Theodore Rex - Edmund Morris [194]
Mr. Perdicaris supposed, as he ran, that his French chef was quarreling with the German housekeeper as usual. Not until he reached the servants’ quarters, with Varley following, did he realize that bandits had invaded his property. Armed Moors approached him, pausing only to club his butler to the floor with rifle butts. Mr. Perdicaris tried to intervene. He was instantly beaten and bound with palmetto cords. Varley leaped forward, enraged, whereupon his hand was slashed and he, too, taken prisoner. The rifles prodded both men toward the guardhouse, where a handsome, short, pale, turbaned Berber intoduced himself.
“I am the Raisuli.”
Mr. Perdicaris was not encouraged. Ahmed ben Mohammed el Raisuli was a notorious insurgent, ruling three of the most violent hill tribes in Morocco—the Er Riff Mountain kabyles, whom Sultan Mulay Abd al-Aziz IV had never been able to subdue. Captured once by the Pasha of Tangier, Raisuli had spent four years chained to a wall. Since then, his hatred of the French-dominated sultanate had become compulsive. Yet his voice tonight was low and unthreatening.
“I swear by all we hold sacred,” Raisuli said, indicating Mr. Perdicaris’s other servants, “that if there is no attempt to escape or rescue, no harm shall come to these people. But they must mount and ride with us!”
Mr. Perdicaris saw his own horses being saddled for travel. He had no idea why he was being abducted. “I accept your assurance, Raisuli,” he replied in Arabic. He and Varley were made to mount, too. A small caravan formed, and trotted out into the darkness.
Helpless and hysterical, Mrs. Perdicaris remained behind. Then she discovered that Raisuli had neglected to cut the villa’s telephone cord. Just before eleven o’clock, Samuel Gummeré, the American Consul General in Tangier, rode up through the cork trees to comfort her.
THE FIRST CABLE from Gummeré did not reach the State Department until early afternoon of the next day, 19 May.
MR. PERDICARIS, MOST PROMINENT AMERICAN CITIZEN HERE, AND HIS STEPSON MR. VARLEY, BRITISH SUBJECT, WERE CARRIED OFF LAST NIGHT FROM THEIR COUNTRY HOUSE, THREE MILES FROM TANGIER, BY A NUMEROUS BAND OF NATIVES HEADED BY RAISULY [sic].… I EARNESTLY REQUEST THAT A MAN-OF-WAR BE SENT AT ONCE.… SITUATION MOST SERIOUS.
John Hay was out of town, so once again Assistant Secretary of State Francis B. Loomis had to handle a foreign crisis with the President.
Conveniently, Roosevelt had just dispatched sixteen white warships on a “goodwill cruise” of the Mediterranean. His response was quick, and more forceful than Gummeré could have hoped. Loomis cabled back that several of these ships would be sent to Tangier, as soon as possible. “May be three or four days before one can arrive.”
That estimate was somewhat optimistic. The nearest ships to Morocco were those of Rear Admiral French E. Chadwick’s South Atlantic Squadron, comprising the fast cruiser Brooklyn, a protected cruiser, and two gunboats. About one day behind steamed four big battleships of the North Atlantic Fleet, under Rear Admiral Albert S. Barker. Bringing up the rear was Rear Admiral Theodore F. Jewell’s European Squadron of three protected cruisers.
The last seven units were scheduled to rendezvous in the Azores before proceeding to Portugal and the Rivieras. Chadwick’s four were due to visit Gibraltar, and then tour the North African coast. These were the vessels Roosevelt chose to divert to Tangier. But he overestimated the speed at which even the Brooklyn could move. The Navy Department advised that Chadwick would not reach Tangier much before the end of May.
RAISULI’S CARAVAN JOGGED inland all day, under the staring sun. Mr. Perdicaris and his stepson stifled under Moorish haiks, wrapped around them for disguise. Toward evening, they ascended into the Riff Mountains—tribal country, forbidden to Christians and coastal Arabs alike. Mr. Perdicaris’s horse slipped on some rocks.