"In September 1902 I arrived at Tangier, and several weeks later had the good fortune to direct my footsteps towards Southern Morocco. There I visited Marrakech, as well as Goundafi and Glaoui, the principal valleys of the Great Atlas. Hardly had I returned to Tangier than I had to set out at once for Fez, where I spent six months. The series of letters of which this book is composed, was written under canvas, in the course of my journey towards the south, and afterwards in the orange-garden assigned to me at Fez by Shereefian hospitality ... These letters contain the notes and information which, from the beginning of my stay in Morocco, I set myself to collect, with a view to the better comprehension of the country, possessed for me of characteristics so novel and so strange, in which my lot was to be cast during the most momentous period of its history."--Preface.