1893 ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT DIARY HANDWRITTEN BY A YOUNG MIDSHIPMAN WHO RECALLS HIS TIME IN MOROCCO DURING THE MELILLA WAR

On offer is a fascinating nine page 1893 manuscript account of voyage handwritten by United States Navy midshipman William E. McKay aboard the flagship Franklin. [McKay was made lieutenant and commanded the Inca, 1898.] Titled: 'Morocco, Melilla and the Moors. A Boar Hunt at Tangiers by William E. McKay, Boston, 1893' William relates the history of the area, religion, war and a personal account of boar hunt in Tangiers. Here are some snippets: "Throughout Morocco, all idiots and lunatics are accounted saints. When Allah withdraws the reason, it is a mark of his special favour...." "Above all Mohammedan countries, Morocco is the land of Allah." "It is the duty of Rifs to kill, to steal, and to murder; it is their disgrace to die in bed." "...slavery exists, but in an easy form. Even a freed slave may come to rule over Morocco." "It was as a midshipman on board the flagship Franklin, that I first made acquaintance with Tangiers." [He reminisces about a boar hunt in Tangiers: No boar caught, but much excitement] "The United States Consul invited the officers of the fleet to go on a boar-hunt... The beaters made a terrific hulla-baloo, the dogs howled and we waited all the forenoon..."; "I proposed that we relieve the monotony of the ride by racing across a great sandy stretch; then we began discharging our Colt revolvers in true Cow-boy style." "...many of the Rifs are easily distinguished by the odd custom of wearing a long lock of hair on one side of the head..." "I saw four Riffians attack a Jew for no cause whatever...they fell upon him with sticks and stones..." "The Moorish arch is a jewel of architecture..." Handwritten legible ink on onionskin paper. With cover leaf. Affixed at top with two clasps. 9" x 11". Overall G+. HISTORICAL NOTES: The Melilla War was a conflict between Spain and 39 of the Rif tribes of northern Morocco (and later the Sultan of Morocco.). It began in the Fall of 1893 and was resolved by the Treaty of Fez, 1894.