wed to abscond without their owners
troubling themselves about them, their master's being unable either to
feed or sell them.

In cases of punishment for all serious offences, slaves are brought
before the judicial authorities, and suffer the same punishment as free
men. In cases not deemed grave, they are flogged, or otherwise privately
punished by their masters. Slaves went to war with Abd-el-Kader, against
the French. The Arabs of Algeria had formerly many slaves. The chief
depot of slaves is Morocco, the southern capital. Ten thousand have been
imported during one year; but the average number brought into Morocco
is, perhaps, not more than half that amount. The Maroquine Moors, before
departing for any country under the British flag, usually give liberty
to their slaves. On their return, however, they sell them again as
slaves, or get rid of them some way or other. A slave once having tasted
of liberty, can never again be fully reconciled to thraldom. Moors
resident in Gibraltar, have frequently slaves with them. A few days ago,
a slave-boy, resident in Gibraltar, wished to turn Christian, and was
immediately sent back to Tangier, and sold to another master.

Europeans, with whom I have conversed in Tangier, assure me that slaves
are generally well treated, and that cases of cruelty are rare.
Nevertheless, they eagerly seek their freedom when an opportunity
offers. In 1833, a man of great power and influence in the Gharb
(province of Morocco), named El-Haj Mohammed Ben El-Arab, on a
remonstrance of his slaves, who stated that the English had abolished
slavery, and that they ought to have their liberty, called all his
slaves together, to the number of seventy-two, and actually took the
bold and generous resolution of liberating them. But, before releasing
them from bondage, he lectured them upon the difficulty of finding
subsistence in their new state of freedom, and then wrote out their
_Atkas_ of liberty. As might have been expected, some returned
voluntarily to servitude, not being able to get a living, whilst the
greater part obtained an honourable livelihood, enjoying the fruits of
independent freedom. It is mentioned, as an instance of fidelity, that a
negress is the gaoler of the women in Tangier. [12]

At every Moorish feast of consequence (four of which are celebrated here
in a year), the slaves of Tangier perambulate the streets with music and
dancing, dressed in their holiday clothes, to beg alms from al