The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-02-19


ton aud the >oidier-Its Governor
and Ills Enormous salary.
MelllIa. Spanish North Africa
/ am in What j. about the last 81
|Spain'S coloniaI possessions. In tne
sixteenth ana s-yenteentn centuries
she owned The best part of the new
world. She mad the cream OF North
America, II w. include the Louisiana
purchase. which We got BY way OF
France and she a almost the whole
Of South America excepting Rrallt-
The beSs of the Nest Indies were hers
Cortez poured the treasures OF Mon
tezurna into her royal sofers and Pi-
Zarro. sh ,eing his horses with solid
silver. robbed the lncas Of Peru of
their gold by the shipload. The phil
ippines added To these sources Of
wealth. and for a long time TWO great
golden stream rolled across h At
ana Pacific to bench the Span
iards. spain was then the richest OF
all the powers in her colonial pos
sessions. Today BY mismanagement
and oppression she has become the
poorest. and since her war with us.
when she lost cuba, Porto Rico and
the Philippines. there have been none
poor 10 do her reverence.
Spanish Africa.
Indeed all the land which Spain has
left outside her own is in
Africa. and even here her possessions
are the rag tag and bob-tail Of the
continent. They may cover perhaps
tTO or three hundred thousand square
miles, but they are all desert, sand
or fever swamps, and the tillaDle
lands suitable for white men which
they contain are not as big as an Ohio
county, and their total population Will
hardly equal that of Washington city.
In contrast with this the other great
powers of Europe ave been quietly
gObbling up the fat things OF this
mighty continent. France has the big
gest share. if We include the Island
of Madagascar. She has almost 1000
square miles, or more than one-third
of all Africa. A vast deal Of her ter
ritory. however. is in the Desert Of
Sahara, il; is made up Of stone and
sand which might form good build
ing materials but which are Of no
value where they lie. Great Britain
comes next among the national land
owners h has close TO another
third Of the continent. if We consider
Egypt and its SOudan as q part of her
possessions. Germany has not quite
.onc-eleventh of the whole and Por-
tugal almost one-thirteenth, while
Turkey itself, in TripOli, has about
as much land as Spain.
What Spain Owns.
Before | describe this God-forsaken
spot where 1 now am l would like to
tell you just what Spain has in Africa
She owns the Island of Fernando Pc
and a small tract on the mainland
on the Gulf of Guinea. Her country
there contains. l believe, almost 5000
square miles, or a little more than
the state of Massachusetts. The land
is swampy and so unhealthful
that it has become known as the
''White Mans Grave." 1t is covered
with a luxuriant vegetation and pro-
duces some India rubber and palm
oil. The only foreigners there are a
few Spanish, French and English mer-
chants. The natives are among the
most degraded Of the Africans. They
are negroes of the lowest type, and
slavery is common. Fernando Pc it
self has convict settlements, and the
criminals sent there seldom return.
North of the Gulf of Guinea, be-
tween Morocco and the French Sou
dan, Spain has q wide strip of land
which is ruled by the governor of
the Canary Islands. 1t stretches for
several hundred miles along the At
lantic coast. but it is one of the worst
parts of the whole Desert of Sahara.
1t has no rivers nor any GASES of value
and is very thinly populated. 1t be
gins in the neighborhood of Cape
Blanco. and its chief town is Rio de
ORC. which is golden only in name.
Convict Colonies of the Mediterranean.
In addition to these possessions,
Spain has several convict colonies on
the Moroccan coast of the Mediter-
ranean sea. The first is Ceuta, just
across the way from Gibraltar. |
passed it on my way to Tangier. 1t
can be reached from Algeciras by a
government teamer which takes over
dispatches and mail every day. 1t
consists of a rock on which the town
stands n where the Notifications and
prisons are. 1t now has about 1000
convicts, who are poorly fed and badly
treated.
Ceuta is one Of the oldest towns in
history. 1t is the H~eptadelphi of Ptol-
envy and is supposed to be one of the
first three cities OF the world. The 9TH
ers were SaIernum in Italy and Salem
in Judea.
This place was where the Moors en-
barked when they first crossed over
from Africa to invade Spain. many
centuries ago. They hold all the
country about it today, and they still
SO dislike the Spaniards that it is i'm
possible for the Ceuta people tc go
back into the country unless accompa-
MED by soldiers. The mountains near
by are controlled now. 1 believe, by the
bands of Raisull
Melilla. where l write this letter, Is
mother of SPANS convict settlements.
1t lies on the Mediterranean several
hundred miles east of Ceuta and about
hours by steamer across the
from Malaga. There are also sew
eral islands near here which are used
to cage Spanish cOnyicts. They contain
~murderers. buglars and political ex-
lies.
\ Spanish Military Prison.
Melilla itself is a Spanish military
prison. There are 5000 soldiers sta
toned here. and a large number of
them have come as punishment for de-
crime and for various trans
gr~essions OF military discipline. / cam
imagine a worse place. 1t makes
one think of the inscription over the
door TO Dante's hell. which read:
"All hope abandon ye who enter
here"
The town is built upon a great bluff
which runs out into the sea. There are
thirty hills ali about, each with a great
white round fort upon it, and large
iron-barred barracks in and about the
city. Outside these large buildings the
houses are one and two-stOry struc-
lures of brick and StuccO. painted all
colors OF the rainbow. They are built
Spanish fashion in blocks and the iron
barred windows are as p~riSon-like as