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country house, at a short distance from the above, 
with a well, and a garden of palm trees; another at 
Djedda, to which he goes frequently; and a fourth at 
Taif, which is in ruins. All of them are strong places, 
surrounded with walls and towers. 
The Sultan Scherif of Mecca is named Scherif 
Ghaleb. He is the son of the Scherif Msaat, his prede- 
cessor. Many years have elapsed since his family 
obtained possession of Beled el Haram, or the Holy 
Land, and of Hedjaz. The same custom prevails here 
as at Morocco upon the death of the Sultan, in regard 
to the obtaining of the throne; for the right of succes- 
sion is not established. 
The Scherif Ghaleb is a man of sense; cunning, po- 
litical, and brave, but completely ignorant. Led away 
by his passions, he is transformed into a vile egotist; so 
that there is not any species of vexation which he does 
riot exercise upon the inhabitants, strangers, or pilgrims. 
His inclination for rapine is such, that he does not even 
spare his most intimate friends or faithful servants, 
when he thinks he can obtain a sum from them. During 
my stay, I observed him commit an injury to a merchant 
of Djedda, who was one of his greatest favourites, 
which occasioned a loss of 100,000 francs to the latter. 
The imposts levied upon commerce, as also upon the 
inhabitants, are entirely arbitrary, and increase every 
day; because he invents new methods of stripping them 
of their money. He reduces the people to the last ex- 
tremity; so that I did not find one person in the whole 
Holy Land who spoke well of him, except the merchant 
above mentioned. 
Besides overloading commerce by arbitrary taxes, 
he injures the merchant, and puts fetters upon him, 
because he himself takes an active part in commerce 
