The Pillars of Hercules; or, A narrative of travels in Spain and Morocco in 1848

Front matter

HISTORY AND BIOGRAPHY. GEORGE SELWYN AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES; with Memoirs and Notes. By J. Hf.neage Jesse. 4 vols., 8vo, 56s. MEMOIRS OF EXTRAORDINARY POPULAR DELUSIONS. By Chaki.es Mackay, LL.D. 3 vols., 8vo., 42s. MEMOIRS OP KING HENRY V. By J. Endell Tyler, B.D. 2 vols., 8vo., 21s. A HISTORY OF HIS OWN TIME; Comprising Memoirs of the Courts of Elizabeth and James I. Bv Dr. Goodman, Bishop of Gloucester. Edited by J. S. Brewer, M.A. 2 vols., 8vo., 18s. MARSH'S ROMANTIC HISTORY OE THE HUGUENOTS; or, the Protestant Reformation in France. 2 vols., 8vo., 30s. ILLUSTRATIONS OF ENGLISH HISTORY, IN A NEW SERIES OF ORIGINAL LETTERS; now first published from the original MSS. in the British Museum, State Paper Office, &c. By Sir Henry Ellis. 4 vols., post 8vo., 24s. MEMOIRS OF THE TWO REBELLIONS IN SCOTLAND IN 1715 AND 174.5 ; or, the Adherents of the Stuarts.

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Introduction

. I did not visit Morocco or Spain on any settled plan. I was on my way to Italy by sea, and passing through the Straits of Gibraltar, was so fascinated by the beauty and mysteries of the adjoining lands, that I relinquished my proposed excursion for the explora tions which are here recorded. Barbary, to the attraction of the unknown and the original, which it shares in common with China and Japan, adds that of association with the country which, of all others, has a claim on our affections — Canaan. With Barbary also is interwoven the history of various races, great, ancient, and mysterious : the Canaanite, the Hebrew, the Highland Celt, and the Saracen. It has become the last refuge of the Philistine. The Jews, in other countries, by adopting the habits of strangers, have lost their type, which is to be seen alone in Barbary, where Judæa, effaced in Asia, doubly survives.

Here must we seek the Uving interpretation of the Scriptures ; here may we find insight into early things. The connexion of the Scotch clans with Barbary depends on no ethnographic affinity, but their passage through, and sojourn in, this land, reveal the history of their wanderings, and explain the peculiarities of their race. Here are to be found to-day the people a2

INTRODUCTION.

. IV who made Spain a garden, taught it at once the arts of war and peace ; and thence spread that knowledge to the rest of Europe. That stream which then over flowed, has retired to its fountain, where it lies deep, but not changed. Spain and Morocco present treasures unknown, in those regions which have been subject to repeoplings and fundamental changes. " The life of nations," says Erchhoff, " manifests itself in their language, which is the faithful representative of their vicissi tudes. Where chronology stops, and the thread of tradition is broken, the antique genealogy of words that have survived the ruin of empires comes in to shed light on the very cradle of humanity, and to consecrate the memory of generations long since engulfed in the quicksands of time." The unchanged tongue here gives additional force to that genealogy — here history is nearly mute.

The same monumental character, however, belongs to manners, costume, and tradition. I have not, therefore, hesitated to devote considerable space to these inquiries, as, indeed, they constituted the chief attraction of the excursions, which seemed to be less through new countries than remote ages. I have to bespeak the reader's indulgence for inviting him often to accompany me with his attention through homely paths. I have brought him in presence of the most trivial practices. I have not described, as a stranger would, a different manner of life ; but endeavoured, as a native, to explain matters

INTRODUCTION.

. V from which we might derive benefits in health, com fort, happiness, or taste, from their old experience. Wherever I have drawn comparisons, it has been for our advantage, not for theirs. It has, therefore, been their merits, not ours, that I have placed in evidence. I have no expectation that my suggestions will modify the lappet of a coat, or the leavening of a loaf; but there is one subject in which I am not without hope of having placed a profitable habit more within the chance of adoption than it has hitherto been — I mean the bath. Cleanliness, like inebriety or intemperance, may be at once a fashion and a passion. Appearing amongst us under both shapes, it has also assumed that of charity. As soon as it was felt that it was shameful to be dirty, it became a work of charity to wash the filthy, no less than to feed the hungry.

