An Account Of Timbuctoo And Housa Territories In The Interior Of Africa Part 26

_From the same Muley Ismael to Sir Cloudesly Shovel, on board the Charles Galley, off Salee, written Aug. 26. A.D. 1684, year of the Hejra 1095_.

L.S.

I, servant of G.o.d, and Emperor of Marocco and King of Mauritania, whom G.o.d preserve in all his undertakings, &c.

I Salute you and the rest of the captains.

As for the captives you have taken, they belong to several places, and are not all my subjects; and what I do is out of charity, as they are Muhamedans, being forced to go to sea for want of maintenance. As for those that are my soldiers, they go to sea to 388 fight and to die in my quarrels; but, those _Moors_ that _you_ have taken, are inconsiderable and of no account.

Henceforward I shall have s.h.i.+ps as big as yours, if not bigger, hoping to take some of your s.h.i.+ps and captains, and cruise for you in your English seas, as you do for us in these.

I have written letters to the King of England, in which are kind expressions: And when you had Tangier, all things were given to you as you wanted, and all done out of kindness; and now that you have left Tangier for the Moors, whatever His Majesty of Great Britain wants, either by sea or by land, it shall be granted, so that there be a peace betwixt the two crowns; for which I pa.s.s my word and faith.

Now, _I have written several letters to his Majesty of Great Britain, to which I have received as yet no answer_; but, when it (the answer) reaches my hands, I hope there will be a good accommodation between us.

You have taken several of our s.h.i.+ps and destroyed others, and you are cruising on our coast, which is not the way to make a good peace, neither the actions of honesty in you.

G.o.d be praised that you have quitted Tangier and left it to us, to whom it did belong: from henceforward we shall keep it well supplied with stores, for it is the best port of our dominions.

As for the captives you have taken, you may do as you please with 389 them, heaving them into the sea, or otherwise destroying them. The English merchants that are here resident, shall satisfy all their debts, which being done, none of them shall remain in my country.

LETTER. III.

_Captain Shovel's Answer_.

May it please Your Majesty,

We, the King of England's captains, return Your Majesty humble thanks for your kind wishes to us. Your Majesty by this may know, that we have received your letter, and by it we understand, that Your Majesty is informed that most of these people that are taken are not your subjects. We perceive by this, as well as in other things, how grossly Your Majesty has been deceived by those people you trust; else, we doubt not, but that, long before this, our Master, whom G.o.d preserve, and Your Majesty had accommodated all differences, and we should have had a firm peace.

Of those fifty-three slaves that are here, (excepting two or three,) they are all Moors of their own country, as they themselves can make appear; but, if they are to be disowned because they are poor, the Lord help them!! Your Majesty tells us, that we may throw them overboard, if we please: all this we very well know; but we are Christians, and they bear the form of men, which is reason 390 enough for us not to do so.

As to Tangier, our Master kept it twenty-one years; and the world is sensible, that in spite of all your force, he could, if he had pleased, have continued to keep it to the world's end; for, he levelled your walls, filled up your harbour, and demolished your houses, in the face of your Alkaid and his army; and when he had done, he left your[220] barren country (without the loss of a man) for your own people to starve in: but our departure from thence, long before this, we doubt not, but you have repented of. When you tell us of those mighty s.h.i.+ps Your Majesty intends to build and send to our coast, you must excuse us if we think ourselves the better judges; for we know, as to s.h.i.+pping, what you are able to do.

[Footnote 220: The gallant and magnanimous captain was better acquainted with the coast than with the country, which is any thing but barren.]

If you think fit to redeem those slaves, at 100 dollars a-piece, they are at Your Majesty's service, and the rest shall be sent to you; or, if you think fit to give us so many English in exchange, we shall be well satisfied; but we think you will hardly comply with that, for the poorest slave that ever our Master redeemed out of _your_ country, cost him 200 dollars; and some of these five times that sum, for he freely extended his charity to all, and never forgets his people _because they are poor_.

391 It is great wonder to us, that you should tax us with unjust proceedings in taking your s.h.i.+ps in time of truce, when Your Majesty may remember that, during the time your amba.s.sador was in England, your corsairs took about twenty sail of my Master's s.h.i.+ps; and this very year, you have fitted out all the force in your kingdom to sea, who have taken several of our s.h.i.+ps, and at the same time pretend to a truce for peace! But some of your s.h.i.+ps, for their unjust dealings, have had their reward, and the rest, when they shall come to sea, we doubt not but G.o.d Almighty will put them into our hands.

