VISIT TO MESSA. 145 reluctantly, to decline it, although, if otherwise situated, I might have realised an independent fortune in two or three years at Tomie, besides having a most favourable opportunity ofopening a trade with Tombuctoo, and other territories of Sudan.

I now felt a strong inclination to visit the port of Messa, which was reported to have been about two centuries before, a considerable port of trade, and the capital of Suse, when that country was a separate kingdom, and the state-prisoners were banished to Sejin-messa *, (commonly called Segelmessa in the maps ;) as the state prisoners of Marocco have been from time immemorial, and are to this day sent to Tafilelt, which territory lies contiguous to, and west of Sejin-messa. We started for Messa in the morning, and reached the town in the afternoon. Delemy sent a strong guard with me for protection, with an injunction to his friend the fakeer of Messa, to treat me as his friend and guest, and to do whatever he could to gratify my curiosity in every respect. The country about Messa is very picturesque, and productive : the river also abounds with romantic scenery, it has a sandbar at its entrance to the ocean, which is dry at low water; but it was once navigable several miles up, as was reported to me. .On the south bank of the river, about two miles from the sea, is a gold-mine, in the territory of a tribe hostile * Sejin Messa signifies the prison of Messa.

L