[5] In February 1863, he was summoned by General Serrano, the then Minister of State in the O'Donnell government (and a victor in the War), to lead a diplomatic mission near the Moroccan Sultan.

[6] Those included the rehabilitation of Muley El-Abbás, the sultan's hispanophile brother, the fostering of commercial activity in Ceuta and Melilla by means of the creation of a custom, the opening of the Port of Agadir to Spanish ships, facilitating the meat provision to Ceuta, and the improvement on the status of Spaniards in Morocco.

[6] In his time in the Court of Mohammed IV, Merry helped to establish the basis for peacetime commercial and diplomatic relations with the Sherifian Empire.

[5] Merry y Colom was married to Dame Bernardina López de la Torre Ayllón y Jaspe (1847–1924), a daughter of the Spanish Minister of State, Luis López de la Torre Ayllón and Josefa Jaspe y Macías.

[1] While informed of a Euro-centric worldview, his diaries about his experience in 1863 (edited in 1984 in Madrid under the title Mi embajada extraordinaria a Marruecos en 1863) constitutes a source of great historiographical value both for the understanding of the Hispano–Moroccan relations and for observations on geographical, demographic, social, economic, cultural and political features of the country.