except a panoramic view, with the departing boat
in the middle distance. Already she stood well out to sea: the Customs
House was a quarter of a mile from the beach: there was nothing to be
done: to blame our kind old host would have been as ungrateful as it was
useless, and regrets were equally unavailing. True it is that the wise
man fends for himself and makes no arrangements second-hand in Morocco,
where every one is _casual_ and every plan is _casual_. Had we found out
when the ship's papers were going on board, and arranged with the agent
to call us and take us in his boat, we should have eaten plum pudding in
Gibraltar. Apparently the steamer had been signalling for the last hour
to the effect that she was going, that the weather was bad and the sea
rough outside, and that she would not venture to stay and dispatch her
cargo--none of which facts the deaf and decrepit old Jew had grasped. He
hobbled out, and would hardly believe his eyes.

We sat down to some weak green tea and the same dry aniseed-flavoured
bread as the night before, and, thus fortified, reviewed our course of
action, which had few complications, there being no other steamer before
Christmas, and the ride to Ceuta or Tangier barred by reason of the
flooded streams and general state of the country. The "open road" pointed
towards Tetuan and our old quarters in the Spanish fonda, of which we had
taken only the day before such joyful leave. It was inevitable, that next
move; and should be made quickly, to judge by the look of the
weather--the clouds were growing lower and blacker every half-hour.

Animals were a difficulty--our mules had gone back to the city the night
before; but it would have been hard work wading across the flooded acres
for seven miles; and there was our luggage.

Eventually we raised a seedy little rat of a pony, which R. rode; a
ragged donkey, on which half our goods was balanced; while the other half
went on a mule, with me on the top of all. We turned our backs on the
hospitable white Customs House and the ill-favoured sea with a muttered
imprecation.

In Tetuan a wealthy man was building a house. It was at a standstill for
want of plaster. The plaster had already come in on the steamer _three_
times, and three times she had gone away without unloading it. The boat
we had lost had made a fourth endeavour, and we learnt afterwards that
Mr. N----'s ill-fated plaster had formed the cargo in the wave-washed
boat of the eveni