ere instantly satisfied; and the then reigning
Sultan sent down from Fez this imperial message:

"How much will the enemy give me if I myself burn to ashes my
well-beloved city of Tangier? Tell the enemy, O governor of the mighty
city of Tangier, that I can reduce this self-same city to a heap of
smoking ruins, at a much cheaper rate than he can, with all his ships,
his warlike machines, and his fighting men."

The strength of Morocco lies in her internal cities, her inland
population, and the natural difficulties of her territory; about her
coast she cares little; but the French did not find this out till after
their bombardments. The unwonted discovery led them afterwards to boast
that they had at length opened Morocco by the other and opposite system
of a pacific mission. The parties forming the mission, pretended to have
obtained from the Emperor permission for Europeans "to travel in Morocco
without let or hindrance whithersoever they will." But the opposition
press justly ridiculed the pretensions of the alleged concession, as the
precarious and barren result of a mission costing several million of
francs. Even an Englishman, but much more a Frenchman--and the latter is
especially hated and dreaded in all the Maroquine provinces, would have
considerably hesitated in placing confidence in the safe conduct of this
jealous Court.

The spirit of the Christian West, which has invaded the most secret
councils of the Eastern world, Persia, Turkey, and all the countries
subjected to Ottoman rule, is still excluded by the haughty Shereefs of
the Mahometan West. There is scarcely any communication between the port
and the court of the Shereefs, and the two grand masters of orthodox
Islamism, this of the West, and that of the East, are nearly strangers
to each other.

All that Muley Errahman has to do with the East, appears to be to
procure eunuchs and Abyssinian concubines for his harem from Egypt, and
send forward his most faithful, or most rebellious subjects [2] on their
pilgrimage to Mecca.

Englishmen are surprised, that the frequent visits and uninterrupted
communications between Morocco and Gibraltar, during so long a period,
should have produced scarcely a perceptible change in the minds of the
Moors, and that Western Barbary should be a century behind Tunis. This
circumstance certainly does not arise from any inherent inaptitude in
the Moorish character to entertain friendly relations with Europeans,
and can