Rode out today by Al Kantara to the clump of palms where on entering upon the plain of Marocco we had been do charmed by the picturesqeries of the city at which we gazed through as it were the frame of their elegant form, between which the highroad passes.
The party consisted of my 3 friends with myself, Seedy Mohamed, my servant Isaac for interpreter, the artful & amusing young Jew butcher Sweerah (our aide naturalist) with one of my Moorish grooms, Abd el Krim, the dirty young Solyman the Jew attendant on my friends & 5 fair escort.
Smith took a view of the crumbling Capital of which at this distance little more than El Kootoobeea's lofty tower & those of a few of the many mosques mark its site and the palm trees - the snow topt sierras of Atlas forming the grand background of the charming landscape.
While Washington took his observations and Williams rode up to the craggy hills near us, I took up my gun & travelled with my dogs along the dry bed of a torrent in hopes of game, but found no inhabitants of the sterile rocks than a few larks of which I killed one, differing little in character from those of my land, but unfortunately too much injured for presentation. I picked up a specimen of iron ore of which many & apparently rich lay on the side of the hills & in one spot of a few feet square near the bottom of the slope {355} I found 40 of the colocynth gourds (El Hadedge) growing on one plant of which the stem was now dry & the fruit almost all full ripe & of a fine yellow tint. I brought 8 away for preservation, some of which I chose as not quite mature & cut up the better for carrying - they were of mottled green & yellow. On a hill peak to which I mounted and at the distance of nearly 2 miles from the station of Washington, I observed the palm clump where Smith took his sketch bore SE by E & El Kootoobeea S by W from myself.
We returned at sunset and at 6 the 2 Schousboes dined with us by invitation when we ushered in the New Year with more than usual libations in memorial of the first sun of 1830, which I saw with Smith & Williams this morn[in]g rise gloriously at -- (1) am over the glittering top of Atlas' top. After dinner we indulged in vingt et un, laughing, winning losing till after midnight.