74
being exhausted, they at last unhappily consented to renounce
their religion, and were circumcised; and thus
obtained their liberty; after which they were presented
with a horse, a musket, and a blanket each, and permitted
to marry; no Christian being allowed at any of the places
inhabited by Moors, to take a wife, or to cohabit with a
Moorish woman.
As Adams was the only remaining Christian at Wadi-
noon, he became in a more especial manner an object of
the derision and persecution of the Moors, who were constantly
upbraiding and reviling him, and telling him that
llis soul would be lost unless he became a Mohammedan,
insomuch that his life was becoming intolerable; (54) when,
only three days after Williams and Davison had renounced
their religion, a letter was received from Mr. Joseph
Dupuis, British Consul at Mogadore, addressed to the
Christian prisoners at Wadinoon, under cover to the
Governor; in which the Consul, after exhorting them most
earnestly not to give up their religion, whatever might befal
them, assured them that within a month, he should be able
to procure their liberty. Davison heard the letter read
apparently without emotion, but Williams became so
agitated, that he let it drop out of his hands, and burst' into
a flood of tears. (55)
From this time- Adams experienced no particular ill
treatment; but he was required to work as usual. About
a month more elapsed, when the man who brought the
letter, who was a servant of the British Consul, disguised
as a trader, made known to Adams that he had succeeded
in procuring his release; and the next day they set out
together for Mogadore.
On quitting Wadinoon, (where Adams is confident he
stayed more than twelve months; the second year’s crop of
tobacco having been completely got in before his departure)
they proceeded in a northerly direction, travelling on
mules at the rate of thirty miles a day, and in fifteen days gjj
arrived at Mogadore. The first night they stopped at a
village called Akkadia, situated at the foot of a high
mountain. Here, for the first time, Adams saw olive trees,
and palm trees from the nuts of which oil is extracted. The
place consisted of about twenty houses ; some of them
two stories high. Having slept there, they set out the next
morning at four o’clock, and the following day about
sun-set reached another village, the name of which he does
not remember. Here were only a few houses, but a great
many tents, and in the neighbourhood large fields of wheat,
* Thé detail of Adams’s course from Wed-Noon to Mogadore, makes only
thirteen days.