Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/454

 372 NOETH-WEST AFRICA- the extensive plain of Tafrata, which, when clothed with verdure in spring, is visited by the Huara Arabs. Here the Moluya receives its chief affluent, the Wed Za, which is a perennial stream fed by the Wed Sharf and other torrents from the upland plateaux south of the Tell. The riverain population have their chief market, not in the valley, but farther east on the Angad plain, on an eminence crowned with the kubba of Sidi-Melluk. Around this famous shrine are grouped the houses of Arab and Jewish merchants trading with Ujda and Tlemcen. The village is usually known by the name of Kashah-el-Aiun, or " Castle of the Springs," from the numerous wells that have been sunk at the foot of the hill. The semi-independent Berber tribes of the district are kept in awe by a detachment of about a hundred and fifty regular troops stationed at this frontier outpost. Of these tribes the most powerful is that of the Beni-Iznaten (the Beni- Snassen of the neighbouring French Algerians), who comprise several clans originally from the district of Nemours. These irreconcilable foes of the Christians occupy the isolated mass of hills between the Angad desert and the lower course of the Moluya. Jaferin Islands — Melilla. No important town has been founded on the low-lying plain through which the Moluyu flows seawards, and here the nearest military position is that of the Jaferin (Zaffarine, Zafrin, Shaffarinas) Islands, the Tres Insulae of the ancient geographers. The only importance attaching to these barren rocks is due to the shelter they afford the shipping at anchor in the roadstead, and to their strategic position over against the Moluya Valley, and not far from the Algerian frontier. During the first years of the conquest the French had intended to occupy the archipelago ; but when they had finally decided on taking this step in 1849, they were anticipated by a few hours by the Spaniards. The group is now strongly fortified, forming a military outpost of the stronghold of Melilla, some 30 miles farther west. Melilla, the Mlila of the natives, occupies the site of the Phasnician city of Mussadir, whose name is perpetuated by the neighbouring headland of Ras-ed-Deir (Raseddir), the Cape Tres Forcas of the Spaniards. The town stands on a terrace at the foot of a steep cliff crowned by the Spanish fortress of Rosario, which has been raised on the foundations of other citadels that have here succeeded each other for a period of three thousand years. Some shelter is afforded to the shipping by an inlet penetrating to the south-west of the fortress, possibly the work of the Phoenicians, who constructed similar havens at Carthage and Utica. Melilla, whose fortifications were half destroyed by an earthquake in 1848, has been in the possession of the Spaniards since the year 1496, and is now connected by a regular line of steamers with the mother country. Some 30 miles off the coast stands the barren islet of Alboran, which is also a Spanish stronghold. On the semi-circular Rif coast, between Ras-ed-Deir and Tetuan, stand two other military stations, Alhucemas and Pehon de Velez, which have been held by Spain for over three hundred years. Both are little more than penal settlements, occupied