River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1911-06-08

HEHW HE Moroccan coast oXtendS, aP-
81 proximately, as far south as
q Cape Judy, almost parallel
III with Las Palmas; at least you
will find it neatly ruled of
| there on the map. In reality the from
tier is a nebulous, shifting affair, that
shades off imperceptibly throughout
hundred miles, or more, OF desert,
merging into that equally nebulous
region known as the French Sphere OF
| Influence. This southern border is
the country of the Touaregs, those
wild marauders of the desert, who
rove over tract of the continent half
as large as the whole United States.
A race of pure nomads, without gov
eminent, without cities, or crops, or
agriculture of any kind, these Touar-
egs, said by ethnologists to be entire
ly distinct from both Arab or negro,
are part of that strange, secret en-
pire of northern Africa, the fanatical,
underground empire Of the Moham-
medan sect known as the Senoussi.
An intangible, mysterious affair is
this secret league, impalpable as the
air, yet welding an enormous power
that makes it the strongest bulwark
Africa puts up to protect itself from
the march of European civilization.
Just south of Cape JUDY, where the
Sahara turns the flank of the protect
ing spurs of the Atlas range, is the
place where Fax Lebaudy, the son of
Frances sugar king" tried to estab-
lish his Empire of the Sahara" with
his court, composed of the frail favor
ties of Partisan dance halls, and his
army made up Of French ragamuffins,
off1cered by the discard of European
society. Mogador, the first port of
call, is apt to be disappointment to
those dreaming of the Arabian Nights
and expecting to be landed among
roses, GASES and odalisques. In any
oriental port much must be allowed
for oriental imagery, but Mogador is
hardly more eastern in appearance
than Las Palmas, just mass of white
houses on land-locked bay.
This bay is deceptive in it's placid
ity, all along the coast it is understood
that steamer landings are to be made
"surf permitting" and Mogador is no
exception; it is all right once you are
inside, but first there is the bar to be
negotiated.
There is a legend in Mogador, also
to be met with in every other port as
far south as st. Paul de Loanda, of
shipment Of furniture for newly mar
ried consul-in Accra they tell it of
the governor, and in Lagos of the
bishop-that spent an entire winter
going up and down the coast and back
and forth to England with never a
chance of landing.
A comparatively modern town, with
straight streets, Mogador looks far
more Spanish than Moorish. 1t is
quite a sophisticated place, with
large trade and a considerable Euro
pean colony, of late years much aug
mented in the winter by tourists. For
some reason the surrounding country
is much safer than even the country
about Tangier, in plain sight of the
lights of Gibraltar. This fact, together
with it's climate and the splendid
favorite rendezvous for sportsmen. Of
late years it has lost much of it's
trade, owing to the completion of the
| French railway to Timbuctoo; before
that scores of caravans, some of them
thousands of camels strong, left NIGGA
dor every year for the markets of the
southern Sahara, but now the trade
oiO 11xr In oh
Senegal.
But though the town lacks some
thing of local color, though the min
arets are only square, squat towers,
and though domes and Moorish ar
cades are conspicuous by their alb
sence, the population is as purely orr
entail as could be wished. Stately
Arabs in flowing burnouees, nearly ma
ked tribesmen from the desert, yelled
! ladies wrapped in huge white sheets,
like walking bundles of laundry, shut
| fling Jews in sad-colored robes, green
turbaned marabouts, bare-legged
Moors, and scores Of those greasy
haired Syrians who penetrate to every
part of the tropical world, they flow
up and down the streets.
North of Mogador the coast trends
away eastward Sometimes the boats
call at Saff and Mazagan, but more
frequently the next port of call is
Rabat, just across the river from Sal
lee. Sallee and Rabat have a chequered
history, sufficiently frenzied to suit the
most romantic taste. For 800 years
the Sallee Rovers were the terror of
the European coasts as far north as
Biscay and Marseilles, and 1t is said
that at one time there were over TO-
900 Christians held as slaves in the
town. Rabat is the port Of entry and
the residence of the consuls. Sallee
is closed to foreigners, and permits
sion must be had from its governor
before one can set foot on its dilapida-
ted quays.
Surrounded by its battlemented
walls, Sallee is almost a sacred city In
its purely Mohammedan exclusiveness,
and its inhabitants rank far above