These dispositions offer an opportunity of reviving the bath in all its classic grace, and investing it with all its Eastern attractions ; but the occasion may be lost — that is, we may rest satisfied with what we have done, and the new wash-houses may pass current as achieve ments of economy and models of cleanliness. The occasion can be put to profit only by the knowledge of the bath in its bearings on the individual and on society ; and I have made the attempt to describe it, so that it shall be understood in its uses, enjoyments, and construction. We have recently been imitating barbarous times in church architecture. These times offer to our VI

INTRODUCTION.

. admiration usages as well as forms. Shall we have eyes for a Gothic spire, and none for a Roman bath \ Nations may have refinement, and yet be destitute of common sense ; they may be possessed of sense, a&d yet be without refinement. A people without the bath can lay claim to neither. Morocco calls attention to the past ; Spain directs it to the future. We pass from dreams to delusions, from poetry to politics. Belgium has been termed the battle-field of Europe — Spain is its bone of contention. The Italian Peninsula is the field of the rivalries of France and Austria, which England balances and adjusts. In the East, England and France are united by the advance of Russia ; in the Spanish Peninsula they are alone in presence of each other : the aim of each is to gain ascendancy, and thence a constant source of irritation.

The political experiment which is at present being made in Spain, consists in applying European terms to a country where there are no European ideas, and European institutions to a state of things wholly unlike Europe. The following fragment of a conversation with a leading statesman conveys that contrast in the fewest words. Spaniard. — I am sorry that you see Spain in such a distracted condition. Author. — I am rejoiced to find her in one so flourishing. Sp. — I wish it were so. Surely you are not in earnest

INTRODUCTION.

. VII A. — I wish my country were in the same condition as yours. Sp. — But your country is rich, powerful, united. We are poor, weak, and distracted. A. — I am thinking of the contrast between your people and ours. Sp. — In what does that contrast consist 1 A. — In a larger share of comforts, and fewer political evils. Sp. — As to the former, I think you are right. I do not think that the people of France have so much of the enjoyments of life as ours ; but as for our being freer from political evils than England, I cannot agree with you. A . — If you will permit me to take them separately, I think we shall find no difficulty in agreeing. Sp. — Certainly. A. — The chief source of our animosities springs from differences in religion. Sp. — We are not troubled with these in Spain. A. — The next is difference of race.

Sp. — We are free from this too. A. — Have you two great organized interests, com mercial and agricultural ? Sp. — From these too we are free. A. — Have you two powerful opinions, monarchical and republican, as those which divide France % Sp. — We have not. A . — Have you been brought to within an hour of revolution and bankruptcy by an " ideal standard V

INTRODUCTION.

. Sp. — Spain has no financial difficulties of an abstract kind. A. — Do you suffer from the despotic power of a sovereign % Sp.—M. A . — Have you to fear the turbulence of a mob 1 Sp. — No ; the people of Spain are docile, when left alone. A. — Are there oppressive privileges belonging to the aristocracy? Sp.— No. A. — Is the power of the Church excessive, and misapplied, or its wealth inordinate 1 Sp. — No, we have none of these evils in Spain. A . — Have you pauperism 1 aS^>. — No ; — nevertheless we are distracted. A . — It is, therefore, my turn now to ask, why 1 Sp. — I should like to hear your reasons. A. — They are contained in the fact, that it is I who ask these questions, and you who reply. Sp. — Our distractions would not .subside, if I thought as well of Spain as you do. A. — My meaning is, that the imitation of Europe is the source of the troubles of Spain.

Since this conversation occurred, Spain has justified these conclusions, by remaining unmoved amidst the storm of opinion which has swept over Europe. London, October, 1849. CONTENTS OP THE FIRST VOLUME.

