Travels in Morocco, Volume 2

In Short

This work serves as a dense, multifaceted survey of the Moroccan Empire during a period of transition and isolation. Blending historical analysis, geographical cataloging, and personal travelogue, the author examines the social structures, dynastic politics, and stifling diplomatic environment of the region. By detailing everything from the archaic marriage customs of Mogador to the complexities of British trade treaties, the book provides a grounded, often sobering look at a civilization perceived by the author to be under the shadow of both internal tyranny and external commercial desperation.

The Story

The narrative begins with an immersive study of the social fabric of Mogador, where the author observes the lives of Jewish and Moorish residents with a critical eye. From the outset, the focus is on the human cost of tradition, highlighting the "unnatural" marriages of young girls to older men and the rigid, often cruel, customs regarding the status of women. The author frames these domestic scenes against a broader historical backdrop, deconstructing the Shereefian dynasty. He systematically dismantles myths surrounding the Moorish princes, particularly addressing the "tyrant" Yezeed, whose reign was marked by wanton violence and a lingering, destructive legacy that forced the empire into a period of fractured civil war.

The arc of the book then expands from the household to the administrative and geographical map of the nation. The author moves through the coastal towns and imperial cities, detailing the decay of once-flourishing ports like Saffee and the structural remnants of Portuguese influence. He juxtaposes these descriptions with an analytical look at the "two aspects" of the empire—its actual resources versus its perceived influence. He documents the harsh realities of the Saharan borderlands and the oases of the Jereed, where the "Bey of the Camp" exerts a heavy-handed, nomadic authority to collect tribute.

Throughout the journey, the tone remains intensely political. The author pivots from descriptions of date-palm forests and olive-oil production to sharp, frustrated arguments regarding the failure of British diplomatic engagement. He exposes the fragility of unwritten treaties and the restrictive, almost prison-like conditions forced upon foreign merchants, who are effectively held hostage by the Sultan’s whims. The journey concludes not with a triumphant discovery, but with a formal departure from Mogador. As the author boards his ship, he reflects on the absolute subjection of his fellow countrymen to the local authorities, leaving the reader with an image of a society struggling under the weight of its own stagnation and the aggressive, flawed mechanisms of foreign commerce.

How It Unfolds

Social dissection The author catalogs the daily lives of Mogador’s inhabitants, focusing on the rigid social hierarchies and the harsh realities of domestic life. He highlights the discrepancy in marriage ages and the superstition-laden culture that governs even the most mundane interactions.

Dynastic history The narrative shifts to a formal review of the Shereefian monarchs, specifically refuting rumors of human sacrifice. He traces the lineage of the reigning dynasty, focusing on the brutal reign of Yezeed and the subsequent fragmentation of the empire into competing power blocks.

Geographical inventory The author provides a meticulous, town-by-town survey of the Moroccan coast and the imperial capitals. He describes the current state of decline in places like Saffee and Morocco, noting the mixture of Berber, Arab, and renegade influences that define the population.

Diplomatic critique The final movement centers on the friction between European mercantile interests and the Sultan’s administration. The author argues that existing treaties are toothless and requires a harsh revision to reflect the realities of trade in an age of European expansion.

The People

The author acts as our primary witness, a detached yet opinionated traveler who views the landscape as a series of problems to be solved or injustices to be documented. His perspective is shaped by a belief in "European civilization" and the efficiency of modern governance. In contrast, he portrays the figures of the Shereefian dynasty—such as the "tyrant" Yezeed and the reigning Muley Abd Errahman—as embodiments of autocratic instability, their power derived from divine right rather than administrative competence.

The local population is often categorized by the author into distinct groups: the Jews, whom he notes as the primary traders and victims of systemic social restriction; the Moors, who fill the roles of city administrators or rural subjects; and the Berbers, the "aborigines" of the region. He also interacts with figures like the "Bey of the Camp," a representative of the ruling order who manages the collection of tribute in the desert. These individuals are rarely granted full interiority, appearing instead as representatives of a system that the author finds both fascinating and fundamentally broken.

In Its Own Voice

"The discrepancies of age, in married people, is most unnatural and disgusting; whilst the merchants were at Morocco, a little girl of nine years of age was married to a man upwards of fifty."

The author expresses his visceral reaction to the social customs he witnesses in the city of Mogador.

"The streets are crooked, of uneven width, unpaved, and dirty in winter, and full of dust in summer."

This serves as the author's bleak assessment of the physical state of the capital city of Morocco.

"Never were prisoners of war, or political offenders, so closely watched as the boasted imperial merchants of this city."

The author concludes his observations on the status of foreign merchants, who find themselves essentially under house arrest by the local authorities.

What It's Really About

The book is a study of the friction between two worlds: an inward-looking, traditional empire and an encroaching, commercially-driven European power. Beneath the descriptions of geography and trade lies a recurring question about the nature of sovereignty and the "spirit of the age." The author is less interested in the romance of travel than in the practical failures of the state. He is concerned with why societies decay, why treaties fail, and how superstition and autocracy stifle progress. The book argues that Morocco is an empire defined by its own contradictions—simultaneously ancient and stagnant—and suggests that without a total overhaul of its diplomatic and social structures, it remains a place where the "unwritten" law of the tyrant will always supersede the promises of the modern world.

Why Read It Today

Reading this work today is a challenging, informative experience for those interested in the history of North Africa or the evolution of travel literature. The text is thick with historical detail and, at times, is dryly encyclopedic, reflecting a 19th-century obsession with cataloging populations, resources, and geography. You will find a voice that is unapologetically Victorian; the author’s attitudes toward the people he meets are frequently judgmental and rooted in a clear, though dated, belief in the superiority of his own civilization.

However, for the patient reader, the reward is an incredibly granular view of a world that is usually lost to more generalized history. The author’s sharp focus on the "domestic picture"—the way people lived, the food they ate, and the specific, often petty, disputes between merchants—brings a human, if flawed, scale to the political landscape. It is not a book to be read for a light, adventurous narrative, but rather as a rigorous, unflinching document of a specific time and place. If you can navigate the author's personal biases, you will find a vivid, sometimes unsettling, portrait of a society at a crossroads, written by a man who was clearly frustrated by the very things he could not change.