likely pays much more than it would have got off with at first, and
then proceeds to victimize the debtors.

It is with expressed threats of bombardment that the ships come, but
experience has taught the Moorish Government that it is well not to
let things go that length, and they now invariably settle amicably. To
our western notions it may seem strange that whatever questions have
to be attended to should not be put out of hand without requiring
such a demonstration; but while there is sleep there is hope for an
Oriental, and the rulers of Morocco would hardly be Moors if they
resisted the temptation to procrastinate, for who knows what may
happen while they delay? And then there is always the chance of
driving a bargain, so dear to the Moorish heart, for the wazeer knows
full well that although the Nazarene may be prepared to bombard, as
he has done from time to time, he is no more desirous than the Sultan
that such an extreme measure should be necessary.

So, even when things come to the pinch, and the exasperated
representative of Christendom talks hotly of withdrawing, hauling down
his flag and giving hostile orders, there is time at least to make an
offer, or to promise everything in words. And when all is over, claims
paid, ships gone, compliments and presents passed, nothing really
serious has happened, just the everyday scene on the market applied to
the nation, while the Moorish Government has once more given proof of
worldly wisdom, and endorsed the proverb that discretion is the better
part of valour.

An illustration of the high-handed way in which things are done
in Morocco has but recently been afforded by the action of France
regarding an alleged Algerian subject arrested by the Moorish