Reading' for Everybody.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2116, 15 February 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

Reading' for Everybody.

RAISULI. THE BRIGAND WHO MADE HIMSELF KING. With, all our vauntod progress in telegraphy aerial, submarine, aiul ■wireless anil admitting tire womlor- ,‘ ul Perfect ion .which has undoubtedly been reached in the world-embracin'l- - ol news-gathering, it is nevem theless true that when we of to-dav ask, as did the friends of Soipio Africanus, ■‘What news out of Moroeco. we have to wait nearly as long as they did for an answer. 0\ er this northwestern corner of Africa broods a mystery which the Argus-eyed modern press has failed to penetrate. Here and there a corner ot the curtain is lifted and we witness some disconnected scene in the drama, the sequence of which we can only imagine; or we e.iteli a glimpse of some leading actor like the Rod Caul, or of some anonymous exhorter whose purpose we can only suspect. We know how the Mail Mullah rages on the borders of Somaliland. The Senoussi Alaiuli writes poems which by some secret channel reach a staid French journal and tickle the palate of the boulevards, more accustomed to Catulle Memles than to the songs of elemental man. But when we come to the real heart of the Moorish question, we have mainly to content ontselves with surmise.

What we know is that lull a dozen pretenders, with claims more or. less legitimate, are fighting for the Moroccan .throne—a throne which through immemorial ages lias consisted of a saddle on the back of a richly caparisoned horse of the Yemen strain, with the burning blue sky of Africa, tempered by a sarlet parasol for canopy. From their coigns ol vantage at Oudjdn on the east a tut Casablanca on the west, the French eagles watch the changing phases oi the internal strife with an interest which is intent, intelligent, but certainly not communicative. If in .their councils the spirit of an Aumale or a Joinville prevail, France may set upon its avalanche course a world’wide war which would unite all good Mohammedans from near-by Morocco to far-away Mindanao. If out of this many-sided struggle for the Shereefian throne either ot the imperial brothers or Bon Hamara, tho lowly driver of asses, and worker of miracles, should emerge victorious, I see no reason why the world ot Morocco should not wag on tor another hundred years or so, neither better nor worse than in the past. Only in Raisuli, the Berber duel, popularly 'known as "the brigand who made himself a king,” do 1 set a promise of better things. And ot him, at least, we are able to speak with some knowledge. He is our neighbor just across the Atlantic, and as we sail through the Stiaits. oi Gibralter we can get a nearer view of his grim stronghold from the luxurious deck of our Mediterranean steamer. This picturesque hero who has thrown off all allegiance to imperial authority and proclaimed himself monarch of El Gharb, or northern Morocco, deserves to be known for other reasons than for his somewhat indelicate kidnapping of Mr. Perdicaris, or for the rather brutal way in which, at the time of writing, lie is holding Caid Sir Harry Maclean, the Scottish soldier of fortune, for ransom. He and his people spring from a pure Berber strain. They show mo trace of negroid admixture so common in the imperial cities, nor of the physical degeneration which the Arab conquerors have undenione. RAISTJLI’S FUED WITH ABD-EL-SUDEK.

