The Sun.
London, England, 1860-02-23 00:00:00

SPAIN AND MOROCCO.

(From the Correspondent of the Times.)
TETUAN, FEE. 11.

Events at first regarded as calamitous sometimes
prove blessings in the end, and among such, perhaps,
will have to be classed the sack of a large portion of
Tetuan by the defeated and lawless army of the
fugitive Muley Abbas, It has compelled the abo-
minably dirty and negligent population to turn out
of their houses the shattered fragments of their fur-
niture, and, at the same time, an amount of rubbish
and filth such as an European imagination could
hardly conjure up. " You are removing the dirt of
three centuries," said tho intelligent Moorish
alcalde whom the Spaniards have appointed ; and
really, judging from appearance, the Mahomedan
did not greatly exaggerate. Except some parts of
Galata, I know nothing that can even remotely
compare with the streets of Tetuan, and notably
with those of the Jewish quarter. You would not
thank me for an attempt to catalogue the ingre-
dients of the mass of foulness which, under Spanish
direction, the Tetuanese are now raking up and re-
moving—not willingly, believe me. The unfortu-
nate Jews evidently think it very hard that old
abuses should be thus interfered with, and that
they should be compelled, by brown-coated bayonet-
bearing taskmasters, to delve, and scrape, and
sweep, and gradually to remove the sacred accumu-
lations of ages. The owner of the rottenest of
boroughs could hardly have viewed the Reform
Bill with greater disgust than they testify for this
innovating and compulsory purification. I assure
you it was a strange sight yesterday to see the
main street of the Ghetto crowded with these poor
children of Israel, in their striped cotton coats and
loose white trousers, their heads for the most part
bare, or scantily covered with a skull cap, their
ankles naked, their feet slippered, their figures
shambling and slightly stooping, as of a people used
to oppression ; their countenances timid and furtive,
their slender hands unused to rude toil, grasping
but feebly shovel and broom. They were not
hardly treated or unnecessarily tormented ; the
Spanish soldier is generally neither brutal nor
cruel; but they were made to work, and evi-
dently thought it a harsh and tyrannical proceed-
ing. if they are kept to the necessary labour, in a
few days Tetuan will assume an aspect hitherto
unknown to its oldest inhabitant; its streets will
have sunk a foot or two, and will no longer stifle
the passenger with odours compared to which the
combined emanation from a knacker's yard and an
extensive soapboiling establishment would seem
Arabian perfumes ; its walls will be whitewashed,
with which object large quantities of lime are pre-
paring ; water will have leave to flow down the
gutters, at present choked with black and fetid
mud ; in short, the place will be fit to live in, which
it certainly was not when we arrived here, except
for Moors and African Jews. There is the less
excuse for these horrible dirty habits as water is
extremely abundant here ; there are wells and
springs and streams all around the town, and in
nearly all its houses one finds pumps and fountains
yielding a plenteous supply, clear as crystal. Only
the very healthy and airy position of Tetuan, on a
rising ground between two valleys, with sea or
mountain breezes refreshing it from whatever quar-
ter the wind may set, can have saved it from con-
tinually recurring fevers and pestilence ; for, be-
sides the dirt, the streets arc narrow and confined,
and the houses derive light and air chiefly from
inner courts, often only a few feet square. Exter-
nally few windows are seen, and most of those are
but a foot high and a few inches broad—more like
loopholes than windows. Here and there a semi-
circular box, like half a barrel, is fixed against the
wall, covering an aperture and having in its staves
minute loopholes, not much larger than keyholes,
through which one can fancy the dusky Moorish
beauties stealing a glance at a passing pageant—
perhaps at the gallant array of Muley Abbas's
picked cavalry, as they went out, full of con-
fidence, to meet a disastrous, defeat. From de-
serted window sills and narrow ledges of the
whitened brickwork sprout rich tufts of dark green
vegetation, shooting npwards as if they would
fain rise above the roof and catch the sunbeams
the narrow streets exclude, or drooping down-
wards as though resigned to shade. Where rooms
