150 GEOGHAPHICAL DIFFICULTIES. 



CH. Til, 



to life and property becomes the predominant feeling. 

 The notion that a man can care to acquire knowledge 

 of any kind for its own sake is not for a moment ad- 

 mitted, and suspicion is necessarily the first feeling aroused 

 by any inquiry, however apparently harmless. Bearing this 

 in mind, we often felt astonishment at the share of success 

 that has been attained by some geographers, and especi- 

 ally by Captain Beaudouin, the author of the French War 

 Office map of Marocco. It is true that some large por- 

 tions of that map are quite unreliable, and that it contains 

 many grave errors as to the direction of the mountain 

 ranges and valleys ; but, considering that the greater part 

 of it was compiled by the comparison of itineraries and 

 descriptions furnished by a large number of separate 

 native informants, the wonderful thing is that in many 

 districts it should approach so near to accuracy as it does ; 

 and it undoubtedly shows a very remarkable degree of 

 care, patience, and intelligence on the part of its author. 



In the course of the afternoon, Abraham brought to 

 us an elderly Jew, named Salomon ben Daoud, described 

 as a man employed by the merchants trading with the 

 interior, and familiar with all the roads leading to those 

 parts of South Marocco with which the people of the 

 city have any intercourse. The contrast between the ap- 

 pearance of this man and that of the Moors was com- 

 plete. He had something of the downcast, long-suffering 

 expression common among his coreligionists in this coun- 

 try, but an unmistakable air of intelligence that at once 

 made him interesting. It was easy to understand that, 

 although despised and often ill-used by the governing 

 race, these people by their superior brain-power have con- 

 trived to make themselves indispensable to their masters, 

 and that all people in authority, from the Sultan to the 

 deputy-governor, are forced to rely upon them. Although 

 Salomon was able to answer readily most of our questions 

 respecting the several routes leading from Marocco into 

 the neighbouring portions of the Great Atlas, it was in- 



