by Giles Milton
Captain Norbury’s mission had been a disaster. Joseph Addison had hoped to sign a permanent truce with Moulay Ismail and at the same time free all the British slaves. In the event, his ambassador’s sole achievement was to incense the sultan with his threats and boasts. The only positive outcome was the news that Moulay Ismail had agreed to the posting of a British consul in Morocco, probably because he saw it as a means of increasing the flow of gifts to his court. The man chosen for this office was Anthony Hatfeild, an enterprising merchant whose contacts in Morocco had enabled him to continue a trade of sorts with the port of Tetouan. Consul Hatfeild was to prove a diligent servant over the coming years and would do everything in his power to win the freedom of the British slaves. But, like Joseph Addison and Admiral Cornwall, he was to find it almost impossible to deal with the proud and unpredictable sultan.
WHILE THE BRITISH captives toiled on the walls and ramparts of Meknes, Thomas Pellow’s circumstances had changed for the better. He was now about fifteen years of age and had been away from home for more than three years. Soon after Moulay es-Sfa’s death, he was given to one of the sultan’s courtiers, Ba Ahmed es-Srhir, “whose business was to train up and instruct youth how they should speak and behave before the emperor.” Pellow was being groomed as a palace retainer—one of the army of servant-slaves who were in daily contact with Moulay Ismail.
Six hundred youths had been selected for such training, but few showed any aptitude or enthusiasm. It was not long before Pellow was singled out as one of the more competent in the group. Within two weeks of joining Ba Ahmed’s household, he was given the rank of captain and put in charge of eight other renegades. They were sent to the imperial palace and told to “clean the walks in the emperor’s garden, where he and his favourite … were used to walk.”
The position was fraught with danger. Moulay Ismail had decreed that his wives should be seen by no one except the palace eunuchs, and the inhabitants of Meknes were instructed to remain indoors whenever the sultan and his entourage took their daily promenade. Father Busnot had observed one of these colorful spectacles from a distance and was astonished at the lengths to which the sultan would go to ensure that no one saw his wives. Whenever they left the palace compound, “the eunuchs run before, firing their pieces several times, [so] that all persons may withdraw on pain of death.” He added that “when anyone is sur-priz’ d, so that he cannot get away, he avoids the punishment by lying down with his face flat on the ground; for should he look upon one of these women, he would certainly suffer death.”
Pellow kept a careful eye on the entrance to the garden, but soon made an error that could have cost him his life. He was sweeping the gravel walkways when one of the sultan’s four principal wives, Halima el-Aziza, unexpectedly entered the garden. “The queen,” wrote Pellow, “coming one day into the walks, before I had the power to hide myself in a little house set there for that purpose … happened to see me.” There was something about Pellow’s plucky demeanor that aroused her curiosity. Instead of reporting him to the sultan—and demanding that he be punished—she asked to be granted him as a servant for her own household.
Moulay Ismail was anxious to please his favorite wife and gave his consent. “[He] ordered us immediately out, one by one, till she should see the same person.” As soon as Pellow appeared, the queen recognized him “[and] I was forthwith given her.” His new position was quite extraordinary and was to bring him into far greater danger. He was made chief porter to the innermost series of doors of the queen’s palace—the entrance that ultimately led into one of the sultan’s several harems. These inner quarters were controlled by a phalanx of black guards and eunuchs, and entry was forbidden to all but a chosen few. In these cloistered courtyards, which lay at the very heart of the palace, were the queen’s private quarters. This was where she, “with thirty-eight of the emperor’s concubines, and several eunuchs, were closely shut up.”
The harem was a sumptuous mansion whose courtyards were adorned with polished marble columns. According to Francis Brooks, one of the slaves involved in its construction, a sculpted marble basin formed the centerpiece of the courtyard. This was filled with “curious spring water … [which] boils up in the middle thereof, and comes from a fountain about two miles from the castle.”
