The Argosy — page 233: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

214 The Cruse of the Reserve Squadron. we ought to reach Tangiers before one o’clock. The morning was intensely hot, the sky cloudless, the deep blue sea had not a ripple. Thus had it been for many days. ‘The shores of Spain grew faint, the Rock diminished, the African coast opened up, and presently Tangiers, a white object upon sloping hills, became more and more visible. We anchored in the bay, and were immediately surrounded by boats and half-naked men, who shouted, fought, and seemed ready to murder each other for precedence. From the water Tangiers looked excessively eastern, distinct and different from anything to be seen on the other side the Straits. But we were In another quarter of the globe, amongst a separate race. The houses, rising on the slopes of two hills, looked white and cool with their flat, white roofs ; and the fact of their having no chimneys addedto their singular appearance. Thé*mosque towers and minarets stood conspicuously above the houses. In broad, hot sunshine, the town yet looked pleasant and dazzling. It also looked sweet and wholesome—save the mark ! We thought what a charming and civilised place we had come to ; what a pity that we should have less than twenty-four hours for enjoyment therein. The fort, crowning the hill and overlooking the water, stood out boldly ; a moorish gateway at the end of the short, steep pathway was very picturesque and romantic. Nothing could exceed the beauty of colour and clearness of the water, from deep blue to the most transparent aqua marine, as it rolled over its golden sands, leaving the shores beyond high-water mark pure and glistening. Indeed, we seemed bathed, as it were, in purity and sunshine and intoxicating ether, which threw a glow over one’s imagination, and raised one’s spirits to fever heat. A sixth sense was developed, which swallowed up all the other senses in the mere delight of existence. We managed to scramble into a boat, narrowly escaping being torn to pieces in the struggle, and landing in the same simplicity of costume as that affected by our clamorous boatmen. Once upon a time, all passengers had to be hoisted on to the shoulders of these shiny Moors—a penalty that might have atoned for many sins. Now they have a sort of moveable stage, which stretches from the boat to the shore—a distance of only a few feet—and enables you, without other aid, to escape to land. The hotel was at hand; merely up one street and down another. Yet was it distant enough to convince us that Tangiers, true to its reputation, certainly could not, in some respects, have made any progress during the last thousand years. ‘This was what we had come to see; had been desirous of seeing. How could we tell that far, very far more than the sense of sight would be exercised in the service of experience ? It would be impossible to describe the smells. My companions, right and left, both nearly fainted over and over again in that short walk. I felt that now my hands were full, and my responsibilities had Gomichbooks. co