nted to His
Majesty. Nay, the pressing solicitations, with which I have since
been honoured on the part of the Emperor of Morocco, through his
principal Minister, to return to that country, I have hitherto been
obliged to delay answering, that I might not, on the one hand, insult,
by evasive or false replies, a government from which I had experienced
such friendship and respect; or, on the other hand, be compelled, by a
true statement, to compromise my own.
The principal design of publishing this account of my journey to the
Barbary States, is to shew the good policy, on the part of this
country, of keeping upon terms of strict amity with the government of
Morocco. The neglect, which, on this occasion, has been evinced of the
Emperor's letter, I cannot but consider, in a public point of view, as
extremely reprehensible, independently of the private injury it has
occasioned to myself. Whether this neglect arose from the
misrepresentations of the Army Medical Board, or from those of any
other persons, I will not pretend to determine; but in any case, a
most censurable disregard, even of the forms of civility, towards a
Prince, who, however we may affect to despise his influence in the
great political scale, has it always in his power materially to
promote or to impede the interests of this country in the Levant, must
attach to some quarter or other.
[*] As the members of that body are expected shortly to be dismissed
from their situations, I think it right, lest at any future period
injustice should be done to innocent individuals, by confounding
them with the guilty, here to state that Sir Lucas Pepys,
Bart. Mr. Thomas Keate, and Mr. Francis Knight, Apothecaries, at
present compose the body illegally calling themselves the Army
Medical Board, whose conduct for a great many years has brought
disgrace and disaster on that important department. For a detail of
their conduct, see "An Analytical View of the Medical Department of
the British Army, by Charles Maclean, M.D." 8vo. published by
Stockdale, Pall Mall.
CONTENTS.
LETTER I.
Inducement for the Journey--Arrive at Tangiers--Its History--
Situation--Inhabitants--Military--Governor--Fortifications--
Subterraneous Passage--Socco, or Market--Adjacent Villas--Invited to
Larache.
LETTER II.
Sketch of the History of Morocco--Road from Tangiers--Simplicity of
the Peasants--Moors hospitable--Arrive at a Village--The ancient
Zelis--
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