DEPARTURE FROM RABAT. 217 
sometimes repairing to the mosques to take my melancholy 
meals^ consisting of a little bread and a bunch of grapes^ to 
which I occasionally ventured to add from my scanty re- 
sources a small piece of fried fish. As the wells of Rabat are 
brackish, I was obliged to beg water from the Moors who sel- 
dom refused me. Such was the kind of life which I led, 
during the whole of my residence at Rabat, while waiting for 
an opportunity to proceed to Tangier to the French Consul. 
I now and then saw Ismael, the Jew agent of the consulate, 
who gave me some small coins of the country, on the secu- 
rity of the ten shillings with which I had entrusted him. One 
day, finding him at home at breakfast, 1 was invited to sit 
upon the floor and partake of his tea. I entreated him to 
procure for me some means of travelling to Tangier ; pro- 
mising to reimburse him as soon as I should reach the consul; 
but the Jew, fearing no doubt that this would be disapproved 
by his superior, drily refused. Seeing that nothing was to 
be gained from this man, not even permission to embark 
on board a Portuguese brig, bound for Gibraltar, I was 
about to write to M. Sourdeau, Consul-general at Morocco, 
when Ismael received a letter from Tangier inform- 
ing him of this gentleman's death; I therefore addressed 
myself to the Vice-Consul M. Delaporte, on whom the direc- 
tion of the consulate had devolved ; but an opportunity of 
going to Tangier occurring during the interval, while I 
awaited his answer, I hired an ass to carry me thither, for my 
legs would no longer support me. 
On the 2nd of September, I quitted Rabat with the owner 
of my ass, the most worthless man I had met with in this 
country. The poor beast destined to carry me, was already 
oppressed by a heavy burthen, and sunk at every step up to 
his knees in the loose sand of the sea-shore ; I had therefore 
no alternative but to dismount, and though I had paid a good 
price for my conveyance, and was scarcely able to drag my- 
self along, was obliged to perform half the journey on foot. 