Book I. Chapter

I. THE STRAITS OF GIBRALTAR. " Nullus arnor populi nee feedera sunto : Exoriare aliquis nostris ex ossibus ultor, Qui face Dardanios ferroque sequare colonos ; Nunc, olim, quoeunque dabunt se tempore vires. Littora littoribus contraria, fluctibus undas Tmprecor, arma armis, pugnent ipsique nepotes." To thread one's way through a narrow gap from the outer Ocean into a basin spread between Asia, Africa, and Europe, is an occasion which even books of geography cannot render wholly uninteresting and common-place. This sea has, at each extremity, a narrow entrance ; through both the water rushes in : each forms the point of junction of two quarters of the globe, — / VOL. I. b THE GUT OF GIBRALTAR. Europe there meeting Asia — here, Africa. The first is acknowledged to be the most important position of the globe.

The land and sea there reciprocally command each other. A capital, an emporium, and a fortress, combined in one, are placed at the meeting of two continents and two seas, " like a diamond," to use the words of a Turkish annalist, " between two emeralds and two sapphires, the master-stone in the ring of empire." Had the western entrance received the slightest pressure at its formation, had one of the hills since slipped down into its channel, the Gut of Gibraltar would not be the Ring on the finger, but the rod of Empire in the hand of whoever possessed it. Hap pily, however, no guns can cross, and no batteries command, the passage through which flows the commerce of the world, and, at times, the food of nations. Both banks of the Bosphorus are under the same dominion, and inhabited by the same people.

The channel bisects an Empire and traverses a Capital. Two people, so dissimilar, occupy here the opposite shores, that they might belong to different planets. No fishing-boat ventures across, and if so driven, they take care if they can to anchor beyond mus ket-shot. As to neighbourhood, the whole Atlantic might as well roll between them. As to intercourse, they might as well belong to distinct orders of crea tion. They hold each other Uke to those unsightly and malignant monsters to which ancient mytho- MOROCCO. 3 logy consigned the western portions of the world. If intercourse is rendered necessary, there is a preliminary parley and a flag of truce, and even the cere monial of a friendly meeting records the accomplishment of Dido's prophecy and curse. Yet this is no forbidding land. There are neither sands nor precipices.

There are neither rudeness and asperity, nor barrenness and waste. There are lowly vales and verdant plains, as well as gigantic mountains. This great, this beautiful country — this corner of a mighty continent — almost touches Europe. One half of our whole trade passes along it ; yet it is sealed against us more effectually than China or Japan. European enterprize, by lust of conquest, love of gain, or spirit of proselytism, has made the wide world its vineyard ; and, combining its various engines, has, far and near, shattered thrones, and subjugated or extinguished races. How is it that Morocco stands unmoved and unassailed ? All the nations which formed part of the Roman Empire, and have become Mussulmans, have fallen under the sway of Constantinople, Morocco alone ex cepted. All the barbarous States, which have attracted the cupidity of Europeans, have fallen under their sway, Morocco alone excepted.

But the breakers of her shores, the sands of her deserts, the valour of her sons, the wildness of her tribes, have not alone done this. Threatened now by a new enemy and a new danger, the past is worth sifting, in order to anticipate whether or not she will hold her own ; B ATTEMPTS TO or if she fall, whether she will rot away, or sink brightly and bravely, preserving Genio y figura Hasta la sepultura. It is an old story, and we have forgotten it, that on Morocco our first and greatest essays of conquest were made. England expended upon the fortification of Tangier more than all she ever advanced for the conquest of India. Portugal and Spain, who had found it necessary to separate, by half the globe, their other enterprizes, here combined, and expended more lives, ships, and treasure in their fruitless attempts than in the subjugation of the East Indies and the West.

Neighbourhood, political hatred, religious ani mosity, combined with the prospects of dominion, and the hope of obtaining supplies of the precious metals, to urge them to make and continue these attempts. Elsewhere, by their wonderful successes, unknown ad venturers — a Cortez, a Pizzaro, and an Albukerque — were converted into heroes. Here Princes of the State and Church, Kings and Emperors, were the leaders — to experience only failure and disgrace. Elsewhere handfuls of men conquered myriads. Here mighty armaments have been annihilated by despised foes. Elsewhere a native power had to do with but one European assailant. Morocco numbered amongst her assailants every European power. She holds the bones of English peers, of Turkish beys, of Por tuguese princes, Andalusian kings. She has foiled SUBJUGATE MOROCCO. 5 an Emperor of Austria, and discomfited in succes sion the warlike operations, or the political plans of Cardinal Ximenes, of Philip IL, Don Sebastian, and Barbarossa.

