Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - VI. Tangiers
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106 DAYS IN THE SUN
son at Gibraltar across the straits. The Moroccan
himself eats no meat.
The dense under-growth of these jungles is the place
of refuge for slaves that have fled from the hinterland.
Tangiers has become a free city for them—the only
such city in the whole country—although the city is
subject to the same laws as the rest of the country.
For, the ambassadors of the powers to Tangiers do
not live in the capital, but in Tangiers itself—there
are times when it is a pleasant feeling to know you
are as near Europe as possible—and the ambassadors
have strongly fortified villas, which lie close together,
as well as a numerous retinue of servants, most of
them negroes.
These negroes are in many cases run-away slaves;
the ambassadors take them under their protection and
have made the slave trade impossible in Tandja—‘‘the
city protected by God’—owing to their energetic in-
tervention.
There are probably great numbers of slaves still in
the city, but these slaves are practically on the footing
of servants, and the conditions of their lives are so
favorable that they seem to have no desire to run away
and expose themselves to the competition of free men.
In this respect at least, therefore, a few European
settlers have inculcated the rudiments of European
civilization—by reason of their superior authority—
in this outpost of the Moroccan sultanate.
Tangiers is quite as taboo to European civilization
as is all the rest of Morocco. Southern Europe is
not particularly eager for conquest, and the current
of water that flows through the narrow Straits of
Gibraltar has too vehement a flow. On this southern
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