There Is No People In The World Who Entertain Sublimer
Notions Of The Uncreated Eternal God Than The Moors, And
No people
have ever shown themselves more zealous for his honour and glory;
their very zeal for the glory of
God has been and is the chief
obstacle to their becoming Christians. They are afraid of
compromising his dignity by supposing that he ever condescended to
become man. And with respect to Christ, their ideas even of him
are much more just than those of the Papists, they say he is a
mighty prophet, whilst, according to the others, he is either a
piece of bread or a helpless infant. In many points of religion
the Moors are wrong, dreadfully wrong, but are the Papists less so?
And one of their practices sets them immeasurably below the Moors
in the eyes of any unprejudiced person: they bow down to idols,
Christian idols if you like, but idols still, things graven of wood
and stone and brass, and from these things, which can neither hear,
nor speak, nor feel, they ask and expect to obtain favours."
"Vive la France, Vive la Guadeloupe," said the black, with a good
French accent. "In France and in Guadeloupe there is no
superstition, and they pay as much regard to the Bible as to the
Koran; I am now learning to read in order that I may understand the
writings of Voltaire, who, as I am told, has proved that both the
one and the other were written with the sole intention of deceiving
mankind. O vive la France! where will you find such an enlightened
country as France; and where will you find such a plentiful country
as France? Only one in the world, and that is Guadeloupe. Is it
not so, Monsieur Pascual? Were you ever at Marseilles? Ah quel
bon pays est celui-la pour les vivres, pour les petits poulets,
pour les poulardes, pour les perdrix, pour les perdreaux, pour les
alouettes, pour les becasses, pour les becassines, enfin, pour
tout."
"Pray, sir, are you a cook?" demanded I.
"Monsieur, je le suis pour vous rendre service, mon nom c'est
Gerard, et j'ai l'honneur d'etre chef de cuisine chez monsieur le
consul Hollandois. A present je prie permission de vous saluer; il
faut que j'aille a la maison pour faire le diner de mon maitre."
At four I went to dine with the British consul. Two other English
gentlemen were present, who had arrived at Tangier from Gibraltar
about ten days previously for a short excursion, and were now
detained longer than they wished by the Levant wind. They had
already visited the principal towns in Spain, and proposed spending
the winter either at Cadiz or Seville. One of them, Mr. -, struck
me as being one of the most remarkable men I had ever conversed
with; he travelled not for diversion nor instigated by curiosity,
but merely with the hope of doing spiritual good, chiefly by
conversation. The consul soon asked me what I thought of the Moors
and their country.
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