I was aware of being in the midst of chaos. Swerving animals foundered amid heavy splashes and frenzied shouts, while others vainly strove to regain their footing, with drenched Arabs lifting at the loads.

"Cut the pack free!" "Here, the dagger!" The baggage being cut away, some animals churned to their feet; others, weakened by vain plunging and heaving, were held in a death-grip by the furious river, the owners grimly holding the nostrils of the breadwinners above water. Many animals and quantities of baggage were lost. The shallow water once reached, all was well. Before entering the water, donkeys were freed of their loads and swam across. The horses of the royal stables

LXVI.-23

It was here that, in the reign of the present Sultan's father, many lives were sacrificed. The river was very high, and it was out of the question to attempt crossing except by means of the old barges of the river. The army was composed almost entirely of men from the interior, who had heard rumors of boats-" things which carried people across the water, similar to a horse on land." These boats were hastily filled with baggage, and in a twinkling were covered with squatting soldiers, while others clung to the edges, laughingly chaffing the more unfortunate ones left behind. A few, anticipating trouble, rushed into the water to drag some friends off, but these, thinking it a ruse to secure their places,

quickly pushed off. There is not much more to be said, save that, once in the current, the heavily overloaded boats settled to the bottom, with the men still lounging on the baggage. To the very last they did not realize any danger, and probably thought that that was one of the ways a boat has of crossing to the other shore. Some mutterings were heard that the present Sultan was looking for a repetition of the affair.

We camped close to a stronghold, a great part now in ruins. When, a few years ago, a tyrannical kaid left upon a journey, the fury of his subjects had reached such a stage that they tore down his palace, and, strange to say, a part of the mosque, and to-day only half of the tower remains.

In the evening a soldier appeared before me.

"Answer our lord," he said. Hailing my soldier (with trickling tears poor Gelalli had said farewell and remained in Morocco city to attend to his family), together we moved among the wild undergrowth, the meshes of tent-ropes, the ragged lines of animals of burden in multiplied positions of ease; then crowding between the artillery guns to the open space which surrounds the mosque tent, and elbowing the crowds

of lounging slaves and eunuchs along the cordon of soldiers, we came to the opening in the canvas wall, which I entered, and stood in a crescent-shaped space between the canvas wall and the royal canvas dome piling up in front of me.

Here the Sultan came for a talk, as was his wont each day.

"Great excitement to-day," he exclaimed, "but no human lives were lost, praise be to God!"

Beginning to look fit, he threw out his chest, took a deep breath, and said: "Traveling is grand. Soon we shall behold the sea."

Torrents of rain during the night pointed to the wisdom of fording.

Wandering with a servant through the camp, we stopped suddenly at the sight of a market-place, which had apparently existed there for ages. Here were the quarters of the shoemakers, close by the tailors. Great quantities of bread were being shoveled from smoking ovens. Vegetable-dealers, butchers, barbers, heaps of straw and barley, and the ever-present snake-charmer and story-teller were everywhere. Although their tattered tents presented the appearance of having sprouted and matured where they stood, the following day revealed a tentless plain.

A few days later we crossed a country so rich in soil that scratching the earth with a primitive wooden plow, followed by a boy pegging seeds in the furrows, yields excellent crops, as the appearance of prosperous and well-clothed Arabs bears witness. Numerous and large splashes of mud, resulting from the "powder play" in soggy soil, tried, but could not belittle, their dignity.

In a few days we expected to rest by the sea-coast, and the march over the plains would be a thing of the past.

At this time his Majesty ambled about his quarters in explosive enthusiasm, brought on by anticipation, intermingled with dreamy recollections of childhood's visions. His feet, accustomed to slippers, were now incased in a pair of thick-soled European shoes, for sauntering on the sands.

Would any large steamers pass? He would hail one and clamber aboard.

On the fifteenth day we left our last inland camp for the sea-shore, the Sultan envious of those who could gallop to the water's edge before him. He rode along quietly enough, checking his impatience, until a narrow ribbon of blue burst into view above a stretch of sand-dunes, when he communicated his feelings to his horse, urging him to a faster pace. This pace increased until it carried him up to and over the sand into the sea. He was obliged to halt there. The sea refused to roll back, and his horse would go no farther. It was a heart-stirring scene; and at the time, although the old tale of King Canute came to my mind, I was under too great a magic spell to smile at the similitude.

There was grandeur in that straight figure in glistening white, sitting so majestically in bewilderment upon his restive steed, contemplating the billows as they gathered themselves and closed in on the shore, racing under him up the sandy shore, to slip back and leave a great expanse of polished strand. The stretch of sand leading to the long sand-hills swarming with white-clothed Arabs and manycolored standards, wedging their brilliance into the sky, held me enchanted.

The Sultan's very embarrassment made it all the more impressive, and he looked the absolute monarch, unapproachable, who never smiled or joked, and never loaded paint on canvas. No; this was

Mulai Abd-ul-Aziz, the Sultan. Never before did it seem so incredible that I was, day after day, rubbing shoulders with this inaccessible man.

He commanded his chair to be so placed that when he dismounted and seated himself the water crept to his very feet. Nothing but sheer love of the sea prompted this.

Farther down the coast, where a promontory of great sponge-formed rocks exposed their pores, the canvas dome was spread, and as it was impossible to pitch tents in the sea and at the same time preserve their usefulness, those which on former occasions were placed on that side of the royal quarters were now compelled to crowd among us, as the outer tents of the soldiers were rapidly going up.

As very close neighbors I had a vizir, an army captain, several scribes, a baggage-master, slaves, forty mules, as many horses, with an assortment of camels and donkeys. Over the ropes, under the ropes, they crowded, lifting them and pressing them down, with my tent swaying like a maddened white elephant. Ready answers greeted my expostulations: all were carrying messages "for our lord, God preserve him!"

A three days' rest here, which the Sultan improved in mastering the mysteries of artillery firing, and, incidentally, also making his only drawing while en route—a copy of a magazine picture of a European monarch. He was too deeply engrossed in enjoying the little sip from the golden goblet of freedom to think of other things.

He spoke of railroads-how anxious he was to have one, and do away with this slow and tedious traveling. Although tempted, he cannot allow a European power to build one without exciting jealous rivals. Nor will he ever be able to gratify a desire to visit Europe unless the conditions of the government change, for the ship which carries him from his dominions will have an abandoned monarch aboard, and a new sultan will rule, greeted by the royal salute, “God preserve our lord!"

A three days' march from Fidala, our sea-shore encampment, brought us in the neighborhood of Rabat, and the day set apart for entering the city arrived. Amid the throng of inhabitants who had come out to join us, the Sultan rode through a