And on April 7:—
I have worked up the Treaty, but cannot get the torpid Bargash to respond. All must go to Sultan, and His Majesty will require two months to consider.
The debt of Morocco to British Loan Contractors expires next year. $30,000,000 have passed through my hand as Commissioner. No pay: nothing has stuck. Alhamdulillah[59].
Returning from a brief holiday spent in Europe he found the old state of affairs unchanged:—
August 30, 1881.
We are quiet in Morocco, but there are rumblings. If the French make any rash movements towards Morocco territory we might have an outbreak of fanaticism, and then the direst consequences may ensue.
The Sultan is still marching towards Marákesh, ‘eating up’ his indigestible subjects, and thus preparing them to welcome the Nazarene.
Bargash has not returned, so nothing has been done about Convention. These Moors understand the value of vis inertiae. I am sick of them, and some day may strike work, for counsels are all thrown away on such a corrupt torpid brute as the present Uzir.
Ravensrock, Oct. 9, 1881.
I think the French will leave Morocco alone. They must bide their time.