The number of women in Moulay Ismail’s several harems was a constant source of fascination for European visitors to the imperial palace. Pellow claims that the sultan had more than 4,000 concubines during the time he was in Meknes, all of whom were “closely shut up in other houses allotted for them.” Such a number is impossible to verify, although Moulay Ismail is known to have sired a vast number of children. The birth of each child was marked by a special tax upon the country’s Jews, in order that suitable gifts could be bought. The register of this tax suggests that the sultan had at least 1,200 children during the course of his long reign.
Pellow never glimpsed inside the harem, for to do so would have cost him his life. But a Dutch slave girl named Maria Ter Meetelen left a unique portrait of life in the quarter that Pellow was now set to guard. “I found myself in front of the sultan,” she wrote, “in his room, where he was lying with at least fifty women.” They were “painted on their faces and clothed like goddesses, extraordinarily beautiful, and each with her instrument.” Maria listened in amazement as “they played and sang, for it was a melody more lovely than anything I’d ever heard before.”
The ladies of the harem presented an extraordinarily rich spectacle. The sultan’s principal wives were decked in gold drops and pearls, “which were hanging from their necks and were very heavy.” They wore golden crowns interlaced with more pearls, and their wrists jangled with gold and silver bangles. Even their hair was pleated with golden thread, which sparkled in the brilliant sunlight, while their necklaces were so laden with gems “that I was wondering how they could keep their heads straight with all that gold, pearls and precious stones.”
The sultan’s concubines spent the greater part of their lives shut away from the outside world and rarely left this forbidden corner of the palace. Many grew so bored with life in the harem that they bribed their eunuchs into acquiring wine from the Christian slaves. Others sneaked out to visit friends elsewhere in the palace. Such clandestine sorties were made with great risk. When Father Busnot was in Meknes, he said that Moulay Ismail “caus’d fourteen of them to have all their teeth drawn for having visited one another privately.”
The sultan’s harem often contained European slave girls who had been captured at sea by the Salé corsairs. Francis Brooks had watched the arrival of four English women seized aboard a vessel bound for Barbados. The chief eunuch informed the sultan that there was “a Christian virgin amongst the rest of the women,” and a delighted Moulay Ismail urged her to renounce her faith, “tempting her with promises of great rewards if she would turn Moor and lie with him.” The girl refused to apostatize, earning herself the full force of the sultan’s wrath. “[He] caused her to be stript, and whipt by his eunuchs with small cords, so long till she lay for dead.” He then instructed his black women to take her away and feed her nothing but rotten bread. The poor girl’s spirit was eventually so broken that she had no option but to “resign her body to him, tho her heart was otherwise inclined.” The sultan, gratified, “had her wash’d and clothed … and lay with her.” Once his desire was sated, “he inhumanly, in great haste, forc’d her away out of his presence.” The lovemaking was perfunctory but productive. The girl became pregnant and eventually gave birth to a healthy child who was destined to a life of servitude in the great palace of Meknes.
The rules that governed the harem were strictly observed, and no one but the sultan and his eunuchs was allowed into the inner sanctum. Moulay Ismail himself was governed by a protocol that required prior warning before he could be granted entry. Pellow was informed of these rules and told that his function was to stop any visitor from entering these quarters between the hours of dusk and dawn.
It was not long be
fore his resolve was tested to the limit. One evening, shortly after sundown, there was a loud knock on one of the doors that he was guarding. Pellow knew that most of the courtiers had already retired to their quarters; he also realized that whoever stood on the other side of the door had managed to evade several other guards. He feared that the sultan himself stood outside, yet he was under the strictest instructions not to open the door. “I had positive orders,” he wrote, “to admit none after such an hour, without being before advised of it, and of some certain signs to be given accordingly” His orders were not merely to deny access to the person outside. “In case anyone should attempt to enter at such an unseasonable hour, and not immediately depart … I should then fire through the door.”
