But his hopes were premature. On August 10, he writes again:—
I give up all hope of coming home this year, for I have fresh trouble. After all my labour in settling the Treaty with Khatíb, the Sultan refuses to ratify what his own Plenipotentiary agreed to! And he puts forward fresh propositions.
I go to Tetuan in one of Her Majesty’s steamers as soon as the wind changes, to see Khatíb, and perhaps shall touch at other ports in Morocco.
Ten days later, the goal was still distant.
Tangier, August 21, 1856.
Since I last wrote I have been to Tetuan in H.M.S. Vesuvius; not, alas! to sign the Treaty, but solely to discuss the fresh and stupid propositions put forward by this Government. It is not impossible that I may have to make a trip to Mogador and the other ports; if so, of course I shall go by sea.
Khatíb expects the Sultan will give way after the present reference. I am less sanguine and am heartily tired of Moorish trickery.
Khatíb was excessively civil, and had prepared me a nice house, with a garden, in the Moorish quarter. The house was furnished splendidly in the Moorish style. The walls covered with velvet hangings embroidered in gold; Persian carpets covered the floor. There was also a magnificent brass bedstead with damask and gold hangings.
I took our cook with us, but Khatíb provided some excellent Moorish dishes, and all kinds of delicacies and sweets. During my stay he insisted on coming to my dwelling for the conference instead of my going to him. I only stayed a couple of days.
I am now so busy that time passes most rapidly.