The Penn's Grove record., 1883-06-09
Travelling In

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A writer in the London Athenmum
says that the difficulties of Maroecan
travel though sufficiently great, have
been exaggerated or Of the travellers's
own making. The nest of ENJOYS at
Tangier, engrossed with their petty
rivalrfes and squabbles about nothing
rarely see the Sultan, and they are nm
known to his advisers, unless we accept
the Minister of Foreign Affairs, whom
they keep on the coast for their private
batting. Tangier is, indeed an Oriental
Pumpernickel. If, for example, the
German Minister cannot eat the hay, he
takes good care that his French colleague
shall not enjoy the banquet. The Italian
Envoy may have no taste for antiquities,
but he is not ON that account inclined
to look with complaisance on his
Spanish neighbors' yearning after
Roman cities and Phenician tombs.
Moreover, knowing well that the
popular ambassador is he who gives
least trouble, the diplomatists are invari
ably inclined to throw cold water on
any enterprise which might embroil the
country they represent with that of the
marauders who have maltreated some
o~ver-zealous investigator, and to travel
without an escort and a firman is in
most parts of Marocco considered to be
simply counting the martyrs fate, while
to travel with one is almost as bad.
Every village hates the sight of the
''bashador's'; cavalcade for the
"mona," or gratuitous supply of pro-
visions which the wretched people must
hestow on all government travellers, is a
tax which is not only frequently abused,
but is so repugnat to every sense of JUS
tice that right-minded men will often
elect to dispense with the favor, ard as
a consequence of running tilt against
the customs of the country, ineu The
enmity of Il cir escort, and be ~ con-
scionably swindled in paying for what
a minute before they we've offered as a
g 1T.
There are, of course, also religious
AMI local prejudices of a ~fanactical,
ignorant, semi-barbarous people to over
come. ''Saint houses'' are so numero s
that one is never sure when sacred soil
is being de6led and ~''assouies,' OF
dervishes, are not the kind Of people for
whose good behavior any n would
care to become bail. The governors
and village sheiks have no desire to see
strangers. Hospitalities in Morocco
means %prodigious ''feeds," and even
in that cheap country food costs money.
Nor are they anxious for the sultan to
hear of their wealth, since rich men in
Marocco are short-lived, and if ''sent
for'' are apt not to return. Finally, the
tribesmen are apt to consider every
escort of white-robed soldiers as eDly
the abhored taxgatherers in disguise,
and toact after their truculent Instincts,
The Sultan occupies his time in march.
ing about the empire collecting his dues,
with the aid of a plundering army OF
ruflianly spearsmen for Morocco is
still an unconquered country.
The Mauri of the Romans are the
Berbers of our day, and though they
have adopted, after a rough fashion,
the faith of their Arab invaders, the
Shereefian sovereigns lave in many parts
of "Mauritania'' no influence beyond
the range of their guns. But Mr..
Watson, armed with an introduction
from the mulatto Shereef, had nc
trouble whatever in reaching and re-
siding in the holy city of Wazan, hither-
to supposed to be indescribably Islamic
and were some prudent individual,
equally well provided with recommen-
dations and able to speak Arabic, to
visit Mulai Edris, doubtless he also
would return in safety. Wea are convinc.
ed, after some personal acquaintance
with the supposed difficulties of Marco
can travel, that if a good-natured, easy
minded scholar, a physician by prefer
ence, could settle down in MogadoI
OF still better in Morocco city, under
of course, diplomatic professionalism
the ways of the people and a little of
their language, and gain the friendship
of some of the more powerful Berber
sheiks of the Atlas, he might add i'm
mensely to u present vague acquain-
lance with the geography of the Moorish
empire.