II: Isaac Cardozo Nuñez and Simon Lucas

The men on the list of Interpreters of Oriental Languages are not well known, and some of them have left very little trace.  We have seen that John Massabecky’s story is unknown; so are those of Messrs Arbona (1763-1767), Logie (1767-1769), Deceramis (1769-1782), Tully (1794-1802), Costa (1802-1809) and Delagarde (1809-1816).  They hardly appear anywhere other than the official list of appointees.  Richard Stonehewer (1755-1763) Philip Stamma’s successor, is better known.  However, there is no explanation in any of the literature covering his time at Cambridge reading mathematics, his friendship with the poet Thomas Gray or his government service alongside the third Duke of Grafton of how he came to be appointed Interpreter of Oriental Languages.  Nothing in his scholarly life or time in public service suggests any interest in Arabic, so his role in that office remains a closed book.

The language backgrounds and lives of Isaac Cardozo Nuñez (1782-1784) and Simon Lucas (1784-1786) are better known. While they were appointed interpreters to George III of Britain, their working lives shed some light on Gibraltar, relations between Great Britain and North Africa, and the court of Mohammed III of Morocco. They each saw both his diplomatic and his despotic sides, though Lucas, who was treated with some clemency as a captive and spent a long time in the kingdom, probably saw the qualities evoked by Jean Potocki, a Polish traveller to Morrocco in the year of the sultan’s death:

Sidi Mohammed en imposait encore par la sévérité de ses moeurs, son amour pour la religion, la connaissance qu’il avait de la loi, de l’histoire, de l’astronoomie et de la navigation. En tout, c’était un homme de génie, surtout pour les détails.¹

As almost all commentators agree, Britain achieved her objectives, and more besides in 1713: the Protestant succession was secured almost beyond challenge, France renounced her support for the Jacobites, the balance of power in Europe had been upheld, the thrones of France and Spain were to remain separate and the Netherlands were to remain independent.  In addition, Britain had secured two key naval ports in the Mediterranean, Gibraltar and Minorca.²

[A] study of the 1777 Census list produces the names of 13 other families that were resident in Gibraltar at the time, with places of origin in some cases, Aboab (Tetuan), Abudarham (S. Barbary), Anahory (Tetuan), Anraleck, Bensusan, Budy (Sale), Conquy (Holland), Daninos (Leghorn), Diaz Carvalho (Portugal), Massias (Barbary), M), Moreno, Nuñez Cardozo (Portugal), Sananes (Tetuan).³

North Africa could not be invaded, and neither could it be ignored.  It had to be negotiated with, and if need be appeased.  After the 1750s, as before, the British continued to do both.⁴

Mais Sidi Mohammed avait un talent prodigieux pour gouverner ses semblables. Il profitait de leurs jalousies, de leurs divisions, dépouillait les riches, leur procurait le moyen de s’enrichir encore et suivait la maxime de l’un de ses ancêtres qui disait: “si tu tiens des rats dans une corbeille, ne cesse point de les remuer, sanss quoi il feront un trou.”⁵

Isaac Cardozo Nuñez

The name of Isaac Cardozo Nuñez (1755-1786) appears in lists of Jewish families, such as The Jews known to have served as dragomans in the Ottoman Empire and Morocco, with the primary locations in which they worked, from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, which shows him in Gibraltar⁶ or in the Benady publication cited above.  These dry references to his place among the Jews who settled in Gibraltar in the eighteenth century belie the uncertainties faced by a community that was in principle banned from the Rock under the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht.  They also conceal the man’s complicated life and violent end.

The British authorities tended to make light of Spain’s insistence on Jews being kept out of Gibraltar as they were useful intermediaries who provided trade goods and language services.⁷ Cardozo was bilingual in English and Arabic, was an interpreter, and had been of service “when the Emperor of Morocco’s warships were refitted in the Dockyard”.⁸ His Gibraltar experience led to his being appointed Interpreter of Oriental Languages in March 1782. 