Spain has some fortified points upon the coast, but they are blockaded; and this smothered warfare is a living record of our aggressions, and her delivery. That event is one of the mo,st remarkable of revolutions.* The Spaniards were in possession of all the north country. The Portuguese had extended themselves along the whole of the seaboard of the west, down as far as Suz. The native troops in their pay at one time exceeded 100,000. The four king doms of which Morocco is now constituted, were then distinct, and the various courts rivalled each other in pusillanimity and corruption, exhibiting every * Ferdinand of Castile, after tbe deatb of Isabella, and tbe conclusion of tbe Neapolitan war, joined tbe Portuguese in tbe conquest of Morocco, • on wbich tbey were tben engaged, and settled tbe distribution of future conquests.

The Spaniards were to bave all eastward of Tetuan, tbe Portuguese all westward of Ceuta. Ferdinand bimself led a great expedition of a hundred thousand men ; and a second, equally powerful, sailed under Car dinal Ximenes. Millella, Penon de Velez, Oran, Tremcen, Fide litz, Mostagan, Algiers, Bugia, Tunis, and finally Tripoli, were captured, or occupied on tbe flight of the inhabitants ; so that the Kings of Spain were in possession of the whole coast of Africa, from Egypt to the Straits of Gibraltar ; while the distracted Moorish State was vigorously attacked by the Portuguese on the other side, where tbey had obtained either permanent or temporary possession of Ceuta, Tangier, Arzilla, Larache, Salee, Azymore, Mogadore ; and their conquests extended beyond the Ha Ha spur of the Atlas into Suz.

THE MOORS. symptom of dissolution, from the disorders within and the power that threatened from abroad. It was then that a family of mendicants and fanatics issued like lions from the desert, upset the ruling dynasties, re-kindled the flame of patriotism, rallied the sinking people, drove forth the invaders, constructed a common Empire out of these divided States, and placed their Dynasty upon the throne, which it occupies to this day. From that time only have Europe and Africa be come strangers to each other ; and so Morocco has maintained the independence so strangely won. What renders this non-intercourse surprising is neighbourhood ; yet that is its explanation. Here Europeans could not be taken for Children of the Sun, nor supposed to be quiet traders seeking only commerce : the watchfulness of this people was not, as in India, overreached, nor their affections, as in America, surprised.

The men who, in times of difficulty, have made themselves immortal names, have done nothing more than endeavour to arouse their countrymen from false security, or to guard them against mistaken confidence. The Moor is deficient in polite literature and is igno rant of Greek ; but he already was in himself what the wisest words of Demosthenes might have taught him to be, and was prepared to do what the loftiest strains of Tyrtæus might have inspired. From the beginning the African has been preyed upon by the other quarters of the globe. His wrongs have been stored up in his THEIR PRESENT NEIGHBOURS. retentive breast.* Thence that hate which is his life ; by it he has anticipated the lessons of wisdom, and by it he is a match for science and power. f Morocco has consequently been in this distinguished from the other countries that surround the Mediter ranean — she has not till now furnished to France and England fuel or field for rivalry and contention.

Now she is brought again within the vortex of European politics, and identified in interest with Spain by hav ing the same neighbour, and that neighbour the rival of England. We may again see rehearsed on the same arena, the drama of Rome and Carthage. As I floated down this river, of which the Atlantic is * " Extraordinary Occurrence in Africa. — A letter from Gerli (Gerba), regency of Tunis, recounts a strange scene of recent occurrence. There exists at Gerli a sort of pyramid, constructed of tbe heads of decapitated Christians, principally Maltese, Sici lians, and Spaniards, who fell or were taken prisoners at tbe battle ofthe 29th of July, 1560. At tbe request of Sir T. Reade, the British Consul, and the Vicar Apostolic of Terrara, the Bey sent orders to tbe Governor for the demolition of this lugubrious monument.

