128 ENTER THE CITY. ch. ti, 



rooms, and more adjoining if required, was ready to re- 

 ceive us. Hereupon we resolved to enter the city, and in 

 company with our new friends, whose ample hailcs pic- 

 turesquely draped must have contrasted favourahly with 

 the ugly jellabias that we wore over our Eiu-opean dress, 

 we defiled in a long cavalcade, followed by the mules, 

 camels, and donkeys of our train, through the gardens that 

 on this side approach close to the city walls. 



Before the gate we found an officer, evidently of in- 

 ferior position, with some ten or twelve ragged fellows on 

 foot, armed with rusty matchlocks, posted there to receive 

 us, and to conduct us to our quarters ; and with this sorry 

 escort, we made our entry into Marocco. It is impossible by 

 any language to convey the sense of utter disappointment 

 and disgust which overpowered us on our iirst arrival ; and 

 though these feelings soon became subordinate to others 

 connected with our personal position, they are those which 

 predominate in our subsequent recollections. 



After passing the gateway we had before us a wide 

 road, with a lofty mud wall on one side and a lower mud 

 wall on the other. The high wall on the right forms 

 part of the enclosure of the Sultan's palace ; over that on 

 the left branches of shrubs or trees appeared, showing that 

 gardens or orchards lay behind. On either side of the 

 road rose accumulations of refuse and filth that looked as 

 if they might have been the growth of centuries, and the 

 farther we went the greater became the piles of abomina- 

 tion, until it seemed as if these would block up the pas- 

 sage. We had passed a fine Moorish arch of wide span, 

 that forms the chief entrance to the palace enclosure, and 

 following this as it makes a sharp turn to the right, there 

 were still no signs of dwellings. The mud walls on either 

 side, on which many storks built their nests, were often in 

 a ruinous state ; and here and there it seemed as if people 

 had burrowed beneath so as to make something between 

 a den and a hovel. At length we turned into a sort of 

 lane, and soon emerged into what appears to be one of the 



