man who knew Greek and Hebrew, and was therefore as he explained, very superior; but that need not have prevented his trying to be a gentleman.

But after this experience of his polemical and persuasive powers, I did not fancy that he would do much among the Jews. I felt though a sudden sympathy for the poor Jews. They, however, might some of them make money out of him, while my half-hour's converting was complete loss to me, except in so far as it has enlivened these pages.

I had one other experience of a missionary in Tangier, but he was a man of indeed a very different stamp from the two foregoing.

A kindly gentleman, he never allowed his Christianity to so overcome his humanity, as to lead him to treat with discourtesy or insolence, those who differed from him in opinion; and when he did urge his own religious views-always in season and never out of season-on others, he did it with so sweet and gentle a persuasiveness, that the only feeling experienced was regret that reason and conscience forbade their acceptance. It was plain that the sole feeling animating him was a desire to extend to others what had proved a solace and support to himself. Perfectly free from vanity and self-righteousness, he followed truly in the footsteps of the great Master under whose banner he had enrolled himself.

He did not come to Tangier on any missionary enter

prise. His labours in that field had been over for many years. The Fiji Islands had been the sphere of his work, and I have heard that his labours there were marked with signal success,-a success due in a large measure, I believe, to the zeal, tact, and courage of his wife, who shared in his labours, as well as to his own. This lady, with another missionary's wife, rowed alone in an open boat from the island they were resident in, to another; and by their arguments and intercessions saved the lives of a number of poor native women, who were just about to be barbarously put to death.

While fully believing that efforts to Christianize Jews, Mohammedans, Hindoos, or members of other systematized religions, some older than Christianity, others nearly allied to it, all belonging to countries already civilized, are not only futile but mischievous; I quite recognise the good that some missionaries have done amongst savage and barbarous peoples, as the pioneers of civilization.

I should be very sorry, either, to have it thought that I believed, that there are many men engaged in this work, capable of displaying such stupidity and vulgarity as characterised the gentleman who wanted me to believe in steamboats "made of bulrushes." I should rather hope that the specimen was unique; indeed it is in that belief that I have given him a place in this chapter. I have put this missionary in as a sort of natural curiosity.

CHAPTER XVII.

RIDING IN MOROCCO.

In a few weeks the weather cleared up, and I was able to commence making such excursions into the surrounding country, as the bad condition of the roads, consequent on the unprecedentedly heavy and continuous rains, would permit. Roads proper, indeed, there are very few in Morocco; about Tangier there are but two or three that in any way deserve the name, and these extend but short distances. The rest, in the more immediate vicinity, are narrow lanes; further off, mere bridle paths and tracks, up and down the mountains and through the valleys. And yet the neighbourhood of Tangier is perhaps better off in this respect than any other district in Morocco. During the rains all the low grounds were turned into swamps and morasses, and some of the roads were converted into actual rivers. For some weeks after, these were filled with stiff mud, into which the horses sank, sometimes knee deep, and they were in many places quite impassable.

Progression on foot anywhere a mile from the town— except on the sands-was quite out of the question. Riding was the only possible means, and this I was obliged to adopt, though hitherto totally unaccustomed to it.

Riding, as every one knows, is an amusement to which novelty does not lend an added charm. Particularly it does not in Tangier, as I discovered the first time I tried it, on the back of a brown pony, who, when he stood, had his hind legs very close together, and his fore legs very far apart; and whose eye gave forth a mingled expression of low cunning and confirmed obstinacy. I rode up the main street, my steed slipping and scrambling among the geographical inequalities of its surface which I have already described. I found it very unpleasant. I rode down again, and found it more unpleasant still. However, we didn't fall, that was one great thing, considering how easy it would have been to fall under such circumstances, though I felt as if we should do so at every step. That we did not, was perhaps in some measure attributable to the remarkable configuration of my horse's legs, which I have noticed, and which I believe was not ill adapted to taking us up and down the streets of Tangier in comparative safety. At least I believe it was better adapted than that of another brown pony, on which I rode on a subsequent occasion, whose hind legs were far apart, and whose fore legs were close together. He had a drooping head, too, in consequence of passing his whole. time in contemplation of his knees, which were both broken. His utter oblivion of every other subject but this (the nature of the pavement and my presence on his back included) caused him to stumble about every

ten yards or so. This did not signify so much going up hill, but coming down it was precarious. I fancy he must have taken to contemplating his knees even before they got broken, and that this was the originating cause of the first accident. Now he looked at his knees always, and fell and rebroke them about once a week, I should say.

The horses and mules of Tangier are a rather peculiar race, and some of their characteristics render them worthy, I think, of a little special description.

They are in general under-fed and over-worked, ill groomed and well thrashed; and their physique presents all the appearances to be expected from such a mode of treatment. Notwithstanding, however, their low diet. and laborious duties, some of them are given to running away on the smallest, or sometimes without any, provocation. I don't think, though, that they do it with any wild hope of running away from Tangier and their most miserable existence there, as they generally stop suddenly short when in full career. This, as every one accustomed to equestrian exercise knows, is apt to result unpleasantly for the rider. Many of them, too, are addicted to buck-jumping. They almost all kick, a few of them rear, and some of them shy; there are others who do all, and do them all well.

All the horses and mules in Tangier know each other intimately. This is no doubt agreeable for them, but is often exceedingly awkward for their riders. They, the