Saturday, the 7th of August, was the day fixed for the ceremony. All the authorities were assembled. No sooner, however, had tbe masons commenced operations, than some Zoua vian soldiers and other armed individuals rushed into the arena, and with yells of rage shouted that the time was come for substi tuting the skulls of the Christians present on the spot for those of which the pyramid was constructed. The Governor attempted in vain to appease these fanatics. He was so ill-treated as to be compelled to retire. ■ It is hoped that Sir T. Reade will be called upon to obtain satisfaction for this outrage." — Paris paper. t " Africa, in its interior, is the least known quarter of the globe, and perhaps fortunately for its inhabitants will long remain so." — Heeren, Carthag. c. HISTORIC INTEREST OF THE STRAITS. the fountain, and the Mediterranean the sea, remem bering the Dardanelles, I felt with Cicero, that he in deed was happy who could visit, on the one hand, the Straits of Pontus, and on the other, those " Europam Lybiamque rapax ubi dividit unda."

And that Atlas, sustaining the heavens on his shoul ders,* no less than Prometheus fixed upon the Caucasus, might convey in fables early and divine truths. This is a spot which has influenced the destinies and formed the character, not of one but of many people : it is the home of the fleeing Canaanite, the bourne of the wandering Arab ; it was the limit of the ancient world. That world of mystery and of poetry, was not like ours. It was not crammed into a Gazetteer, nor were its laws a school-boy lesson learned by rote. These Straits,] then the peculiar domain of mythology, were approached with natural wonder and religious awe. The doubtful inquirer came hither to see if the sky met and rested upon the earth — if Atlas did indeed bear a starry burden — to discover what the 'Ewei pe x' °-l Kao-tyvrjTOv rv^ot Tetpova AtXovtos, b*s npbs eanepovs to-itovs eorrjKe, Ktov ovpavov Te Kal x^ovbs wpoiv epelBav, tlxdos ovk eidyKaXov.

Esch. Prom. t The Straits were the pivot of Cicero's cosmography. In the Tusculan Disputations, commemorating the wonders of nature, he speaks of " the globe of the Earth standing forth out of the Sea, fixed in the middle space of the universal .World, habitable and cultivated in two distant regions ; that which we inhabit being placed under the axis towards the seven stars ; the other region, the Australian, unknown to us ; the remainder uncultivated, stiffened with cold, or burnt up with heat." THE MEDITERRANEAN. 9 world was —whether an interminable plain, or a ball launched in space or floating on the water — whether the ocean was a portion of it or supported it — whether beyond the " Pillars"* was the origin of present things, or the receptacle of departed ones — whether the road lay to Chaos or to Hades.

And something, too, of these feelings crept over me, even although I came hither merely to ruminate on the past deeds of men, the shadows of which I looked for on the face of that watery mirror, which was the centre of their solid globe — the resolver, the adjuster of all their contests. The Mediterranean has made the world such as it is. Ancient history has been balanced on its bosom • and without the passage con necting it with the ocean, none of the events of recent history could have happened. To the dwellers on the skirt of Palestine she was a handmaid for a thousand years, affording a liquid way for the wares which they scattered over half the globe : From her bosom rose on all sides those sea-kings of the south, the Pelasgi. She bore the Etruscans to their Ausonian homes. She furnished to the African daughter of Tyre the elements of the power by which she was enabled to compete for the dominion of the world. * 'Y/xeis 8', <u povual, tTKoXias eve-noire KeXevdovs 'Ap^dpevai arroix^dv d(j> enwepov 'QKeavo'to.

