Drake, who visited this spot in 1577, gives an excellent
description of “ The island Mogador.” 2*
Although the actual town is of such recent construction,
the Portuguese had a fortress, if not a settlement
near, f In the days before the Indies lured their
story.±
intrepid sailors away from the Barbary coast,
their most important colonies were in Morocco, and they
were masters of almost every roadstead or strategical
point from Ceuta to Agadir. It was impossible, therefore,
that this island and the harbour formed by it should
escape their attention, and as early as 1506 we read
of a fort being built there. Whether this is represented
by the crumbling fortress described, it is impossible to
decide, and soon there will be nothing left even of that. §
What remains yet of the masonry is of the usual solidity
of Portuguese work, but the foundations have been undermined
by the encroaching sea. Another fort once stood
on the rock o f the smaller island, close to the long
* “ It is uninhabited, of about a league in circuit, not very high land,
all overgrown with a kind of shrub breast high, not much unlike our
privet 5 very full of doves, and therefore much frequented of goshawks
and such-like birds of prey, besides divers sorts of sea-fowl very plenty.
At the south side of this island are three hollow rocks, under which are
great store of very wholesome but very ugly fish to look to.”
f Some think Mogador may have been the site of Pliny’s Erytbrasa,
others that Mysocorus is to be looked for here, or perhaps the Cerne of
“ Annone,” (Hanno) the “ Cyraunis” of others.1
J The Moorish Empire contains the following allusions to Mogador:
Portuguese settlement, h i 5 building, 1675 bombarded by the French, 1965
trade, 405, 408-9, 410 (and n.).
§ A correspondent well able to judge throws doubt on the reputed
origin of this fort, pointing out that much of it is built of tabia, or concrete
such as the Moors use, but the Portuguese seldom. Its position too,
seems one more likely to have been selected by the Moors. Drake spoke
of “ an old fort built sometime by the King of Portugal, but now ruined
by the King of Fesse/’ 3 which appears to have been situated at some
distance, and was possibly Sueira el Kadima.
1 See G ra b e rg , p. 289. * Drake's and Dampier's Voyages.
battery, but this has disappeared under similar action.
A short distance north of the mouth of the river Tan-
sift is another Portuguese fort, called Sueira el Kadima
Old Sueira— which name may be more then a coincidence.
* The Moors have a tradition that it was built
in one night by the aid of devils. This has been explained
by saying that the Portuguese brought everything
necessary for its construction from Lisbon, all prepared
and cut, so that they were able to put it together in a
remarkably short space of time.
On August 13th, 1844, during the French war with
Morocco, the Prince de Joinville bombarded Mogador
with three ships of the line, a frigate, two French
steamers and some brigs. But the town suffered Bombardment.
more from the neighbouring tribes, who came
down and sacked it. When peace was signed in September,
the messenger who brought the news found
no one there to receive i t . 1 During Ramadan 1873, on
the accession of Mulai el Hasan, four kaids of Haha and
Shiadhma having taken refuge in Mogador, the tribesmen
besieged the place closely As they had no cannon
they could only cut off the water-supply and destroy the
gardens. But as this meant starvation to the besiegers
as well as to the besieged, some of their friends in town
let them in for a feed at night 1
* This is about 48 m. north of the present Mogador; on the south side
of the Tansift stands a tasbah of Mulai Isma’il.
I G o d a r d .