THE Moores Baffled BEING A DISCOURSE CONCERNING TANGER Especially when it was under the Earl of Teviot By which you may find What METHODS and GOVERNMENT is fittest to secure that place against the Moors In a LETTER from a Learned person long Resident in that place at the desire of a person of QUALITY LONDON Printed for William Crooke at the Green-Dragon without Temple-Bar 1681. Prospect of that Innerpart of Tangier with the vpper Castle from South-East The Bookseller to the Reader of the Moors I refer him to the Present State of the Jews in Barbary The Life and Death of Mahumed or the first Estate of Mahumedism and West-Barbary I hope if this be acceptable to get from the same Author the continuation to this day and the present State of the place which he is well able to do William Crooke A DISCOURSE OF TANGER SIR TANGER of which you command an Account was of old so various in her fortunes that History scarce knows in what shape to draw her Picture And whether it happen from the early and frequent change of her Inhabitants or from the want of Records or from her own great Antiquity Historians seem at a stand to give a clear account of her Genealogie Procopius Caesariensis derives her Pedigree from the Phoenicians ascribing to that antient People the Honour of her foundation But that inquisitive Antiquary had no surer ground for this Conjecture than the two suspected Pillars found out not far from Tanger which in Phoenician Characters are said to have an Inscription to this purpose Nos fugimus à facie Josuae filii Nave Others again are of opinion that the Posterity of Phut the Son of Cham were the first Inhabitants of this City and Country because there is a River still bearing that name But not to spend time in Conjectures about her Original When Rome was famous for Conquests and Mauritania was brought under her yoak Tingis now Tanger was thought worthy to give the name to Mauritania Tingitana And under the Romans was of so great esteem that Claudius made her a Colony calling it Traduct a Julia. When this City had the happiness to become Christian it was made a Bishops See And we read of one Marcellus casting away his military Girdle for the sake of Religion here suffer'd Martyrdom in the time of Dioclesian But the glory of this antient City began at length to decline with the Roman Greatness and to languish like many other limbs of that over-grown Empire For when the Vandals broke into Barbary Tanger became their slave and endured their cruel Tyranny till that great Captain Belisarius forc'd them thence and restored it to Justinian In which happiness she remained till Osman the third Caliph of the Saracens conquering Barbary took her from the Romans and added her to the Kingdom of Fez. Under this sad change both of Government and Religion Tanger continued until Alphonso redeem'd her out of the hands of those unjust Possessors peopled her again with Christians and made her the Stage of many heroick Actions his Incursions into the neighbouring Country were little Conquests frequently baffling the Moors and so long spoiling their Flocks and Herds till at last enraged by such continual plunders they raised a numerous Army and with thirty six Guns as some report advance to besiege Tanger but were violently repulsed say some others say fairly treated off by the Portuguezes In whose possession to the envy and anger of Spain Tanger continued till it became English The circumstances of which Alteration are so well known that it were superfluous to relate them The Earl of Peterborough her first English Governour after some easie oppositions having taken possession of Tanger met with difficulties on all hands The Moors grew jealous of their new Neighbours chiefly because they were more numerous than their old and their valour more renown'd Gayland chief Governour of the adjacent Country though at first he entertain'd the Earl with overtures of Peace yet he took all occasions to try the English metal Several times he encountred and overcame some of our unwary parties which gave no less discouragement to ours than heart to his own Souldiers But to shew how things thrived under that Noble Personage the E. of P. is not the designe of this Paper But yet the face of affairs was not of the best complexion if you will believe a Letter at that time writ to England telling us That the Souldiers were eaten up of wants cowed with their frequent misfortunes possessed with an opinion the Moor was invincible that nothing was so terrible to them as an Alheic and Cymiter that the Gates had been for a long time lockt up c. Victuals Clothes c. scarce and even not to be had c. But what relates to the first condition of Tanger upon its becoming English I leave you to collect out of the Narrative you desire of the Earl of Tiveot in which if I exceed the Laws of Lettering your command is my Apology The Earl of Tiveot upon the leaving of Dunkirk where he had been Governour was by his Majesty appointed to go in the same Character to Tanger where he arrived May the first 