A PICTURESQUE BRIGAND.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13509, 26 August 1907, Page 3

A PICTURESQUE BRIGAND.

RAISULI'S CAREER.

Raisuli. the Moorish bnndit chie.f, who has Kaid Maclean in "safe keeping," and who inflicted a decisive repulse on the Shereefian army last week, is a pictureque freebooter. He is a man of about forty-three, handsome and of good family. He began his career of petty larceny at twenty, and finding it pay, determined to continue it on a large scale. For years he was the terror of his district. Four years ago he made a name for himself by capturing Mr Harris, the Tangier correspondent of The Times, who was riding in the afternoon some six or seven miles outside the city. Mr Harris was taken to Raisuli's house and shut up for eleven days in a small room where ho suffered the discomforts of dirt and want of food. He was afterwards removed to the Anghera mountains, and eventually obtained his liberty by being exchanged for fifteen men of Raisuli's tribe who were prisoners in the hands of the Sultan. In May of the following yenr Rnisuli carried off Mr lon Perdicaris, on American citizen and a wealthy resident of Tangier, and his son-in-law, Mr Varley. The brigand, with 150 anr.od followers, surrounded tho villa at night. Forcing an entrance, tho marauders eusily beat down tho vo- | f-Jstance of the servants and assnultod the family, who wore curried off to the fountains. The British and American Governments sent warships to Tangier to demand tho release of the captives. Raisuli askod £11,000 as ransom, and also the dismissal of the Governor of Tangier, the release of such of his tribesmen as wore in prison, and his, own appointment as Governor of all the I districts around Tangier. The Moorish J Government complied with his extravagant terms, and the captives were sot free. Raisuli built himself a stronghold on the hills above Tangier, and domii nated the country. He was a strong Governor, but his gentle ways cf levying blackmail did not endear him to tho foreign residents, and ultimately tho Sultan sent an army to drive him out of the district. Raisuli considered this act to be a piece of gross treachery on the part of the Sultan, and he has consequently been in rebellion against the Government ever since. Ho became a cattle thief land a leader of banditti very early in life, and even five or six years of imprisonment at Mogador did not reconcile him to a lawful life.