For some time I felt the effects of my sea voyage; my apartment rocked in my brain.  People speculated about the objects of my mission; the most absurd rumours were afloat.  “The Christian has come to settle the affairs of Mr. Darman, whom the Emperor killed,” some said.  Others remarked, “The Christian has come to buy all the slaves of the country, in order to liberate them.”  The lieutenant-governor sent for Phillips, to know what I came for, who I was, and how I passed my time?  Phillips told him all about my mission, and that I was a great taleb.  When Phillips mentioned to the governor, that Great Britain had paid a hundred millions of dollars for the liberation of slaves belonging to Englishmen, his Excellency, struck with astonishment, exclaimed, “The English Sultan is inspired by God!”

[Illustration.]

I visited the burying-place of Christians, situate on the north-side of the town by the sea-shore.  A fine tomb was erected here to the memory of Mrs. Willshire’s father.  The ignorant country people coming to Mogador stopped to repeat prayers before it, believing it the tomb of some favourite saint.  The government, hearing of this idolatry to a Christian, begged Mr. Willshire to have the tomb covered with cement.  When this was done, so perverse are these people, that they partially divested it of covering, and chipped off pieces of marble for their women, who ground them into powder, and dusted their faces with it to make them fair.  Every six months it is necessary to replaster the tomb.  This cemetery is the most desolate place the mind of man can conceive.  There is no green turf here to rest lightly on the bosom of the dead!  No tree, no cypress of mourning; no shade or shelter for those who seek to indulge in grief.  All is a sandy desolation, swept by the wild winds of the solitary shore of the ocean.

[Illustration]

Farther on, is the Moorish cemetery, which I passed through.  What a spectacle of human corruption!  Here, indeed, we may learn to despise this world’s poor renown, and cease tormenting ourselves with vain and godless pursuits.  It was then sunset, the moon had risen far up on the fading brow of the departing day, casting pale lights and fearful shadows over this house of the dead.  It was time to return, or the gates of the city would shut me out amidst the wreck of poor human dust and bones.  I saw, moving in the doubtful shadows of approaching night, the grave-digging hyaena!

It is an ill wind that blows nobody good.  The wreckers of this coast boldly assert that a shipwreck is a blessing (berkah), sent to them by Providence.  The port authorities have even the impudence to declare, that to erect lighthouses at the mouth of the ports would be thwarting the decrees of Divine Providence!  In spite of all this, however, at the urgent request of Mr. Willshire, when, on one occasion, the weather was very bad, the governor of Mogador stationed guards on various parts of the coast to preserve the lives