The Black Sheep of the Family

The position may have been a sinecure for some, but it did not turn out that way for Cardozo.  He was unceremoniously sacked in 1784 and found himself “obliged to abscond, on account of some improper transactions, of which he was accused, some of them indeed of a capital nature.”⁹  He landed on his feet as his brothers were established in business in Morocco and were well-connected there.  He was appointed the Spanish Consul in Larache, on the northwest coast and also worked as a translator/interpreter.

Cardozo had a high-profile involvement in the negotiations on a treaty between the Kingdom of Morocco and the newly independent United States of America. Mohammed III had opened Moroccan ports to American ships in 1777 and was eager for a treaty with the new nation.

His frustration at failing to receive any response from the United States to his overtures led him to seize the brig Betsy in Oct. 1784, and it is from that capture, and others by Algiers, that Congress’ decision to negotiate with Morocco and the other Barbary States largely proceeded.¹⁰

The US envoy, Thomas Barclay arrived in early June 1786, with an ambitious set of objectives, namely “the normalization of commercial relations with Morocco, the prevention of further depredations against American ships in the Mediterranean, and an end to the capture and enslavement of American sailors” ¹¹Sultan Mohammed III (1710-1790) had been involved in trade negotiations with European states, and his lead minister, Sidi Haj Tahar Ben Abdulhaq Fennish, was an experienced diplomat. Barclay had a treaty by the end of the month: it was translated into English by Cardozo, who also provided an English version of Fennish’s letter to John Adams and Thomas Jefferson.

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Simon Lucas

Cardozo’s replacement as Interpreter of Oriental Languages, Simon Lucas (c.1750-1801) was not meant to live in Morocco, learn Arabic, or become an interpreter.  He was the son of a vintner based in Greyfriars in London, who attended St Paul’s School.  He was sent to Cadiz at the age of 16 to learn about the wine trade.  His homebound ship was seized by a group of the dreaded Barbary corsairs, and he ended up a slave at the court of Mohammed III.

Lucas had been sent to Spain at a risky time for sea travel.  Fewer British captives had been taken after 1735 as the British authorities were prepared to pay protection money.  However, in 1756, Mohammed , who was the acting ruler of the kingdom (he was crowned the following year) took offence at the conduct of one Captain Hyde Parker, who had been sent to negotiate a treaty with him and reclaim any British captives in Morocco.  Parker, who came bearing unimpressive gifts, had no Arabic and

removed neither his tricorne hat nor his heavy boots on entering Sidi Mohammed’s palace, and made a point of sitting down firmly in the latter’s presence, thereby insulting him both as a ruler and as a linear descendant of the Prophet.¹³

Captive

Parker and his retinue managed to leave the palace, but it was decided that having British captives was preferable to taking protection money; almost 400 British people were taken in the next two years.  Lucas, sailing home in 1766, was a victim of that change of attitude.  Britain was not in a position to respond strongly to this new round of hostage-taking: Gibraltar had to be protected and that required good relations with Morocco, so no naval vessel was going to come to rescue him.

Very little is known about his time at the Sultan’s court; unlike some other captives taken by the corsairs, he did not publish an account of his experiences.  He probably hoped to be freed eventually. Captives held in Morocco were the Sultan’s property and he would have wanted the ransom paid.¹⁴

There is a further point to be born in mind in considering how Lucas fared.  The way Britons were treated could have been influenced by

their perceived social class and level of wealth, by their age and gender, and by such skills they possessed.  Those viewed as useful by their captors – such as medical men, boat-builders, fluent linguists and armourers – could be offered all kinds of advancement.¹⁵

An Accidental Interpreter

Mohammed III recognised the importance of linguists.  Lucas was educated and probably had learned some Spanish in Cadiz.  Maybe his background and his youth served him in good stead.  In his three years of captivity, he learned Arabic as well as Italian and became familiar with the kingdom of Morocco and its imperial culture.¹⁶    

Those three years were certainly formative.  After he was released, he made his way to Gibraltar.  The governor, Edward Cornwallis, promptly sent him back to Morocco as vice-consul under Joseph Popham, the Moroccan consul general.  He spent another 16 years there, in Tetuan and Tangier. When he returned to England in 1784, he was appointed Interpreter of Oriental Languages, taking over from the disgraced Isaac Cardozo Nuñez. 