1663 and forgetting the wearisomness of a tedious Voyage and waving the Ceremonies of Reception the afternoon of his arrival he spent in viewing the stores of Provisions How he found them need not be mentioned for the hungry looks of the Souldiers and their exclamations for Pinch-gut-money that was the word declared that Tanger for a long time had kept a niggardly house and that either her Plenty or Liberality had been but little But the provident Earl remembring how the Heduans negligence to bring in Corn for the relief of the Roman Army had like to have cost Caesar his fortunes against the Helvetians had made preventions of the like mischief and so ordered things that Tanger should still be provided with such considerable abundance as that an ordinary accident should not reduce her to want Which careful foresight nothing could hinder from being effectual but the negligence of the Victuallers I examine not the state of other Stores yet however he found them his care was to make them rich And other Commodities which were scarce to be purchased at any rate were within a short space after his arrival to be had at very considerable prices Every day brought the Earl new troubles and the more he consider'd the more he apprehended the hardships of his New Province which made him often protest That if he had foreseen what he was to encounter nothing but the Command of his Prince could have obliged him to an undertaking wherein he was to wear out the remains of his strength and age in that thankless Office the mending of faults He that has seen what difficulties accompany the restauration of a body to strength and to secure it from relapsing after some emacerating disease has reduced it to a sort of breathing Skeleton how every stone must
satisfaction and friendship Gayland and the Earl continually complemented one another with Letters and Presents and affairs were so wisely manag'd that the English and Moors seem'd to differ in nothing but Religion Affairs being now reduced to that condition which but a few days before could scarce have been hop'd for the Earl prepared to see England But by reason of some intervening business he put off his journey until August the 27. 1663. On which day he went aboard the Foresight which weigh'd Anchor the next Morning But ere I proceed in the Narrative of the Earl I must not omit to tell you that betwixt the conclusion of the Peace and his going to England he took all opportunities to caress the Moors giving leave also to several Gentlemen of the Garrison to visit the Country under Gaylands Seguro By which means he became the better acquainted with many things tending to the Interest of his Government He also in the interim sent a Present to the Sheck of Anjerah who received it with great satisfaction as the following Letter demonstrates writ to the Earl in Arabique and being first made Spanish is here Englished In the Name of God the Greatest of all Great ones whom we worship and serve and none other To the most Excellent Count Tiveot Captain General of Tanger the Just and Valiant greeting and desiring that he may have Health and Prosperity which we value much WE received the Servants of your Excellency in our Country for whom we have done what we are able and have commanded our Vassals to guard them to Tanger The Present mad us by your Excellency we kindly receive God augment your Honour and Happiness In all that is required at our Hand let it be upon our Head that we serve you with much willingness being that we are made Friends we esteem your Friendship much My Son and Couzens greet your Excellency desering God that you may have Health Subscribed Almocadem Cassian Shat. This Shat was Father to one of Gaylan's Wives numerous in Alliances and reported to be an Andalusian or of the Race of the Moors banisht Spain He hath hereditary to his Family the Command of Anjera which is a large Cavila adjoyning unto Tanger At the same time the Governours of Tituan made their Congratulations also declaring their great satisfaction in the Peace as appears by the ensuing Lines rendered out of Spanish Most Excellent Sir WE know not how to signifie to your Excellency the content we received from your Excellencies Express but by affirming to your Excellency that our joy was doubled to have your Excellency for our friend and that upon all occasions both in word and deed we will serve your Excellency which shall be found true as occasions shall offer according to your Excellencies pleasure and we assure you that if your Excellency advise us in any thing of your pleasure we will do it willingly lovingly and friendly For of old we had Amity with all the Subjects of the King of Great Britain how much more with a Prince so Illustrious as your Excellency We here by our Seals bind ourselves to maintain and preserve Peace and Friendship with all the Subjects of the King of Great Britain without any contradiction And so your Excellency may send or give leave to Merchants Captains and Mariners for to come to this Port and all shall be Treated with Peace Amity and Courtesies by all those that are under our jurisdiction God preserve and augment your Excellencies Life and Health Tetuan Sept. 16. 