To-day, as five hundred years ago, the Berber of Morocco stands alone. He maintains intact his ideals and iiis pastoral mode of life. The only tie that binds him to his conqueror is their common creed, which he professes with the zeal of a convert. In their little corner of the land the ancestors of Raisuli have lived for generations as barons ol the crags ami lords of the passes. ihe man who is known to the Western world as a brigand is regarded among ibis native mountains as the benefactor of tlie pool’ and the protector of tho oppresssed. Ten years ago he gained a reputation which spread beyond his home village by slaving with his own hand A. corrupt and arrogant collector of the imperial tithes. As a result of that act of defiance lie suffered four years of prison, during which tune his loving people fed him and tended his flocks. The great caid, or imperial representative, in the province which has since become Raisuli s was one Abd-el-Sudek, and this Arab magnate determined to punish with tho utmost severity the highland duel who had dared to lay murderous hands upon one of Jua collectors. Having captured Raisuli by a characteristic bit of treachery, Abd-el-Sudek despatched him by ship to distant Mogadar, down the Atlantic coast, where the northern Berbers, as a strange people are regarded with unfriendly eyes. Chained to a wall in a Kasbali prison, exposed to the scorching sun-rays by day and to the fever-laden dews at night, Raisuli was doomed to die. , ( It is a far cry from the Berbei chieftain’s home-land in the Amljeia Hills to Mogador, but to the surprise of the great Abd-el Sudek, who was accustomed only to the thrifty loya ty of time-servers, it did not outdistance the fidelity of his captive s men. On -foot they made the long jouiiiey across the hind of thirst, and readied Mogador just m time to save then M from death by .slow starvation. How they compassed it nobody knows, hut compass it they did. For three years they stood watch outside the walls, and inside, by the connivance of the jailers, they supplied food to their lord and lightened Ins chain? Tliere was alarm in tho house ol A a - Cl-luddk when the news came that the jsrtv!! d SS& Mi r,n“ 1 fcfsr® tw-sj* «“i‘ ( who Chose to disbelieve the nunor of 2 reappearance. But before long Abd-el-Sudek found that lus tax-col "rvistjll defies the sultan. the liigbw m “7Xl3® who uas wIHS other loss imiomechanical' ‘ana 4 -itrtnrind cent playthings,!* and pomegranate trees, -jat cd tho removal of the caid,‘ nle cUatelv ised that peace would immediate . a ruler of recent acctaision Abd-el-Aziz was no strangei rebellion. Hitherto be had hiHowed his personal inclination, which als fell in with the traditional policy ot •the throne, and bad allowed meijimit revolutions to simmer until to ««- consumed by their own fues > tl( defiance of Raisuli and ™ mountain men created a situation tn.it required more drastic handling. T ?' b, with it ruffled the unjvi i<il hecaust* it took place close dignlt- <, JC of tlu . “bwhadprs, tinder tj. ~ t])C | or egn ministers •as the Moth-■^In(r 1 n(r . er> ft also envresidcnt n a , of t j lo high road •clangored the t ] l( , fiC a. along from tho PapiU g treasurt . raised wine 1. must ti ai - from export S.y the customsmfi 1 * Tal j ipr . rand import rl | / i , lU the more 'This metallic t court wejl'come to a . 10 j n lenihccause the great o ' l , l . t .,. the Ivorkyml soso ~,i-smic smic laws aio T>«- u rmals. ic.-q-ni mado For these rcas*;u. ( * ?1 ;i)i d common cause with A 1 7 mi" A OTntry. and devastate the Andjei After a few indecisive battles, or

°‘i rv uiiiig kirmislitvs, fortune frowned upon the Berber chief. ..Ills lighting men were cut up and 'scattered, ami Raisuli became a fugitive. 'There remained to him a retreat in the fastnesses of Zinat, at the end of a trail that would tax the ngilitv of a mountain goat. When this was surrounded by an overpowering nuinber of imperial troops, In' aiul his few surviving followers disappeared from the ken of men, it was said bv means of a subterranean passage through the mountainside

Be this as it may, they shortly reappeared, making forays out of the great cork forests near Arzila. Here they had a lair ns safe from surprise as was the home of Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest ; but the Sultan's troops (suitlimed to de-drov the mountain villages, the silos filled with fodder, and the secret stores ol loot! and ammunition, and soon Raisuli was reduced to desperate straits. It was in this dark hour of his deepest need that the outlawed ehieftau bethought him of that rude and sensational stroke which put him in funds and gave him the whip hand over his ollieial enemy. THE KIDNAPPING OF PER.DICARIS.

