The Moors reported to me that the French were building some factories, with a fort, upon some unclaimed land along the coast, equidistant between Aghadir and Wadnoun.  It is probably near Fort Hillsboro of the maps, and which Mr. Davidson calls Isgueder.  A Moor was accused by the authorities of Mogador of being mixed up with the transaction, and immediately sent to the south, where he has not been heard of since.  Another report is that the French are only building a factory.  The spot of land has near it a small port and a good spring of water; quantities of bricks and lime have been deposited there; French vessels of war from the Senegal have been coasting and surveying up and down, touching at the place.

The new port is called Yedoueesai.  I inquired particularly respecting this project; but Mr. Treppass stated positively, that the French had wholly abandoned the idea of establishing commercial relations with the Sheikh of Wadnoun, or any tribes thereabouts, whatever might have been their original intentions.  Vessels of war have frequently visited the coast of Wadnoun, finding it the worst in all Africa.  They, however, now maintain friendly relations with the Sheikh, in the event of shipwrecks or other disasters, happening to French vessels.

Nevertheless, it was at the particular request of the French Consul of Mogador, that his Government broke off all communications with the Sheikh, the Emperor having repeatedly complained to the Consul against this intercourse assuming a commercial or diplomatic character. [34] The whole coast, from the port of Mogador to the river Senegal, has been, within the last few years, surveyed by the French vessels of war, particularly by Captain E. Bouet; and there is sufficient evidence in the reports of the people, and the remonstrances of the Maroquine Government, to prove that the French did attempt a settlement on the part of the coast above stated, but that it failed.

The French took the idea of the undertaking from Davidson, who proposed to Lord Palmerston to enter into communication with the Sheikh of Wadnoun, and establish a factory on the coast, somewhere about the river Noun, just below Cape Noun.  A British vessel of war was sent down with presents for the Sheikh, and to ascertain the whereabout of the fine harbour reported to exist there by the Sheikh and his people.  This attempt of our government was as fruitless as that of the French afterwards.  Indeed, at the very time an English brig of war was searching about for this port, and seeking an interview with the Sheikh of Wadnoun on the coast, Davidson was murdered on the southern frontier just as he was penetrating the Sahara.