On approaching Timbuktu Mulai Ismael learnt to his dismay that the Sultan of Sudan had surrounded him with a force tenfold his own, and that in a few hours he might expect to be overwhelmed; upon which H.M. wept, and sent for his Uzir, who, being a cunning and wise man, said, ‘Weep not, O mighty One! Grant that I go as Ambassador to the Sultan of Sudan. Give me full powers to act as I think best, and I will guarantee that your Majesty shall retire hence with all honour and without losing a man.’
The Sultan then issued his Royal firman to the Uzir to act as he deemed right for the good of Islam; so the wily Uzir, taking presents with him and a flag of peace, set out for the camp of the Sultan of Sudan, by whom he was received with much pomp and magnificence, and to whom he thus declared the object of his mission:—
‘Sultan of Sultans, King of the black race, my master the Sultan of Fas and Marákesh, &c., &c., sends you greeting and gifts. He has come to these distant parts with all his followers, having heard of your fame and power; and is desirous of allying himself to you by demanding the hand in marriage of your Majesty’s daughter, whose beauty the Moorish poets and songsters daily extol. Therefore, O Mighty Prince, our Lord and Master doth homage to your most sable and queenly daughter, and hath brought the chiefs of his kingdom and his troops to show her and you that he is worthy of such a Royal prize.’
The black Sultan, who had been wroth with Mulai Ismael for his apparently hostile and daring intrusion into his kingdom, now smiled with joy at the flattering proposition made through the Uzir in the name of the descendant of the Prophet, the ‘Prince of the Faithful.’
The demand was acceded to. The sable daughter of the Sultan of Sudan was betrothed to Mulai Ismael. Rich presents in gold and silver, and ten thousand black warriors, as a dowry, were presented to the Sultan of Morocco to wait upon the dark bride. These troops and their descendants have ever since formed the most faithful guards of his Majesty the Sultan of Morocco.
This same Sultan, Mulai Ismael, after a revolt of his troops, it is said, formed a body of some twenty thousand Jews as regular cavalry, thinking that though they had not the courage of Mussulmans, he would find them more faithful subjects.
Shortly after they had been trained in the art of war, His Majesty ordered his Jewish troops to march against some rebels near the town of Fas. The Jews, who were tired of soldiers’ fare and the hardships of the life, bethought them how best to be freed from such misery. A learned Rabbi and General of the troops, after some reflection, undertook to obtain this freedom; so the very day they were to march from Fas, he waited on the Sultan and said, that though he and his brethren were all ready and eager for battle and to fight in H.M.’s cause, they begged their Lord the Sultan would send a few of his guards with the army to prevent the Moorish boys insulting them; ‘for our Lord the Sultan knows,’ said the wily Rabbi, ‘that a Jew cannot strike a Moslem.’
Mulai Ismael disbanded instanter the Israelitish army.
April 20. Pursuing our course for some seven or eight miles over an arid plain famous for fattening sheep, though the blades of parched grass in an acre might, I think, have been counted, we reached, about seven o’clock, a fountain called Ain-Umast (Ain means eye or spring), near which were the remains of a large Moorish town. From this fountain we ascended into a hilly country covered with the argan tree[14], from the fruit of which the argan oil is extracted; the leaves of this tree are of a fine deep green, the fruit is rather larger than an olive and pointed at one end. The trees run from thirty to forty feet high, and their lower branches extend frequently to about the same length.
The trees were laden with fruit. Like the palms near Marákesh, every tree has its owner, though there appears to be a forest many miles in extent. The fruit is ripe in autumn, and the harvest is collected by threshing the trees. The fruit is then carried to magazines, and camels and cattle fed upon it. They eat stone and all, but afterwards void the stone whole, which is again collected and taken to the mill, where it is crushed and the oil extracted. This is preferred by the Moors to olive oil for cookery.