Exploration

The appointment was a good one for a man with an ongoing interest in North Africa.  Lucas was assigned to interpret for Hajj Abd ar-Rahman, the foreign minister to the Bashaw (Pasha) of Tripoli, on his mission to London in 1786.¹⁷ The connection proved useful when after four years in post, Lucas volunteered to travel for the new Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa – better known as the African Association – which was organising exploration of the interior of the continent, with the hope of establishing a British presence there. 

Lucas, with his command of Arabic and familiarity with Morocco, seemed like an asset to the project, and royal permission was sought for him to travel to Africa, heading for the Gambia across the Sahara, via Tripoli and Fezzan. 

To get him there, in addition to his salary of £80, which the King had agreed to continue paying, the Association voted £100 to cover equipment, transport to Tripoli and to buy presents as sweeteners for the Bashaw and others at his court, the most popular of which turned out to be pairs of double-barrelled pistols.¹⁸

Lucas set sail at the end of October 1788. Things did not go as planned, His contact, Hajj Abd ar-Rahman, tried to help him when the Bashaw refused to allow him to travel south of Tripoli.  He arranged for him to join a trading caravan led by two members of the Fezzan royal family, who could guarantee his safety on the route to Fezzan and across the desert.  That looked like a promising arrangement but by March 1789 it was clear that their substantial caravan would not cross the Sahara before November as it was too hot to venture south any earlier.  Lucas decided not to push on without his escorts and headed back to England.

Return to Diplomacy

While he had been able to glean some information about the geography of Africa during his abortive trip, Lucas was not involved in any further exploration.  He returned to his post as royal interpreter, which he held until 1794. At that point, he returned to diplomacy: with an appointment as British consul in Tripoli.  His was a small world: his replacement as Interpreter of Oriental Languages was none other than Richard Tully, who was consul in Tripoli during his 1788-9 mission for the African Association. 

1. Sidi Mohammed was also striking for his high principles, his love of religion, his understanding of the law, history, astronomy and navigation. All in all,he was a genius, especially when it came to the finer points. Potocki, J. 2005 edition, La Cour du Maroc. Magellan et Cie, p. 42. My translation.
2. O’Gorman,F., 2016.The Long Eighteenth Century, Bloomsbury, London, pp. 62-3.
3. Benady,T.M. The Settlement of the Jews of Gibraltar in Transactions & Miscellanies (Jewish Historical Society of England) Vol. 26 (1974-1978), pp. 87-110, p. 95.
4. Colley, L., 2002. Captives: Britain, Empire and the World, 1600-1850. Pimlico, p.132.
5. Sidi Mohammed ruled over his people with great talent. He took advantage of their resentments and divisions, stripped the rich, gave them the means to regain their wealth and followed the maxim of one of his ancesters: “If you have rats in a sack, keep shaking it, otherwise they will gnaw a hole in it.” Potocki, Ibid.
6. Gershon Lewental, D. in the entry for Dragomans in the Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World Online
7. Benady op. cit. pp. 90, 94.
8. Benady,T.M., The Cardozo Family in Gibraltar Heritage Journal, No. 1, 1993, pp. 40-52, in the Journal of the Friends of Gibraltar Society, p. 41.
9. The Home Secretary, Lord Sydney, in a letter to the Governor of Gibraltar, quoted in Benaday op. cit. p. 41.
10. Papers of John Adams, Vol. 18. https://www.masshist.org/publications/adams-papers/index.php/volume/ADMS-06-18
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Colley, op. cit. p. 126
14. Colley, op. cit. p. 52.
15. Colley, Ibid. p.60.
16. Baigent, E. 2004. Dictionary of National Biography entry.
17. Sattin,A., 2004, The Gates of Africa: Death, Discovery and the Search for Timbuktu. Harper Perennial, p. 54.
18. Sattin, Ibid. p.55.