If Your Majesty think fit to send proposals to my Master concerning peace, I shall take care for the speedy and safe conveyance of the same. I desire Your Majesty's speedy answer; for I do not intend to stay long before Salee.

Wis.h.i.+ng Your Majesty long life and happiness, I subscribe myself, Your Majesty's

Most obedient and humble Servant,

CLOUDESLY SHOVEL.

Sept. 1684 A.D.

392

LETTER IV.

_A literal Translation of Muley Ismael, Emperor of Marocco's Letter to Queen Anne, in the year of our Lord 1710, extracted from the Harl. MSS. 7525_.

L.S.

In the name of the most merciful G.o.d.

He that depends upon G.o.d goeth straight to the right way. From the servant of G.o.d, the Emperor of the believers, who maketh war for the cause of the Lord of both worlds, Ismael ben a.s.sherif Al Ha.s.sanee to the Queen of the English, nay of England, and the mistress of the great parliament thereof, happiness to every one that followeth the right way, and believes in G.o.d, and is so directed.

This premised, we have heard from more than one of the comers and goers from thy country, that thou hast seized our Armenian servant, a person of great esteem. We sent him to thee, to compose a difference between us and thee, and we wrote to thee concerning him, that thou shouldst use him well. Then, after this, we heard that thou didst set him at liberty: And wherefore didst thou seize him? Hath he exceeded any covenant, or hath he made any covenant with thee and broke it? We should not have sent him to thee, but on 393 account of our knowledge and a.s.surance of his understanding and integrity; and when he resolved upon his journey into your country, we gave him directions to dispatch some of our affairs. Wherefore we wrote unto thee concerning him, and said, If thou hast any necessity or business with us, he will convey it to us from thee.

And we said unto thee, Speak with him, and whatsoever thou sayest unto him, he will communicate unto us, without addition or diminution.

As for what our servant Alkaid Ali ben Abdallah did to ----, the Christian, thy servant, by G.o.d we know nothing of it, nor gave him any permission as to any thing that pa.s.sed between them; and, at the instant that we heard that he had taken thy man, we commanded him to set him at liberty forthwith; and since then we have never manifested any favour to Alkaid Ali, nor was our mind ever right towards him afterwards till he died.

Our Christian servant, the merchant, Bayly, told us, that thou hadst a mind to an ostrich, and we gave him two, a male and a female, which shall come to you, if G.o.d will. And, lo! a secretary, our servant, (who is much esteemed by us,) when he cometh he shall bring what goods he hath collected with him, if it please G.o.d. And we are in expectation of thy messenger the amba.s.sador; and if he comes, he shall see nothing from us but what is fair; and we will deliver to him the Christians, and do what he pleases, if G.o.d will.

Wherefore be kind to our servant, with respect.

394 Written the first of the Glorious Ramadan, in the year of the Hejra 1125 (corresponding with A.D. 1710).

LETTER V.

_Translation of an Arabic Letter from the Sultan Seedi Muhamed[221]

ben Abdallah, Emperor of Marocco, to the European Consuls resident at Tangier, delivered to each of them, by the Bashaw of the province of El Grarb, on 1st day of June, 1788, corresponding with the year of the Hejra, 1202_.

[Footnote 221: Father of the present Sultan Soliman ben Muhamed.]

L.S.

Mohamed ben Abdallah, ben Ismael, Sultan ben, Sultan, &c.

In the name of G.o.d, for there is no power or strength but from G.o.d.

To all the Consuls at Tangier.

Peace (be) to those who follow the right path.

By this you will learn that we are in peace and friends.h.i.+p with all the Christian powers until the month of May of the next year, (of the Hejra, 1203,) and such nations as shall then be desirous to continue in peace and friends.h.i.+p with us, are to write a letter to us, when the month of May comes, to inform us if they are in peace and friends.h.i.+p with us, then we shall be the same with them; but, if any Christian nation desire to go to war with us, they will let 395 us know before the month above-mentioned; and we trust G.o.d will keep us in his protection against them; and thus I have said all I had to say.

2d day of Shaban, year of the Hejra 1202, (corresponding with 7th May, 1788.)

LETTER VI.

_Letter from Muley Soliman ben Muhamed, Emperor of Marocco, &c. &c.

to His Majesty George III. literally translated from the original Arabic, by James Grey Jackson, at the request of the Right Hon.

Spencer Perceval, after lying in the Secretary of State's Office here for several months, and being then sent ineffectually to the Universities for translation, and after various enquiries had been made on behalf of the Emperor, to the Governor of Gibraltar, the Bashaw of El Garb, and the Alkaid of Tangier, to ascertain if any answer had been returned to his Imperial Majesty._