ed part of her dowry and passed into
British hands. The Portuguese, to whom Tangier then belonged, withdrew;
the English entered, repaired the city wall, built forts, and in the
course of three years a great mole across the harbour at a cost of
L31,000. Trade increased rapidly under the protection of the plucky
Tangier Regiment (now the Queen's Royal West Surrey). An English mayor
and corporation--six aldermen and twelve Common Council men--were
established in the little colony, and attended church in scarlet and
purple.

And then the Home Government made a mistake. The slovenly Tangier board
in London wasted money, sent adventurers out to Tangier as governors. An
exposure of their mismanagement followed, which induced the Home
Government to throw up a troublesome charge, and to evacuate as valuable
a port as England ever possessed, in a country which, unlike India, is
admirably adapted for European colonization, and blessed with every
natural advantage Creation can offer.

The mole and fortifications were blown up, Lord Dartmouth and his
garrison marched out of Tangier on February 6, 1684, and the Moors took
possession of a heap of fragmentary ruins. With Tangier in our hands we
could have confidently commanded the passage of the Straits for seventy
miles, nor would there have been a risk to Gibraltar of having all her
supplies cut off in the event of Spain and Morocco being hostile to us.
Fresh-comers to Morocco regret these things: in a few weeks the spirit of
the country induces a lazy tolerance and a general apathy towards the
past as well as towards the present state of affairs.

We found inside the Kasbah an entirely Moorish element--one sacred spot
where no "Christians" may live. A children's school was making a
deafening noise on our right, and we looked in to see a group of small
boys sitting round an ancient, turbaned Moor, who was sewing at a jellab
and paying small attention to his pupils: one and all were on their
heels, lighted by the open door, there being of course no windows; and
each held in his two hands a board inscribed with Arabic characters,
which he swayed backwards and forwards as he swayed his body in time with
sentences from the Kor[=a]n, learnt thus by heart and chanted in a high
sing-song key. There were no girls. Boys alone are taught anything; and
in general their education begins and ends, as above, with the Kor[=a]n.
Few Moors can write or read: there are no books in Morocco, except t