Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/484

 898 NORTH-WEST AFRICA. of perfect equality. They are probably Berbers converted to Judaism before the arrival of the Arabs; hence, having had no hand in the death of the "Lord Jesus," they are exempt from the load of reprobation weighing on the other Israelites. Tizzi — Santa Cruz — Ifni. Some 24 miles farther east lies the town of Tizzi or Fum-el-Hosmn, which belongs to the Maribda Arab community. It stands, according to Lenz, at an alti- tude of 1,600 feet, in an admirable jx)sition at the mouth of a rocky gorge commanded by pyramidal mountains. An oasis of palms follows the course of a stream, whose waters sometimes reach the Wed Nun. On a hill to the north are some ruins attri- buted by the natives, apparently with good reason, to the Romans. In the district occur other remains, such as continuous ramparts like the wall of China, high towers with sculptured pinnacles, tombs and inscribed rocks like those found in large numbers throughout Mauritania from Tripolitana to Marocco. These carvings comprise inscriptions in the Tefinegh (Berber) character, besides figures of animals, including the elephant, rhinoceros, horse, and giraffe. The human figure nowhere occurs, although arms, garments, and other works of man are represented on these mysterious petroglyphs. In the region comprised between the Weds Ilegh and Nuu, Spain apparently intends to establish the centre of administration for the new territory acquired by the treaty concluded with Marocco in 1860. In virtue of a special clause, the Spanish Government reserves the right to re-occupy the port of Santa Cruz de Mar Peqiieha {Mar Mcnor or Mar Cliica), which it held for twenty years, from 1507 to 1527. But the very site of this former conquest can no longer be determined with certaint}', and it is doubtful whether any vestiges remain of the Agadir or Otcader razed to the ground by the natives. Nevertheless, fearing to be involved in fresh complications through the incursions of hostile tribes, the Sultan's Government reluctantly ceded a strip of land in a territory over which it exercised no jurisdic- tion, offering instead either a large indemnity, or the Bay of Agnas, on the Mediter- ranean coast, over against the Zaffariue Islands, or even an extension of the Ceuta district. But Spain was obdurate, and a special expedition commissioned to discover the lost jwrt of Santa Cruz has reported in favour of the Ifui inlet, 18 miles north- east of the Wed Nun estuary, near which were found 'some ruins of Spanish or Portuguese construction. The harbour of Ifni, the choice of which was ratified by the Sultan in 1883, has the great advantage of proximity to the Ogulmin market, and of easy access to the rich plains of the Wed-el-Ghas and Wed Siis ; and if selected with a view to further conquest, it has also the advantage above all other places in dispute of lying most to the north, that is, nearest to the Marocco frontier. Ifni, however, answers in no respect to the description of Santa Cruz de Mar Pequena contained in the documents of the sixteenth century. GaUano thinks he has found the true position of the old Spanish port at Boca Grande, on the mouth of the Wed Shibika and about midway between Puerto Cansado and the "V^ed Draa estuarv.