CHA P TER    TIIE    SIX TEE NTH
FOREIGN  RELATIONS

IT would be an unnecessary expansion of a \york like
this to  enumerate  all  the  negotiations  and   treaties
entered into between Morocco and Europe, but it is of
moment to record the more iniportant among them, those
in' particular by which the still existing privileges were
secured.^    The earliest relations were, of course.

Earliest Relations.   .    ~             <              ,    .^    .       .     '           ., ,          ,     ,^  -        ^    ,

informal, and it is impossible at this date to
define precisely when they commenced in each case,
especially with Christian ^ Spain. Ample details are,
however, available for the study of the growth and trend
of Moorish intercourse with Europe—details which shed
invaluable light upon our plresent diplomatic dealings with
the Moors.

Leaving out of consideration the semi-official  envoys

who passed to and fro as representatives of commerce or

religion—often  bearing  letters, and even coming  to  an

understanding which, though generally verbal, practically

amounted   to   a   treaty—it js  with   the   seaport   towns

of Italy that the earliest recorded contracts were drawn

1133.       up.     Thus  early  in   the  twelfth   century  two

With Pisa           Moorish galleys arrived at Pisa, where a treaty

and Genoa.          ^f   poaco   was   arranged,  which  was . formally

' registered later on,-and. subsequently renewed.^

The    Genoese,    about   , the.   same    time,    entered    into

1 For lists of early treaties with  Morocco see Martens, Receuil des Traites, vol. i.,
PP- 57> i57j etc..   See also Schweighofer. .-          2 Mab Latrie, Relations, p. 68.

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