No. 511.
Mr. Mathews to Mr. Evarts.
Tangier, July 30, 1880. (Received September 4.)
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that in consequence of the exorbitant imposts laid on several Kabyles of the interior by the Sultan of Morocco, these people, being unable to comply with this renewed extortion, have taken up arms and resisted the troops sent by the Emperor for their subjection.
The imperial forces having lately met with so severe a reverse at the hands of the rebel tribes, who not only dispersed the Sultan’s troops with heavy losses, but captured their guns and equipage, the Sultan has determined to collect all his available forces, consisting, besides the regulars, or Askars, of contingents from the Berber, Schloch, and other ferocious tribes, and to dispatch them without delay to Wazan, in the vicinity of which city the imperial forces met with so severe a defeat.
The governor of Tangier is also gathering the various contingents of this neighborhood in order to force the adjoining tribe of Angera to pay the sum of $30,000 imposed on them by the Sultan for the second time j as the first amount collected by the governor of Angera and his lieutenants (by which they confiscated and sold even the last head of cattle of many of this unfortunate Kabyle), was never delivered into the imperial treasury, and now these poor people are about being forced to pay a sum which in their state of destitution and misery they are unable to raise.
The commander of the Tangier troops of the line was killed during his attack on the rebel tribes. On the news reaching Tangier, the governor confiscated all the property of this brave officer who died at his post of duty, leaving his unfortunate widow without even the least means of subsistence. These proceedings and others from the Sultan’s officers are the cause which induce his own subjects to seek foreign protection.
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Under this state of affairs it is impossible for trade, commerce, and agriculture to progress, as communications with the interior are obstructed, and the chiefs appropriate at will the crops raised by the [Page 805] farmers, unless the latter have some sort of protection, or are associated in the crops with foreigners.
I have, &c.,