Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/458

 flowing from the surrounding amphitheatre of hills, and watering the neighbouring gardens and orange groves. The town, which stands on a terrace some 200 feet high, is commanded by a citadel, and encircled by a lofty rampart flanked with towers, within which a second enclosure contains the Melluh, or Jewish quarter. The bar, which is accessible only to light craft, is also defended by a fortified custom-house. Nearly all the wealth of the place is in the hands of the Jews, who constitute about a fourth of the whole population, and who here enjoy a certain degree of autonomy. Hence Tetuan is regarded as one of the centres of the Israelites, who own all the bazaars, and carry on an extensive trade with the

surrounding regions, through Ceuta, Tangier, and Gibraltar. The exports are chiefly oranges and mahaya, a kind of brandy distilled from grapes. The local industries, largely in the hands of immigrants from Algeria, comprise earthenware and the other wares required to meet the usual wants of Mussulman populations. Peopled to a large extent by Mudejares — that is, by Moors expelled from Granada and Castille — it has often had to resist the attacks of the Spaniards, by whom it was plundered in the fifteenth century. A hundred years later, its corsairs held the surrounding waters, carrying off thousands of captives from Andalusia, while trading peacefully with the English, Dutch, and Venetians. In 1564 the port was