The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1860-01-10 00:00:00

THE WAR IN MOROCCO.

A great battle seems to have been fought before Cents
either on Saturday or New Year's day. It is said that
the Moors were 40,000 strong, but that is probably an
exaggeration, as the Moorish levies can scarcely yet have
reached that extreme point of the empire. General
Prim commanded the Spaniards, and claims the victory.
The Moots are described to have lost 1,500 men, the
Spaniards 400 to 600. An attack was made by the
Moors on Friday, the 30th ult., and repulsed. On the
Previous day the Spanish squadron burnt and blew up
the forte at the mouth of the river Tetuan, the same
which the French pretended to have blown up before.
Moorish accounts repment the action of the 12th
ult, as a more serious affair than the Spanish official
notice of it would lead us to infer. In this conflict, ia
in the preceding ones, both vides claim the victory.
The following is • history of the affair as given by the
Moors :—At an early hour a division of the Spani•h
army (Prim's corpe, so we learn (coin the Spanish
statement), advanced to a place called Memo del
Fneedak, which is about five miles distant from Ceuta,
and on the seashore. Here they commenced the con-
struction of works, apparently with the object of
establishing themselves at this point. A body of
about 7,000 infantry and 150 home, under the corn-
niand Kaid Abbas Einkislied, Governor of Huff,
wu immediately detatelied from the Moorish army for
the purpose of attacking the Spaniards and dislodging
them from the position they hail taken up. In thin
the Moors assert that, after a sharp struggle, they
were successful ; that they drove the Spanish forces
back upon their positions before Ceuta ; and that re.
inforcement sent out by the Spanish General failed to
arrest the retreat until the Spaniards hind reached the
Serrallo. The works at 31ersio del Fneedak were
destroyed, the sandbags emptied, and the bags carried
off to the Moorish Camp. In its main features, as
regards the actual movements, this account does net
vary much front that we have received from Ceuta;
in the latter it is admitted that Pritn's corps, after
making an advance, retreated upon the Spanish posi-
tions, with the object, it is alleged, of drawing the
Moors within range of the Spanish artillery. There
are violent discrepancies as to the killed and wounded.
The Moors give their own loss as fifteen or sixteen
killed and about forty wounded, and allege that the
line of retreat of the Spaniards from Merso del Fneedak
to the Semllo was strewn with Spanish dead. The
Spanish accounts represent their killed at four, and
wounded forty-six, and the loss of the Moors as
immense.
The Moorish account of the affair of the 15th ult, is
not so favourable to themselver, but it would appear
from it that no advantage was reaped on either side.
The Moors gave their loss as six killed and fifteen
wounded.
On the 17th ultimo there was another engagement, in
which the Spaniards lust between thirty and forty men
killed and wounded. The Moors caught a wounded
Spanish soldier who hail been overlooked by his
comrades. The latter missing him hurried back to his
rescue, and drove away the Moors just as these hail cut
off his head ; which, however, they were in too great
haste to carry ~ff. •• It is positively stated and believed
iii camp,- says the Ti an correspondent in the Spanish
camp, " that the Mmirisli Emperor grants • I II fo
r
every .or
every head, and four for every live Spaniard brought in. •
We are not aware that any four-dollar premiums have
yet been gained. The galley slaves, who have been
armed, and who fought desperately, and have a good
many killed and wounded, have been promised a dollar
for every live Mimr they bring in, and they go lAA if
nights on the prowl in hopes of captures. Although
the much higher price offered by the Moorish Govern-
ment for living than for dead would serve to indicate a
desire to humanise the war, it has hitherto been
carried on entirely without quarter. The Moors began
in that way, with • 'system of pitiless slaughter, and
the Spaniards have been exasperated almost to ferocity
by this, and now scrupulously follow their esample.
Hitherto we have not brought in a single prisoner.
A very few have been made, and killed by the soldiers
before they got into camp, at which General O'Donnell
was very wroth. The soldiers may the Moors will not
let themselvea be taken; that they fight desperately
until killed ; and this is very likely to be the case in
the majority of instances, but it is difficult to believe
that some captures, although only of men wounded, might
not be wade. The Mimrs, they say, lie down and will not
rise, and their obstinacy provokes a bayonet thrust.
They might, one would think, be bound hand and foot
and carried in, and it is not impossible that useful
information might be extracted from some of thew.
Mercy in war is not, however, one of the nicest con-
spicuous qualities of Spaniards ; and, moreover, there
are tales and traditions current of horrible cruelties
which the Misors are in the habit of inflicting on the
entmies who fall into their liaiiila ; and, in fact, the
war hasat this, its outset, assumed the niost sanguinary
and ferocious character."
A correspondent says the action of the 25th was one
of the sharpest encounters since the commencement of
the campaign. A brilliant charge was made by one of
the Spanish Generals (name not given), who jumped
from his horse, seized a musket, and led hi, men •
against one of the Moorish positions, which be took at
tile point of the bayonet. Thirty-eight Moorish dead
were found on the spot. The Spanish less was reported
as six killed and thirty wounded.
A telegram from Madrid, dated Jan. 2, says :
Three vessels sailirg under the English Flag, and
carrying contraband of war, have been brought from
Ceuta to Alguiras."
A letter of the 17th ult. published in • Spanish paper
state that the casualties ill the army of Africa, since
the commencement of the umpaign, amounted at that
date to 6,000 ; hut of these it is calculated 1,500 will
soon return to join their corps. The road to Tetuan
was getting on rapidly, and it is said that, as soon as
the siege train arrived, the army would march on that
, city, leaving General Orozoo's division in charge of the
earthworks on the heights of the Serallo.
The Epoed 111111110UUCCS that the strength of the army in
Africa is to he raised to $OOOO men. This will leave a
respectable force to operate, after garrisoning the
redoubts, fost4, and other advanced lines.