are not built across- and over the street, narrow
arches unite its opposite sides, as though the
builder, mistrustful of his work, had desired addi-
tional support. The best of Tetuan's streets are but
lanes, sonic ith ragged pavement, others unevenly
floored with earth, which the least rair converts
into mud. They are narrow, as befits the climate;
tortuous and labyrinthian, and meeting each other
at all possible angles. At a short distance from the
western exit from the town, outside of which now
camps the corps of lion Juan Prim, is the princi-
pal square, mentioned in a former letter, and on
the most conspicuous building of which, high above
the ground, the Spaniards have painted, in large
black letters, " Plaza de Espana." To facilitate re-
ference and circulation, the Spaniards—who, in
some things, display a promptitude and method I
must own I should hardly have expected from
them—have already given names to the streets,
have had them painted on boards, and are fixing
them up at all corners. Considering that they en•
tered Tetuan only on the 6th inst., a good deal has
already been done, and one important point gained
is that the Moors have been inspired with confidence
in their new rulers. Some of the plundered Jews
conceiving, on the Spaniards' entrance, that their
star was in the ascendant, thought to indemnify
themselves for their losses at the hands of the
Moorish army by reprisals on the deserted Moorish
houses. There was an excuse for them. They had
been left, in many cases, without a bed to lie upon
or a blanket to cover them ; they saw houses full
of what they greatly needed and destitute of occu-
pants, and they went forth to help themselves.
One of the first acts of the Spanish authorities,
when here installed, was to forbid the removal of
property from deserted houses. It was necessary to
enforce the order, and two Jews, who were caught
stealing from a Moorish house, were visited with
stripes. This had a great effect on the Moors. They
felt themselves protected—as the Israelites had felt
themselves protected—and, the orderly and quiet
behaviour of the Spanish soldiery concurring to dis-
sipate their first alarm, they began to emerge in num-
bers from their hiding-places, and to show themselves
abroad without any signs of fear. The difference
in the bearing of Jews and Moors is very striking.
Cringing, servile, abject are the former; even when
in full security they seem to shrink from dreaded
question or reproof, and if you but raise your voice
they crouch as though they feared a blow. If they
excite contempt, they must also move to pity, for
their broken spirit is the effect of long persecution.
But mark the difference in the Mahomedan. He is
proud and stoical, even in his great distress and dis-
aster. His bearing is erect, his countenance calm ;
his eye, if it does not always firmly sustain your
gaze, at least betrays no faint heart ; his supremacy
is gone, but his manly dignity remains. On the 7th
the second day of Spanish presence in Tetuan, I was
particularly struck by this. Rambling through the
Moorish quarter we met several of its inhabitants,
who had evidently come forth for the first time
since the capture of the city, and with some doubts
as to the reception reserved for them by the invaders.
But there were no signs of humiliation about them ;
they Were none the less in their own esteem because
eonquered wad subjected ; they took their misfor-
tune
in the true fatalist spirit ; it was so ordained,
and there was no shame fer them.
Not only in the city, but in the adjacent country,
the Moors seem to be acquiring
stir bing-confidenee in the
t
Spaniards and disposed
rnit quietly to their
rule. Deputations have arrived from villages,
ten-
dering submissson and allegiance, p
aOr
ennly tli
e yesterda-
yeo
afternoon one of them Came in, apparently
poration of some Moorish douar, a •
nxtous to see the
General-in-Chief and to present a modeq tribute of
fowls and eggs. Unfortunately O'Donnell Was ab.
sent. The ex-king of a tribe, whom the Emperor's
Government had deprived of his authority, has
offered to bring 13,000 men under Spanish govern-
ment, provided he be restored to his station. There
would be no difficulty in forming a native corps
here, and O'Donnell :entertains the project. The
soldiers and others who have presented themselves
are assured of good treatment, of the possession of
their horses, of security for their'women, and ofi