anxiety to get rid of the blockade on Mogador, which
practically cut off all their supplies. I therefore
suggested sending the interpreter of the fleet, Dr.
Warnier—a brave and clever man, one of the
Frenchmen who, with General Daumas, Leon Roche, and
others, had, formerly followed the fortunes of Abd-el-Kadir,
and quite capable of detecting all the tricks of Arab
diplomacy—to meet Bousselam, with orders
to ask whether he really was invested with full powers
from the Emperor, and to request him, in that case,
to produce an official document in proof of his assertion.
In the event of the reply being in the affirmative,
the squadron to return to Tangier, bringing the French
plenipotentiaries, and with them a treaty ready drawn
up, containing the conditions imposed by France, to
be signed within twenty-four hours.
So matters were settled.
And what were the stipulations of the treaty?
Not very many. But it gave the deathblow to Abdel-Kadir,
whom the Emperor of Morocco undertook to proclaim
an outlaw. The real treaty of peace had been
signed at Tangier, at Isly, and at Mogador. We
had no object, once we had gained those victories,
in imposing too severe conditions, which would have
weakened and even destroyed his authority, on the
Moorish Sovereign. It was far better to have a
ruler on our frontier who had experience both of our
armed strength and of our generosity, and to whose
interest it consequently was to live on friendly terms
with us, than to have to keep up a struggle with Mussulman
anarchy, which might end in opening the door to international
intervention.
The treaty inspired by these considerations was duly
signed, and the order to evacuate the Island of Mogador
and raise the blockade was forthwith given. The
flag was hoisted once more over the French consulate,
and saluted both on shore and by our ships in port.
The Morocco dispute was closed.
In the result, Abd-el-Kadir, hemmed in in Morocco
as he had formerly been in Algeria, was forced, in
1847, after a short period of wandering and helplessness,
to make his submission to my brother Aumale. From
the date of the signing of the treaty of Tangier up
to the present day, no serious misunderstanding has
ever arisen between ourselves and the Empire of Morocco.
The signature of peace was the signal for the dispersal
of the squadron under my orders. I myself returned
to Paris by Havre, where I learnt that a public reception,
which I was not sorry to escape, had been prepared
for me at Toulon. Feeling conscious, as I did,
of having done my country good service during my four
months of campaigning, praise and blame alike were
equally indifferent to me.
1844-1848
