SPANISH ARABS IN AFRICA 77 Suleiman of Melle, " wishing to return the good treatment of the Merinite sovereign, collected various products of his country, all extremely rare and curious, and sent them to Fez." He also added to his presents a giraffe, which gave great pleasure to the Court of Fez. The embassy was received with the greatest possible honour at Fez, the place being thronged and people standing on each other's shoulders in the crowd to see — while the Sultan, seated in his golden kiosk, received and returned the assurances of friendship sent to him by the black king.

An incident of the developed intercourse between Morocco and Neoroland which is of more interest to <_> posterity than the exchange of presents between their respective sovereigns, was the decision arrived at by Ibn Batuta to take up again his pilgrim's staff, and quitting the lettered luxury of Fez, to add another chapter to his travels by journeying through Negroland. He accordingly crossed the frontier of Morocco on his southward journey on February 18, 1352, and spent upwards of eighteen months in a journey through the principal countries of the Nigerian watershed, re-entering the kingdom of Morocco in December of 1353. The record of this journey, which he has added to the four volumes of his travels, is especially interesting, as giving a picture of the Negroland of that day written from personal observation. The earlier Arab writers, from whom our information is principally drawn, were not themselves personally acquainted with the countries of which they write. They described them generally from the hearsay of travellers and traders, and though this has its value as representing the volume of common knowledge which existed concerning Negroland, other descriptions lack the vividness which Ibn Batuta gives to his.