St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-06-10
BANDITTI OF TODAY.
In Many Lands They Still
Abound and Ply Their
Trade.
Piracy on the High Seas MOI
Entirely Thing Of the
Past.
Two Ships Captured Recently
OFF the Coast OF Mo-
rocco.
A Half-Million of Brigands
Make Their Home in the
Sahara.

Daring the first week in May the snip
Aan Antonio and the bark Goleta, both
Spanish, were captured by pirates OH
the north coast of Morocco, almost with
in sight of Europe. The cargoes were
carried off to the mountain retreats OF
the robbers. Capt. Albania, of the Go
eta, was taken inland, held for ran
som, and daily beaten and nearly
starved for week, until his poor rela-
tives in Spain managed TO Scrape to
gether $500, which his captors accepted,
though they had demanded $4,000 as the
price of his release. Spain las de-
manded an indemnity from the sultan
of Morocco. Poor Muley HaSSan is still
turning his customs duties into the
Spanish treasury as indemnity for the
war of 1860 which was precipitated, III
part. by the crimes of these same out
laws. whose occasional attacks upon
commerce are now the only veStige OF
the palmy days of piracy along the
Barbary coast.
BerherS of the RiE Mountains.
Among the Riff mountains. stretch
Ing along the Mediterranean, live these
wild Berber bands. They defy the
sultan. They recently killed a gov
ernOr whom Muley HaSsan undertook
TO place over them. I'VE have no ruler
except our guns was the word they
sent to Muley HaSsan five years ago.
The Moorish armies, says a writer Ill
the Philadelphia Record. have never
been able to get possession of these
mountain areas, which, almost over
looking Europe, are today among the
least known and most inaccessible
parts of Africa. No white man has set
foot in that region, except III disguise.
In 1888 De Foucauld. disguised as a
Jew. made the wonderful journey in
which he passed unsupported gmOng
these mOuntaineers, collecting about all
the information of the country we now
possess. DR.. LeEZ in 1879, disguised as
Mohammedan merchant, also Travelled
UnScathed through a corner of this re-
gi0n. crossing one mountain pass. and
Walter B. Harris. in 1888, wearing the
dress of a middle class Moor and with
his legs and arms stained brown, visit
ed Shcshouan. one of the largest towns
of the fanatical Berbers. He was COM
PEELED to play the part of a deaf mute,
for his knowledge of Arabic was so i'm
perfect that his speech would have be-
as a means of communication.
Sons of the Primal Men.
These Berbers are the descendants of
the abOrigineS of the country who were
dlspoSseSsed by the invading Arabs, eX-
cept among the mountains. where their
children still live, as free as air-the
only subjects of Mhley Hassan whom
the taX-gatherer never veXes. They
reside in walled towns that are often
perched high on the mountain sides.
One month they are tilling the soil Of
the fertile valleys, and the next they
may be off on a fOray against tteir
peace loving neighbOrs south of them.
or watching along the coast for chance
TO Loot some small craft. Six in
stances of piracy have been reported
within the past fifteen months, and each
time the sultan of Morocco has been
called upon to pay heavy damages.
There was no telling when the lawless
spirit of these mountain brigandS will
be broken, unless Morocco, some day.
falls into the hands of a European
power, when short work will be made
of them. Mr.. Harris says the great diff
ficulty in the way of exploring the Riff
mountains is the treachery of the inha3-
itantS. who are perfectly untruStWOrthy.
and therefore very unlike the Arab
mountain tribes, who, when they once
say You are welcome" will die III
ones defense.
Bandits of the Sahara.
Among the chronological curiosities of
the last worlds fair in Paris were a
number of Touaregs from the Sahara
desert. They had been taken prisoners
in fight with Algerian troops. and had
been kept i'll confinement in Algeria for
Tn,
Paris. So little was known Of these
terrible bandits OF the Sahara, that
when the news came that some of them
were actually prisoners, the French
government dispatched two scientific
men TO AlgierS with instructions to get
from the captives all that could be
learned of the history of their great tribe.
and of their customs, arts and language.
The two scholars spent most their time
for three months in the Algiers prison,
and the information they obtained has
been published. Today the French are
building large military post at Ell
GOlea. an oasis in the northern part of
the desert. and it is their expectation
aid policy, using Ell Golea as base of
operations, to so far Subdue the TOuar-
egs as to insure the safety of caravan
traffic across the Sahara. This step will
be an essential preliminary to carrying
out the project of connecting Frances
Mediterranean and SOudanese posses
BiOnS by railroad across the Sahara.
Nearly a HaIfMilIiOn of Them
The Touaregs are the most formidable
band of professional brigands in the
world. They occupy the entire central
part of the Sahara. from GhadameS on
the north to TimbGctoo on the south.
1t is impossible to give an approximate
Idea of their numbers. DR.. Supan eSti-
mates the population of the entire
Sahara at 3,500.000, and it is probable
that the tWenty-SiX Sub-familes of the
tribe of Touaregs number at least 400
COO souls. All the trade routes from
Algeria and Tunis, and some of those
from Morocco and Tripoli, pass
through their territory. 1t was these
fanatlcal nOmads who murdered Miss
Time. the handsome young heiress of
Holland, whose devotion to the cause of
discovery led to her tragical fate in the
desert. The TOuaIegs murdered the
entire Flatters expedition. They killed
half-dOzen Catholic priests who were
tOiling across the desert to found mis-
sion in the Soudan. Lieut.. Palat. and
little later. Camille Douls, both of whom
were undertaking the hazardous jour
ney to TimbuctoO, met death by viO-
lence in the 1ouareg country. But their
hand is turned no more against the
whites than against every traveller in
their land who has plumber worth seiz-
ing.
A Land of Violence
The Central Sahara is a land where
violence is supreme, where tTeachery is
the only law. Not one of the murderers
of white travellers has been punished.
Ernest MERCER and Mr.. lie Chatelier
have graphically described the reign of
terror in this great region. Many
thousands of Arabs or Arab-Berbers,
who live by camel raising, spend their
lives in the Touareg country or around
Its borders. They guard their herds
with arms in their hands, but very often
guards are killed by sudden descent Of
TOuaregs, and the herds are driven
away to enrich the bandit camps.
Only those Arab tribes are safe that pay
heavy hlackmailto be let alone Trading
caravans are always on the lookout for
black speckS on the horizon that NAV
md 10 Of