These dispatches refer to an unfortunate occurrence at Saffi, in Morocco, concerning which the Jews of Gibraltar and Tangiers had addressed Sir Moses and the Board of Deputies of the British Jews.
A Spaniard in Saffi, in the service of the Spanish Vice-Consul, had died suddenly, and suspicions of his having been poisoned were aroused in the mind of the Vice-Consul, who insisted upon the Moorish authorities investigating the case, and inflicting punishment on the guilty person. No steps were taken to ascertain whether there were any facts to prove that the death of the Spaniard was due to violence; but, according to the custom in Morocco, those parties upon whom it was sought to fix suspicion were examined under severe torture, and the application of the bastinado. A Jewish lad, about fourteen years of age, who resided in the family of the deceased, was the first person so examined (the Jews being the most unprotected portion of the population). After persisting for a long time in the assertion of his innocence, he at length yielded to the protracted agony, and declared that poison had been administered. Again, under the influence of torture, ten or eleven other persons, whose names were suggested to him, were denounced by the lad as participators in the crime.
Most of these were arrested, but one of them only was submitted to examination under torture. Though this measure was pushed to a fearful extremity, no confessions of guilt could be wrung from him. The lad also, when released from torture, uniformly asserted his innocence.
However, as he had confessed his guilt, and the man had been denounced, both were condemned to death, doubtless to prove the readiness of the Morocco Government to comply with the demands of its recent conqueror.
The lad was accordingly executed at Saffi, the execution naturally producing great dismay amongst the Jewish population; but the man was conveyed in a Spanish vessel to Tangiers, to be executed there. Nothing is known of the reason which led to the adoption of this course, but it seems probable that it was taken in order that the knowledge of the circumstance might spread more rapidly and extensively through the Moorish dominion. This public execution could not fail to impress the people with a striking idea of the strength of the Spanish influence at the Court of the Sultan.