The Influence Of The Merchant Was Now Prodigious, And The Sultan Himself
Became Alarmed.
Not being able to rest, and being in hourly dread of the
Genoese, the Sultan ordered his officers to seize the merchant secretly,
and put him on board a vessel then weighing anchor for Europe.
When the
merchant was placed on board, this message was delivered to him - "Our
Sultan is extremely obliged to you, sir, for the great services you
rendered him, by establishing him on his throne! but our Sultan says,
'If you could place him on the throne, you could also pull him off
again.' Therefore you must leave our country. Our Sultan graciously
gives you a portion of your wealth to carry away with you!" The officers
then shipped several chests of money, jewels, and other valuables to be
placed to the account of the merchant, and the Sultan-making Genoese
quitted Morocco for ever.
The Moors reported to me that the French were building some factories,
with a fort, upon some unclaimed land along the coast, equidistant
between Aghadir and Wadnoun. It is probably near Fort Hillsboro of the
maps, and which Mr. Davidson calls Isgueder. A Moor was accused by the
authorities of Mogador of being mixed up with the transaction, and
immediately sent to the south, where he has not been heard of since.
Another report is that the French are only building a factory. The spot
of land has near it a small port and a good spring of water; quantities
of bricks and lime have been deposited there; French vessels of war from
the Senegal have been coasting and surveying up and down, touching at
the place.
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