1663. Signed Ahmed Ben Abdelcrim El Naqsis Refaq alah Ahmed Ben Aissa El Naqsis Refaq alah But ere I proceed give me leave to acquaint you with the Earls singular carefulness to carry an equal hand in all Controversies that happened betwixt the Christians and those Jews that were residing upon the place He was no stranger to the ill nature of the later and how it was their Interest to favour the concerns of the Moors as being the most of them born amongst them and greatly sympathized in their Customs Besides many of them were only come to Tanger to Trade having left their Wives and Children in the Moors Dominions But besides that both by Nature and Religion he was inclined to an Impartial Justice he knew that to do otherwise would soon open the Mouth of a clamarous Jew loudly to traduce him to the Moors And thereby instil an ill opinion both of his Person and Religion His second care was to remove from the Moors all suspicion of any intended Invasion of their Country with which they seem'd sturdily possessed To this end he let them plainly and sincerely know That the King his Master had not sent him to Conquer but to Rent their Land That the chief design of his being sent thither was not to make War but to settle a Peace and to promote such a friendly and safe Traffique as might conduce to the advantage of both By which Declaration seconded with Practice the Earl attain'd to such an esteem with the Moors that they would name him with a sort of Veneration And understanding that he was one grown old in Military Attempts they concluded that he was a person destined for great Atchievements and that his very Reputation fought in his Souldiers Upon his going for England I heard the Illustrissimo's of Tetuan passionately wish his speedy and safe return to Barbary Which was also desired by Gayland as you may collect from the following Letter sent by him to the King Sacred Royal Sir HIs Excellency the Earl of Teviot having signified unto me his intended Voyage into your Kingdoms I could do no less than accompany him with my Letters and to signifie unto your Majesty the Peace he has concluded with me in your Name I have found his Excellency so valiant a person and of so Noble a Breast that I could not but answer him with my best Respects I now give your Majesty to understand that I am ready to grant your desires in all things that shall offer for your service That this was not done before must be imputed to the want of a capable subject I hope through the favour of God that the Peace we have made will bring considerable advantages to your Majesties Affairs in these parts I doubt not but his Excellency will receive ample Rewards for his well-doing If any part of our Dominions will yield ought that may be useful to your Majesties Service send and command for it is at your disposal And it shall be one of the greatest happinesses I can offer to give you to understand our delight therein God grant your Majesty large felicities and preserve you Arzila Sept. 10. 1663. The Earl being arrived in England he was by important concerns of his own invited to take a Journey into Scotland his Native Soil which journey as every thing else he performed with so great celerity that he return'd to Tanger on the 14th of the following Month which was precisely eight days before
the expiration of the Peace The same Evening that he Landed he removed not from the Water-side at Tanger till the Horses brought for Recruits were boated ashore The next day he saluted Gayland by Letter who upon the receipt thereof sent a Propio to congratulate the Earls safe arrival and to let him know how that out of Civility and favour to him he had granted the Lieutenant-Governour a continuation of the Peace for two Months without any variation of the first Articles The Earl return'd Gayland thanks but withal assured him That it was not in his power to prolong the Peace beyond the first conclusion unless he was permitted to Fortifie as he was ordered by his Master But that in honour to the Lieutenant-Governours Agreement and to show his respect to Gayland he would make good every particular of the Articles that were for the Moors advantage Gayland here upon askt and was granted fifteen days space to consult with his Grandees and gave the Earl to understand that during that time he might follow his Fortifications without interruption Jan. 23. Gayland sent in his Secretary to let the Earl know that if he would have the Peace prolong'd they were to come to New Articles The Secretary was a Spanish Renegado of a bold not to say insolent discourse He spoke highly in his Masters behalf and in a braving Language Hector'd the Earl so loudly with Gaylands Greatness and Puissance that he was forced at last to bid him tell his Mighty Master that if he came within his Lines he would send him to beg pardon for his Trespass of the King of Great Britain