A Visit To Tetuan Forty Years Ago.

useful- a periodical . And so without further preface I commend it to the friendly criticism of a lenient circle . Gentle reader , are you a traveller ? Has it ever been your lot to delight your eyes Avith Mediterranean loveliness , or to bask in the sunshine of the " Morgen Land ? " Have you seen Mont Blanc ? Have you stood upon the Pyramids ? Have you beheld the Avhite walls of pleasant Cadiz ? Have you lingered amid the olive groves of fail-Corfu ? If you have , you -will , I think , charitably listen for a little space to-day to the " experiences" of your brother traveller . If you have not , sit doAvn Avith me upon my " magic carpet , " ancl let me transport you for a Avhile to a foreign country and a distant scene .

Some years since , it Avas my lot to pay a visit to Tetuan , under circumstances Avhich impressed it strongly on my memory , and with friends who imparted a deeper interest to the voyage , short as it necessarily Avas . What I witnessed then I have thought may be of amusement to some UOAV ( though a feAV years have rolled away ) ; yet " a true story is a true story still . " Without further preface , then , for prefaces luckily are shortened in this Avhirling ageI AA'ill begin Avhat I have to say . Tetuanas doubtless most of my readers knoAV ,

, , belongs to the Moorish empire , and is in the Morocco country , some miles beyond Centa , and a feAV miles only across from Gibraltar , Ancl though , Avere I to speak statistically ( in Spanish idiom ) , Tetuan is in itself a very insignificant toAA'n , yet , from its position as regards Gibraltar , it becomes a very important place . That large and rockheld garrison requires food ; and as the good Moors are nothing loth to supply so reasonable a wantalmost all the beef consumed in hungry Gibraltar conies from Africa .

, While mutton comes from Spain and Andalusia , thousands of the little Moorish cattle are shipped accordingly from Taugiers , but from Tetuan most of all ; and having been made to pass through the sea , from the ship to the shore , on their arrival in Gibraltar Bay , to wash off all possible contagion , are slaughtered in the vast shambles on the " Neutral Ground . "

Thus , es verstelit sich , as our German friends Avould say , it becomes of the highest importance , at all times , to keep the Moorish authorities in good humour ; and for this laudable purpose , in pursuance of orders from " home , " occasional visits are paid ancl presents given by the magnates of the rock to their official Moorish brethren , in order to maintain this good understanding , and to insure a continual supply of necessary aliment for Gibraltar ' s numerous garrison and populous town . Wellthenin the " days of old" Avhen a bright regimedelihting Rock-scorpions *

, , , , g and military alike , SAvayed the destinies of poor old Gib ., it Avas , that a party Avas made up , under the " highest authority , " to pay a visit to Tetuan , and to its GoA'ernor . There Avas a noble frigate , the Medea , under the command of the Avell-known Horatio Austin , then lying off the Old Mole , Avhich was pressed into the service of the distinguished voyagers ; and one glorious morning , in August , 1837 ( alas ! a long time ago ) , saAV our large party assembled very early indeed on the Medea ' s quarter-deck . The

sun Avas barely tinging the Spanish hills Avhen our noble vessel , Avith its goodly gathering , steamed out of Gibraltar Bay for Tetuan . I am going here to make what some perhaps may think a bold assertion , when I say that there are few scenes , if any , more beautiful in their entireness than is this same Gibraltar Bay . I can safely say , for my OAVU part , that , though I have seen many lands , ancl looked on-many scenes of beauty and of brightnessI knoAV feAVif anyAvhich give

, , , you such emotions of pleasure , or leave you such lingering remains of grace and yet of grandeur . Here , hoAvever , is the picture itself—regard it Avell—though the canvas perchance be bad , and the limner ' s colouring faint . "We are standing ( let us suppose ) on the Medea ' s quarter-deck , and what a sight of freshest beauty stretches out before us ancl around us ! We are leaving a large basinlike expanse of blue Avater , surrounded on three sides ( as it Avere ) by land . Before us