This is not unlike what a Turk of Tripoli once said to me about the Grand Signor and his late reforms.  “The Turks will soon be civilized, because the Sultan has given an order for all the Turks to be civilized.”  The large guns of the forts were practised, and the guns of the grand battery loaded.  The infantry continued to practise on the beach of the port:  their manoeuvres were very uncouth and disorderly, they merely moved backwards and forwards in lines of two deep.  The French Consul, Monsieur Jorelle, discontinued his usual promenade, to prevent his being insulted, and so to avoid the the painful necessity of demanding satisfaction.

Mr. Willshire, being well known to the Mogador population, had not so much to fear.  Here is the advantage of a long residence in a country.  The French Government lose by the frequent changing of their consuls.  Still, M. Jorelle was right in not exposing himself to the mob, or the wild levies who had come from their mountains.  The fault of the Governor was, in exciting the warlike fanaticism of the tribes of the interior against the Christians, which he ought to have known the city authorities might have extreme difficulty in keeping within bounds.  No European could pass the gates of the city without being spat upon, and cursed by the barbarous Berbers.

I paid a visit to M. Authoris, the Belgium merchant, and the only European trader carrying on business independently of the Emperor.  He represented the commerce of the country to be in a most deplorable condition.  “There is now nothing to buy or sell on which there is a gain of one per cent.  The improvidence of the people is so great that, should one harvest fail, inevitable famine would be the result, there not being a single bushel of grain more in the country than is required for daily consumption.  Nor will the people avail themselves of any opportunity of purchasing a thing cheap when it is cheap; they simply provide for their hourly wants.  They act in the literal sense of ’Take no thought for the morrow, but let the morrow take care of itself.’  As to the Jews, they feast one day and fast the next.”  With regard to the excitement then existing, M. Authoris observed.  “This Government, on hearing rumours of Spanish and French expeditions against the country, must naturally make use of what power it has, the Holy War power, to excite the people in their own defence.  The Moors cannot discriminate Gazette intelligence.  When a worthless newspaper mentions an expedition being fitted out against Morocco, the Emperor immediately sees a fleet of ships within sight of his ports, and hears the reports of bombarding cannon.”  The raw levies of Shedmah and Hhaha continued to enter the town, but only a small number at a time, lest they should alarm the inhabitants.  They went about, peeping into houses, and wherever a door was open they would walk in, staring with a wild curiosity.