"Evdd Te Kal o-rrjXai nepl Teppacrtv 'HpaKXijos 'EtjTuo-iv, peya Oavpa Trap eaxorroevra TdSetpa, MaKpbv unb irpr)b>va TToXvtmepeosv ArXavTajv, TH^i re Kal xdXKews is ovpavbv ebpape kojcv 'HX'/SaTos, TTVKtvoiai KaXvTVTopevos vefpeeairi. Dionysius Afbicancs. PROGRESS OF Transferred by the struggle of a few hours, and by the sinking of a few craft — she carried with her that dominion to Rome, and fixed it there for centuries. When the course of that Empire was run, and barba rism had spread over the land, she fitted up new and beautiful things upon her shores ; nurtured Amalphi and Venice and Pisa, and built up Genoa and Barcelona. Then opened a new order. Seamanship, by magnetic touch endowed with wings, dared to lose sight of earth : issuing from these portals, it gave to the princes of the Peninsula the knowledge of a new world, and the title of lords of the eastern and western hemispheres.

Maritime power, now no longer pent up within the land, was successively competed for and attained by Holland and by England : it conferred upon the one independence at home — upon the other, dominion in the remotest regions of the earth. Here are connected the first enterprizes of man and his last struggles. Hence was the path sought to Britain. Here now floats Britain's standard. The ruins of the Temple of Hercules saw Trafalgar's fight. Here the hero of the Phœnix, prince, navigator, trader, con queror of monsters, fertilizer of lands, found again the tides of his early home in the Indian ocean,* and * Pbilostratus, in the life of Apollonius, mentions that he himself had seen the ebb and flow, which he ascribes to the true cause. " All the phases of the moon during the increase, fulness and wane, are to be observed in tbe sea.

Hence it comes to pass that the ocean follows the changes of the moon by increasing and decreasing with it." MARITIME DISCOVERY. set up his Pillars. His mighty shade has its resting place on the spot which is honoured with his name. The next stage of discovery brings us to Columbus and Gama : this was the goal of the enterprise of the Phœnician — it was the starting-post of the Ligurian. In the unexplored waste a second Thule succeeded, and a new Peru supplied the exhausted one of old. "The stone of Hercules" and the "cup of Apollo"* showed the way to the regions towards which the one had travelled and where the other set. But the modern adventurers had the problem solved for them, not in the reasonings only, but in the poetry of the ancients.f They had divided the earth, by degrees — fixed their number and measure — they knew the length of the day — they knew how many hours the sun spent over the regions they were acquainted with.

Fifteen twenty-fourths of his time they could account for. Nine hours remained unexplored to complete the circle.^ * By the rediscovery of tbe mariner's compass, tbe voyage along tbe Western coast of Africa became practicable, and to this is owing the passage by the Cape to India, as well as the discovery of America. Without Columbus that discovery would have been made. The Portuguese, in their second expedition to India, fell on the Brazils just as the Chinese junk on its way to England was forced to America. t sflKeavos Te 7rept£ ev vdatrt yatav ~EiXto~o~G>v. Song of Orpheus. 'Of irepiKvpaivei yaiijs nepiTeppova kvkXov. Id. X Eratosthenes of Cyrene measured the terrestrial meridian by the problem worked out from the well of Syene. To predict eclipses the mechanism of the heavens must be known.

They THE PROPHECY OF But whilst Don Henry was daily gazing over the unmeasured expanse to the west, the use of the globes and the rationale of geography were being taught in Italy in verse. The sun must be expected, Pulci sings, there whither he hastens ; where he sets, it cannot be night : space is not useless because to us unknown, nor that ocean without shores beyond which washes ours. Then there are continents bor dering the deep, and islands studding its bosom • nor are these barren of herbs, nor are herbs and fruits given in vain : there, too, there must be men, who have gods like us, the work of their hands, and sorrows the fruit of their will. Read his vaticination. " Passato il flume Bagrade ch' io dico, Presso a lo stretto son di Gibilterra, Dove pose i suoi segni il Greco antico Abila e Calpe, a dimostrar ch'egli erra Non per iscogli o per vento nimico, Ma perche il globo cala de la terra Chi va piu oltre, e non trova poi fondo, Tanto che cade giu nel basso mondo. were predicted by the ancients, e. g. Thales in the seventh cen tury before Christ, Eparcus of Mycea, in the second ; Hellico of Cyzycus, and Eudemus.