In a beautiful villa just outside of Tangier, a short day’s ride from the hill country, there had lived for many years a wealthy and talented American who in the terrestrial paradise which he had made his home received foreign admirals, "baslnulors, and journalists upon an equal, looting. On the evening of May IS, 1904. at nightfall, Raisuli and his famished meit surrounded the villa, seized its astonished owner, and carried him elf with as much consideration ns was compatible with then desperate situation. Some hours later somnolent Fez was aroused as it hail never been within the memory of living man by the receipt of some plain-spoken despatches trom AN asliington. 'Within a few days a powerful American fleet, under Admiral Chadwick, bad gathered in Moorish ,enters ; and when the Republican national convention met in Chicago, it ■gave the sanction of its enthusiastic approval to Secretary' Hay s laconic demand for "Perdiearis alive of Raised dead.’’ From tho stronghold of the mountaineers there came an ultimation no iess disturbing: "The unworthy caid, Abd-el-Sudek, lias ha missed our people unduly. He has exacted unjust taxes, which have never been turned into the imperial treasury, and ho has grown rich with the price of murder. \S e mountain men demand that he be removed from office, and the few prisoners he still holds be liberated, and that with his ill-gotten cains he bo compelled to pay a heat y ransom lor tbe American gentleman.” The Sultan in Fez bowed to tho inevitable, and, like a true Oriental, he bowed low. The rebellion of Bou Hamara in tho cast was growing; his own troops, wearied by constant campaigning, were mutinous; and the white ships of the American fleet were anchored in Tangier Bay, cleared lor action. Abd-el-Aziz showed his statesmanship and made peace all round. He showered honors on our admiral, and he made Raisuli by decree, as lie was in fact, lord of the Andjera hills. Caid Stulek lie sent upon a penitential pilgrimage to Mecca, and had all his property seized and turned into tho imperial treasury. THE SULTAN PROSCRIBES RAISULI.

The good-will of sultans is no more stable than that of kings. Once the international crisis was passed, the wind of favor front Fez veered, and the. rising hope of the unbending Berbers was relieved of all his office.-.. During Raisuli’s brief day of authority Abd-el Aziz—or, more probably, one of his shrewd advisers —bad recognised that the highland leader was not .1 brigand of the stamp that is so easily assimilated into the imperial service.* He had shown himself to bo first and always a Berber, conversant with the wants of his fellow tribesmen, and eager to assert then rights. The intractable chieftain was proscribed once more, and a heavy price was set upon his head. For once—out of consideration, it is said, for his war-weary people and their blood-drenched land—Raisuli refused the gage of battle and sought ref-uge in the sanctuary of Mulai Abu-el-Selam. Although this place of refuge had remained inviolate from time immemorial, the Sultan’s lieutenants made every preparation to storm the shrine and capture its important guest. To prevent this sacrilege as he announced, Raisuli, with a small band of followers, again took to the fastnesses of tho mountains. His farewell injunction to his people was that thev should submissively till their fields and smuggle arms right plentifully across tho Gibraltar Straits, in readiness for tho day when it would not bo sheer madness to take the field against imperial oppression. That day lias dawned sooner than any one ex'pcctcd; and now, while the power of the Sultan wanes and pretenders mulitply, the Berber-clneftan, tho outlaw of yesterday rules with rough, but evon-liaiuled justice a tiact of country which is more extensive than some of the English kingdoms. In view of the grave disorders which are occurring throughout Morocco, and in recognition of the weakening of the imperial power, France and Spain, acting under the mandate which ■ they received front the powers represented at theAlgeciras Conference have thrown troops into Casablanca and a few of the pther towns along the Moroccan coast,_ where the lives and property of foreigners have been in more or less serious jeopardy. It is to be hoped that their intervention will go no further. MOROCCO NOT EASY TO CONQUER. Morocco, probably, lias welcomed to hospitable graves more foreign invaders than any other country in Africa. On the hanks of one of her shallow steams there can still be seen the pyramid of skulls which is the sole memorial of twenty thousand gentlemen adventurers of every nationality who followed Don Sebastian trom Portugal to conquer this stiff-necked payiiim people. For twenty-two years 0662-1684) our English cousins occupied Tangier, which came to Charles' 11. as part of the dowry of his Potrugeuse bride, Catharine ot Braganza. The place proved a costly one to hold against the unceasing attacks of the tribesmen. 'Three times it was onlv saved from capture by the arrival ol an English licet ; and at last, when Parliament wearied of voting money lor its delense, it was abandoned to the Moors. The most interesting memory o| its hnel period of British rule is that here handsome Jack Churchill, the future hero of Malplaquet and the future lounder ol ! Marlborough linn, first blooded his sword. . ~ .... In the neighboring territory ol Algiers. France’s long war with Abd-el-Kacler, though it was finally suci ,-essful. cost her thousands of gallant men and millions of valuable francs. Onlv fortv years ago Spain went almost bankrupt over a'Moorish escapade which ended, without »«> special glory or -rofit, at IcLia.i. ' Cnlim -iuffit of tlie -sea. To-dav, in the opinion ot manv o - c-ervers out of the cradle ot tin. Bn this distracted land from nnptnal stronghold at hcz.