W., 12 miles S.W. i W. (Trade \^'ind). 



Ship Colorado, Captain Bicker, October 19th, 1855, lat. 31' 15' N., 16" 49' W., 

 12 mUes S.E. ; 20th, 28' 33' N., 18' 47' W., 24 miles S.S.E. ; 21st, 26' 16' N., 

 20' 11' W., 12 miles S.W. ; 24' 22' N., 21= 15' W., 6 miles S.W. 



(268.) Mr. James Grey Jackson, in his valuable " Account of the Empire of 

 Morocco,"* stated that the coast, between the latitude of 20° and 32° North, is a 

 desert country, interspersed with immense hills of loose sand, which are, from 

 time to time, driven by the wind into different forms, and so impregnate the air 

 with sand, for many miles out to sea, as to give the atmosphere an appearance of 

 hazy weather. Navigators, not aware of the circumstance, never suspect, during 

 such appearances, that they are near land, until they discover the breakers on the 

 coast, which is, in some parts, so extremely flat, that a person may walk a mile 

 into the sea without being over the knees ; so that ships strike when at a con- 

 siderable distance from the beach. Added to this, there is a current, which sets 

 in from the West towards Africa with inconceivable force and rapidity, with which 

 the navigator being generally unacquainted, he loses his reckoning, and, in the 

 course of a night, perhaps, when he expects to clear the African coast, in his 

 passage Southward, he is alarmed with the appearance of shoal water ; and, before 

 he has time to recover himself, finds his ship aground on a desert shore, where 

 neither habitation nor himaan being is visible. In this state his fears are soon in- 

 creased by a persuasion that he must either perish in fighting a horde of wild 

 Arabs, or submit to become their captive; for soon after a ship strikes, some 

 wandering Arabs, strolling from their duar in the desert, perceive the masts from 

 the sand-hills ; and, without coming to the shore, repair to their horde, perhaps 

 30 or 40 miles off, to apprise them of the wreck, when they immediately assemble, 

 arming themselves with daggers, guns, and cudgels. Sometimes two or three 

 days or more elapse before they make their appearance on the coast, where they 

 await the usual alternative of the crew either delivering themselves up, rather 

 than perish with hunger, or throwing themselves into the sea.f 



* London, quarto, 1809. See, also, the affecting " Narrative of the Shipwreck aad 

 Captivity of M. de Brisson," in 1787; and that of Robert Adams, wrecked in tha 

 American ship Charles, John Horton, master, 1810. This subject is noticed more par- 

 ticularly in the description of the coasts of Africa, hereafter. 



t Even at the present time, as more fully deacribed hereafter, it is necessary to 

 remember the merciless character of these Arabs. On August 2Qth, 1892, the Spanish 

 trading cutter Icod, when anchored at Parchel, near Cape Bojador, was boarded and 

 looted by Moorish corsairs, who carried off eleven of the crew as prisoners, the other 

 five escaping in the cutter's boat. 



