40 DIFFICULTY OF ACCESS BY SEA. ch. ii. 



and where they seem to manage their own affairs with 

 little interference from the Moorish authorities. We soon 

 established ourselves in very fair quarters at the house of 

 Isaac Nahum, who acts as clerk and interpreter at the 

 single consulate which of late years has watched over the 

 safety of all Europeans who happen to reach Tetuan 

 whether by land or sea. Since the war in which Tetuan 

 was taken by the Spanish troops — their solitary achieve- 

 ment during the last sixty years — the Grovernment of 

 Spain has desired to maintain its influence in this part of 

 the country by the presence of a consul ; and the other 

 European States have willingly taken advantage of his 

 presence. The duties cannot be heavy, for few strangers 

 now visit Tetuan, although up to the year 1770 it was the 

 residence of all the European consuls. The beauty of its 

 site, the excellence of its oranges and other fruit, and the 

 reported superiority in refinement of its inhabitants, both 

 Moorish and Jew, do not compensate for the difficulty of 

 access by sea, since none but the smallest class of coasting 

 vessels can cross the bar at the mouth of the river. This 

 is guarded (or was so up to the time of the Spanish war 

 in 1859) by a massive square tower, without door or other 

 apparent opening. A Christian boat from Gribraltar, in 

 which one of us had formerly arrived, was hailed from the 

 summit of the tower. After a preliminary parley, a rope 

 ladder was let down from the top, some seventy or eighty 

 feet, and a black soldier scrambled down with great activity, 

 the final result of the parley being that the strangers, after 

 payment of some trifling harbour dues, were sent to the 

 town, a distance of five or six miles, under the escort of a 

 soldier. 



Whether because there really is some slight diminution 

 in the feeling that has so long excluded strangers, and 

 especially Christians, from the interior of Marocco, or that 

 previous travellers had happened to make the attempt at 

 unfavourable conjunctures, we found that the letter to the 

 Governor given to us by Sir J. D. Hay was scarcely re- 



