Morocco, the Land of the Extreme West 151 



THE HISTORY OF RAISULI 



He then proceeded to recall the cir- 

 cumstances of his own capture by the 

 then Pasha of Tangier, Abd-er-Rahman 

 Abd-el-Saduk, an incident that all at 

 Tangier knew of at the time, some nine 

 years prior to my present misadventure. 



Raisuli, then as now, had been up in 

 arms against the government, owing to 

 an attempt on the part of the Pasha of 

 Tangier to force upon the tribes of Beni 

 Emsauer, Ben Idder, and Beni Arose a 

 creature favored by the Abd-el-Saduks, 

 as kaid of their district, an appointment 

 in contravention of the arrangement 

 sanctioned by time and custom, whereby 

 these Berber tribes were entitled to the 

 nomination of candidates to these posts, 

 from which candidates the Sultan's gov- 

 ernment selected the governors, or kaids, 

 of the district. 



Abd-er-Rahman having failed in his 

 attempt to establish his creature as kaid 

 over these three tribes, united under the 

 leadership of Raisuli, sent to the latter 

 proposing an amicable settlement of the 

 points at issue. 



The latter, trusting to Abd-er-Rah- 

 man's safe conduct, accepted the pasha's 

 invitation, and while seated at the latter's 

 table was seized, in violation of the gov- 

 ernor's solemn assurance, bound, and sent 

 to Mogador, where Raisuli was chained 

 in a sitting posture to the wall and where 

 he thus remained four long years, during 

 which he was never able to stand during 

 the day nor to lie down at night. 



The object of this cruel punishment 

 was to cause Raisuli's death, the 

 cowardly pasha not daring to openly do 

 away with his prisoner, whose release 

 from this horrible suffering was due to 

 a member of one of the foreign legations 

 at Tangier. While on a special mission 

 to the capital this official had informed 

 the Sultan of the circumstances of the 

 case. 



Abd El Aziz immediately issued an 

 order to release Raisuli from his chains, 



excepting the fetters or anklets which 

 confined his feet. Subsequently, after 

 five years' confinement, Raisuli was un- 

 conditionally restored, to liberty. 



His property, mostly in flocks and 

 herds, had, however, been appropriated 

 by his agents or partners. 



Failing to obtain justice, Raisuli had 

 called together some of his more faithful 

 adherents and had raided the zereebas or 

 farms of his faithless associates, two of 

 whom had subsequently been killed in an 

 attempt to surprise Raisuli, himself. 



This incident had again placed Raisuli 

 under the ban. Forces were sent down 

 from the capital with orders to bring in 

 Raisuli, dead or alive. 



It was these circumstances that had led 

 the latter to effect my own abduction in 

 order to bring the pressure of a threat- 

 ened intervention by one of the powers to 

 bear upon the Sultan and thus enable 

 Raisuli to demand a free pardon for him- 

 self as a condition of my own release and 

 also the payment of a heavy indemnity in 

 order to be thus revenged upon the 

 treacherous pasha, the cause of all his 

 troubles. 



That the Moorish authorities were 

 fully alive to the necessity for immediate 

 action was shown by the arrival the very 

 next morning of an emissary from Hadj 

 Mohammed Torres, the Sultan's delegate 

 minister of foreign affairs at Tangier. 



Torres had entrusted these negotia- 

 tions to a cousin of Raisuli himself, a cer- 

 tain Sid Hassan. In accordance with 

 Raisuli's suggestion, I gave this agent a 

 note to Minister Gummere, the American 

 representative at Tangier, together with 

 other letters to my family. 



This opportunity, which Raisuli allowed 

 me without any restriction, proved an in- 

 estimable blessing, and the knowledge 

 that I could thus Communicate at pleas- 

 ure with family and friends relieved the 

 situation of its worst feature. I had al- 

 ways had a peculiar horror of being 

 carried off and held to ransom, a misfor- 

 tune which is almost more maddening to 