There was a second knock, and Pellow demanded to know who was there. It was the answer that he most feared. Moulay Ismail was indeed demanding access to his harem and was furious that a palace slave was blocking his path. Pellow was momentarily in a quandary, aware that whatever course of action he chose was certain to lead to punishment. If he refused to open the door, he faced torture and execution for disobeying the sultan’s command. If he opened the door, contrary to orders, he would be put to death for proving himself untrustworthy.
The guards at the outer entrance had panicked when they realized the sultan himself was demanding entry, so fearful of disobeying an order that they had meekly opened the doors. But Pellow had always displayed a great independence of spirit and was rarely prepared to compromise. It was this stubbornness that had enabled him to leave home against the wishes of his parents. It had also—by extension—led to his capture. Now, it would result in a very different outcome.
Pellow’s masterstroke was to dissemble, telling the sultan “that I very much doubted it [was him], for that I have never known His Excellency to come at such an unseasonable hour without my being pre-advised thereof.” He added that whoever stood on the other side of the door “should at his peril be gone, or I would present him with half a dozen bullets through the door.”
Moulay Ismail ordered Pellow to hold fire and barked “that if I would not let him in, he would certainly chop off my head the next day.” Then, changing his tone, he said that “if I would admit him, he would give me such a fine horse … with all the rich furniture in the empire.”
Pellow instinctively mistrusted the sultan and, convinced that he was being put to the test, declared that he would not open the door, “[even] if he would give me all the horses and furniture in the empire.” He said that the reason for his refusal was simple: “I was entrusted and commanded by the renowned Moulay Ismail, the most glorious emperor in the world, to keep that post inviolable against all imposters and intruders whatsoever.” He added that “it was in vain for him any longer to persist.” Moulay Ismail was so infuriated by Pellow’s words that he began banging wildly on the door.
Pellow knew that it was too late to backtrack. He also knew that he was under orders to fire his gun through the door if any uninvited guest continued to demand admittance. He was sure that the shot was unlikely to hurt the sultan. The door was made of heavily studded timber, and there were plenty of alcoves on the other side in which Moulay Ismail could take shelter. Yet he could scarcely believe that he—a palace slave—was about to turn his musket on the sultan of Morocco. Nervously, and half sick with fear, he began to charge his weapon.
As he pulled the flintlock, a huge blast reverberated around the palace. “I fired all the bullets which I had ready by me in a blunderbuss,” he wrote, “quite through the door.” The shot splintered the woodwork and peppered it with holes. It finally convinced the sultan to retreat. “On his seeing my so resolute resistance, and no likelihood of his admittance, he returned as he came.” As Moulay Ismail left, he shouted wild threats at Pellow, while at the same time commending the guards of the outer doors who had given him access.
Pellow was terrified as to what would happen in the morning. He was woken early, along with the other guards, and ordered into the presence of the sultan. Although certain that he would face execution for his behavior, he soon discovered that the sultan’s fury was directed toward the guards of the outer gates. “All those who gave him admittance,” wrote Pellow, “had some their heads cut off, others cruelly used.” Pellow himself received extravagant praise from Moulay Ismail. “After being highly commended for my fidelity,” he wrote, “[I was] rewarded with a much finer horse than he offered to give me in case I would betray my trust.”
PELLOW’S BRAVURA IN facing down the sultan was to bring him into daily contact with the inner circle at court. He was first made an attendant to one of Moulay Ismail’s sons, the unpredictable Moulay Zidan. “He was by nature cruel enough,” wrote Pellow, who was horrified to witness him “kill his favourite black with his own hand.” The man was murdered because he had accidentally disturbed a pair of pigeons that Moulay Zidan was feeding.