The fifteen days granted Gayland for Consultation being ended he sent a Son of the Sheck of Anjera to confer with the Earl who told him the Mahumedan Law forbad them to suffer the Christian to erect Fortifications in their Country and that if the Earl would not desist from that work he was not to expect any longer continuance of the Peace To which Message the Earl made no other reply but that the Sword should decide whether Mahumeds Law or his Masters Orders were more powerful That he would neither take nor give Quarter That he would observe every tittle of the Articles and so lay the breach of Peace at Gaylands door And so the War was declared by beat of drum through the streets The next day the Earl set upon Building of Fort Charles on the Hill next the Upper-Castle whose scituation was advantageous not only to secure a considerable quantity of ground for the service of the Garrison but also to discover the Enemy at a great distance And if he had lived to compleat what he there designed I believe no Force would have overcome it but that of a Famine He had scarce finished one half Bastion when on the last of February 1663 Gayland with his whole Army came against it the Fight lasted two days in all which time the Trenches were so well contrived that we lost but one man On the second days Combat Gayland commanded his Standard to be fixed in the very Mouth of the Fort and even dared the Earl to touch it And the greatest part of the day being spent in pelting at one another in the Evening the Earl commanded a Squadron of Horse to fetch off the flanting Standard who having bravely done it it was set up upon the half-Bastion which was no sooner perceived by the Moors but they immediately marcht off seeming much perplexed at this disgrace After this the Moors appeared no more but in smaller Parties On March 13 the Earl with his Troops had a severe Encounter with some of their best Cavalry and was hard put to it to come off with Honour On March 27 1664. he counter-ambusht a strong Party of Horse which was seconded with a Reserve of Foot After a short dispute the Moors ran and were pursued by the Earl until the Woods and Rocks compelled him to desist Two of their slain were brought off one of which had several things about him that spake him to be a Person of Condition This happened upon a Sunday L. A. Chaplain to the Garrison having read Prayers and preacht in the Generals Tent which was never omitted the Earl commanded the two dead Bodies of the Moors to be decently washt and shrouded and so laying them on two Biers sent them with a White Flag to their Friends The Earl on Horseback and the Troopers in Military Order attended the said Corps to the very Margent of the ground that was granted him by Gayland in the time of the Peace where the Moors with a White Band-roll received them They expressed great tokens of their thankfulness for this Humanity by which the Earl as he designed greatly upbraided that barbarous Butchery exercised by the Moors upon the Bodies of those unhappy English that fell into their hands These Successes of the Earl much abated the Moors frequency and Resoluteness in Ambuscades but had no other influence upon him save the encouraging of his Cares which yet for all this were very much dasht by a want of Materials to carry on the intended Horn-work c. The snarling old Duke of Medina Celi angry at and envying the Earls proceedings denyed him Pratique in Spain as to the things he most needed which constrained him to send to Portugal for Lime c. and though it was there to be had yet the distance was so great and hazardous that it was very difficult to fetch it But if he had been sufficiently furnished with Materials to carry on the Fortifications in a few Months he would have made Tanger strong enough to defie the Force and Cunning of the Moors And besides that this lack of Lime c. hindered the work it also gave occasion to the Earl to venture too much abroad and put him upon that fatal Action of May the fourth 1664 the thoughts of which are so unpleasant that you must pardon me if I totally pass it over in silence Thus you receive what you have so often requested and what I have writ is only an innocent Narrative of the more remarkable passages betwixt Gayland and the Earl of Tiveot They all hapned in the space of six Months the Earl being little longer Resident in Tanger And if we may divine by what he did in so short a space what he would have done had he lived we may safely conclude he would have made Tanger as famous an English Colony as it was once a Roman But all was crusht in his unfortunate death And while I reflect upon that signal cautiousness he used in all other Adventures I cannot but wonder by what Star he was led to that which was his last Having now given you a short Account of the Antiquity of Tanger and of what hapned there upon its first becoming English I leave you to your own Deductions And shall trouble you no further than with an intimation of the Earl of Tiveots Opinion of the Town Fortisication and Mole