The Present Emperor Is Endeavouring To
Correct These Abuses, And To Bring About A Reformation, Which I Am
Sure He Will Never Effect, Owing To The Great Influence Of The Priests
And Saints In These States.
Although this monarch is humane and
impartial, and possesses nothing of the ferocious character of his
predecessors, yet seldom a day passes without some executions.
The people regard their Emperor as a god upon earth, and revere him as
a descendant of their great prophet. All his commands, right or wrong,
just or unjust, they consider as the decrees of Heaven. A blind
obedience to the will of their Sovereign, is inculcated in the minds
of their youth, more as a matter of religion than of state; and the
Emperor may put as many of his subjects to death as he deems
expedient, without assigning any other motive for so doing than secret
inspiration. When at war with any Christian prince, it is considered
as a war of religion, and the Moors who fall in the field of battle,
are accounted martyrs.
The number of negroes that have been imported into this country, and
are now settled in these states, is astonishing. The amount is little
less than three hundred thousand. The Emperor's body-guard, which
consists of eighteen thousand horsemen, is chiefly composed of
negroes, who enjoy every privilege that despotic power can confer, and
are ready upon all occasions to enforce the royal mandate.
The great schools for the Moorish gentry are the chanceries of the
Bashaws, where the young men learn the arts of dissimulation and
duplicity in the greatest perfection, and become, very, early such
great adepts in these valuable acquirements, that in my opinion they
are fully able to cope with Monsieur Talleyrand, and the best
politicians at the court of St. Cloud. They are very dexterous also
in the art of temporizing with an enemy, and deluding him by a
thousand little expedients. It is therefore fortunate for Europe, that
the Moors are so indolent a set of people; for the immense power this
empire might have; were it peopled by an industrious and ambitious
race of men, would render it the most formidable in the world.
I shall now return to my own affairs, from the period at which they
were left off in a former letter. The Emperor had requested me to
report to him, personally, every morning, the state of his favourite
Sultana; I therefore waited upon him regularly at five o'clock, and
was extremely happy that I was enabled to make the report more welcome
each day. After this visit to His Imperial Majesty, I daily paid my
devoirs to the blind prince, the only remaining brother of the Emperor
now in Barbary, and who took no part in the disputes of former times;
and I then called upon the great officers of state.
Finding the Sultana in such a fair way of recovery, the Emperor
dismissed his Governors to their respective provinces, and removed his
court to Mequinez, his favourite summer residence, leaving me here, to
complete the cure of the Sultana, and to attend several of his
subjects, who stand high in his favour, in the lower town of Fez.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 42 of 76
Words from 21322 to 21859
of 39195