Pellow was next made an attendant to Moulay Zidan’s mother, a kindly lady who found him “a careful and diligent servant.” Soon after, when Pellow was about sixteen years old, Moulay Ismail took him directly into his service. Realizing that this young Cornish slave was uncommonly bright and industrious, the sultan wanted to make use of his talents. Pellow was ordered “to wait on him at his palace for such future commands as should be by him enjoined me.” His new servant was confined to the luxurious palace compound, where he was “always ready in obedience to his commands, in receiving him bare-headed and bare-footed at his entrance in, or at his going out of the palace.” It was not long before the sultan ordered Pellow to serve as one of his personal attendants. “[I was] strictly charged to be observant of the emperor’s commands only,” he wrote, “and to wait on him on all occasions.” Whenever Moulay Ismail left his palace on horseback in order to inspect the workmanship of his white slaves, Pellow rode alongside. “I was generally mounted on the fine horse he gave me for my fidelity in maintaining my post at the door.” On such occasions, he had to carry “a club of about three feet long, of brazil-wood, with which he used, on any slight occasion, to knock his people on the head, as I had several times the pleasure of beholding.”
As Pellow accompanied the sultan on his courtly business, he was obliged to watch in silence as his master lashed out at his slaves. “He was of so fickle, cruel and sanguine a nature,” he wrote, “that none could be even for one hour secure of life.” Pellow watched in despair as Moulay Ismail ordered his black executioners to kill slaves who were slacking, giving them signals to show how he wanted them dispatched. “When he would have any person’s head cut off,” wrote Pellow, “[he demonstrated] by drawing or shrinking his own as close as he could to his shoulders and then, with a very quick or sudden motion, extending it.” His sign for a slave to be strangled to death was “by the quick turn of his arm-wrist, his eye being fixed on the victims.”
Pellow’s loyalty to the sultan earned him better lodgings. Although his quarters were tiny the cell had a tiled roof and was sheltered from the worst of the summer heat by the great walls of the palace. He was also entitled to a share of the daily feast that was prepared for the sultan’s inner circle.
Everything in Moulay Ismail’s palace was on a grand scale, and the meals were no exception. Pellow could scarcely believe his eyes on the first occasion when he ate at court. A giant platter, which held enough couscous to feed 900, was wheeled into the palace courtyard. The assembled company were divided into groups of seventy or eighty men, “[and] had all our messes served out from the cart in large bowls, and set in the middle of us.” Pellow had never eaten couscous before and was surprised to find it quite delicious. Soaked with melted butter and lightly perfumed with saffron and spices, it was “very good, grateful and nourishing … and excellent eating.”
Many of Pellow’s companions had been slaves for several years before they had converted to Islam and earned themselves a position at court. Accustomed to a diet of bread and oil, they were unable to restrain themselves when first presented with food from the palace k
itchens. The men lunged at the platters, grabbing large chunks of meat and cramming them into their mouths. The attendant guards were appalled, especially when the food became lodged in the men’s throats. Henceforth, they were attended “by several persons with clubs in their hands, in case any should by chance swallow a piece too large for their gullets, and it should stick therein—which, through their greediness, often happened.” If they began to choke, “one of those attendants gave the party a very hearty blow with his cudgel in the neck, by which means it was generally discharged either up or down.”
The better diet and enclosed lodgings caused a dramatic improvement in Pellow’s health. He had arrived in Morocco suffering from the deprivations of many months at sea and had been further weakened by his time aboard Captain Hakem’s vessel as well as his beatings at the hands of Moulay es-Sfa. Now, after a few months in the sultan’s service, he was “in pretty good plight.” The principal danger was no longer disease and starvation, but the capricious sultan and his wives. “I was obliged,” wrote Pellow, “to walk like one … on the brink of a dangerous precipice whence, should he happen to make but the least wry step, he is sure to tumble down and break his neck.” His situation became even more worrying when one of Moulay Ismail’s wives displayed amorous intentions toward Pellow, who had no desire to reciprocate her affections. “I thought it highly prudent to keep a very strict guard upon all my actions,” he wrote.