Morocco, the Land of the Extreme West 153 



ers," said the chieftain, "who have set 

 foot among these Beni Arose people, but 

 we do not even allow natives from other 

 localities access, unless in some especial 

 case like the arrival of these friends of 

 yours, and," he added with a grim smile, 

 "who are also distant relatives of my 

 own !" 



When at last the long line of men, 

 mounted and on foot, with its train of 

 baggage animals, appeared we were not 

 a little gladdened by the sight. 



Mulai Ali, the elder brother, pitched 

 his camp near at hand, and after a long 

 conference with Raisuli, the younger of 

 the Wazani chereefs returned to Tangier 

 to communicate to our own officials the 

 state of affairs. 



Not only had our friends sent us a 

 handsome tent, with furniture and sup- 

 plies of every description, but also a cook 

 and servants to wait upon us, so that we 

 suffered henceforth no undue hardships 

 of any sort, while the presence of Mulai 

 Ali, who speaks both English and French, 

 was a most welcome addition, although 

 our intercourse with "The Boss," as Var- 

 ley and Mulai Ali dubbed Raisuli, dimin- 

 ished materially. 



Another event also tended to augment 

 my anxiety, which was the arrival of two 

 very evil-looking emissaries from Bou 

 Hamara, the pretender to the throne, and 

 who wrote urgently, insisting that Raisuli 

 should entrust us to 'his, Bou Hamara's, 

 care. I had so suffered from my tiresome 

 ride to Tsarradan that I felt I would 

 far rather be shot where I was than be 

 dragged off to die upon the road to Taza, 

 situated in the very heart of these cruel 

 mountains. 



Raisuli explained that the Pretender 

 wished to secure our persons to use as a 

 shield in case he himself should be too 

 hard pushed by the Sultan's troops. 



HELP FROM MY COUNTRY 



While standing near Raisuli one day 

 on the village green, of which we were 

 now allowed the freedom, one of his fol- 



lowers came up from Tangier, almost 

 breathless from his haste, to report the 

 arrival of the two American squadrons. 

 The man described how the eight frigates 

 had entered the bay, one after another. 

 He told of the anxious deliberations of 

 the Moorish authorities and of the alarm 

 of the native inhabitants, who feared the 

 town might be bombarded. The man de- 

 clared that the place was mkloub, or up- 

 side down. 



I watched Raisuli with anxiety, lest 

 apprehending the landing of marines, 

 with a view to our relief and his own 

 capture, he might endeavor to drag us to 

 some more distant and inaccessible re- 

 treat. What was then my surprise when 

 looking up with a bright smile, he said, 

 "Well, I think I can now congratulate 

 you !" 



"I do not understand you," I replied. 



"I mean," answered Raisuli, "that the 

 presence of these vessels will lead the 

 authorities at Tangier to make such 

 representations to the Sultan as may re- 

 sult in his acceding to my demands, and 

 then you will be able to return to your 

 friends." 



This calculation of the insurgent leader 

 was soon proved to have been justified, 

 since a runner carrying a dispatch, one of 

 four copies of the same document, each 

 carried by a separate courier, was held up 

 by some of Raisuli's partisans, and thus 

 we learned the, to us, grateful informa- 

 tion, which was confirmed by the arrival 

 of Sid Hassan a few days later to say 

 that His Chereefian Majesty had been 

 most graciously pleased to accede to the 

 demands which Hadj Mohammed had 

 forwarded to Fez. 



THE DISPOSAL OF THE RANSOM MONEY 



Raisuli was now confronted by the 

 problem as to what disposition he was to 

 make of the seventy thousand silver 

 Spanish dollars which he demanded for 

 our release. Here at Tsarradan there 

 were no iron safes, nor so much as a 

 house with a cellar, while the thatch of 



