Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton
JHC584
Tangier to Gibraltar via Tetuan, Morocco
JDH/1/9 f.554-557
Hooker (nee Henslow), Frances Harriet
The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
16-4-1871
© Descendants of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker
Moroccan Letters
The Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
English
Original MS
16 page letter over 4 folios
 
Transcript

the[sic] scenery becomes very picturesque, the track winding by rocky water courses through gnarled old Olives & Lentisks with the quaintest Trunks & Heads of scrubby leaves, the trunks 1 -- 2 f[ee]t diam[eter] burnt half through by the Arab fires when bivouacking -- a very grim scene (grewsome[sic] Miss M M. would call it) like Durer's picture of Sintram in the forest, -- the sun was setting & the Cuckoos struck up in the middle of it also. We ascended about 1200 feet through Olive & stunted Oak & Lentisk to the "Fonduk" or Caravanserai*10 a square white-washed building on a spur of the a mountain -- with a court inside & flat roofs. Swarming with filthy Arabs[,] camels[,] mules & horses, the rooms were 6 or 8, holes like coal cellars hard without no windows, indescribably filthy & there was no other accommodation: so we took our traps up to the flat roof & determined to pass the night there as best we could -- but other details of the night I must keep for the boys, as also the wonders performed by a snake charmer who we overtook on the road.
On Tuesday we were off at day-light, it was blowing so furious a gale that we could not cook any breakfast, the path continued ascending a low broad valley

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I
ROYAL GARDENS KEW*1
Tangier
Sarurday April 14 8th to Thursday 1512th [18]71*2
Tetuan to Gibralter
April 16 [1871]
Dearest Fr[ances]*3
After posting my letter to you as an enclosure to the F[oreign] O[ffice]. We left for Cape Spartel some 12 miles W[est] of Tangier, accompanied by a soldier, Sir J. D. Hay*4 having arranged that we should occupy apartments in the Light House. We took one baggage mule with light food & paper for plants &c, walking ourselves -- first up flat grassy valleys with no trees, & then over hills 1,000 f[ee]t high or so, covered with masses of white flowered Gum Cistus, & 4 kinds of heath, yellow brooms Laurustinus[,] Lentisk & (Pistacia Lentiscus), & Phillyrea Hawthorn & Arbutus unedo -- & Oak scrub of several species & so down to the sea, a steep rocky waste terminating in a bold premonitory on which the Lighthouse stands about 130 feet above the sea.
The House itself is very peculiar, a square of 4 blank walls externally, but entered by a Moorish arch: inside you find you enter a hexagonal court open to the sky above, with arcades all round and a fountain in the middle. The Pharos, a square tower with the Lantern rises (some 80 f[ee]t)

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from the seaward face of the building & is a very picturesque object -- 8 rooms open onto the Arcade, 2 of which were given up to us; all neat & clean, with tiled floor & white washed walls. The Keeper was a civil fellow & provided us with -- table cloths, knives, forks, plates, hot water & eggs. -- By night the situation inside this building was very picturesque, looking up through the octagon court, in to the against the sky, with Orion & the Great Bear overhead & the back of the huge tower or Pharos straddling shooting up into the vault, & sending its beams of light far & wide over the Atlantic Ocean & Mediterranean Seas which we did not see, but heard beating against the rocky shore -- The Light House is an international one, built by the Marocco [Morocco] Government & kept up by England, France, Spain & Italy, whose consuls at Tangier take their turns of inspection. Each is very jealous of any interference of the other during its term of official inspection; & Sir J, D. Hay had to call a obtain a letter signed by all the powers to get us permission to occupy the house for the night -- they were all

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very conformable & rendered their homage to Science with a very good grace indeed. A great fuss about very little I thought!
On Sunday we walked along the beach for 3 or 4 miles to some stone quarries that had been in use from the time of the Romans to cut Querns*5 from. & the face of the rocks cliff is curiously wrought with ccƆcƆ marking the spots where the Querns are & were cut. The rocks face the Ocean a wild blowing coast with long saud sand flats & rocky capes. On our way we found the curious Drosophyllum, figured last year in the Magazine.
We returned over the hills to Tangiers passing Sir J. D. Hay's summer house, about 3 miles from Tangiers, a very nice residence on a steep hill over the sea, facing N[orth] & standing in a wilderness of a garden with masses of splendid purple Mesembryanthemum flowers as large as the palm of your hand, huge Geraniums, Roses &c. &c. &c. In the evening we dined at Sir J. Hay's. Lady Hay was laid up with Neuralgia, but his daughter in law did the honors, & there were two Miss Hays -- both young & exceedingly

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pleasant girls -- The House is good English in form & full [of] pictures & engravings of Drummond Hay's without end, skins of wild animals -- Boar, Leopard, Caracal, Antelope &c; pretty Moorish brackets & fine Fez*6 China.
At night we went on the roof & saw a splendid red Aurora in the N[orth] W[est] & N[orth], low in the sky -- like a distant fire. We also saw some sketches of Marocco & the Atlas, & an old engraving of Tangier in Char[les] II time, with English soldiers on guard!*7 Very curious; also a copy of a map of that period the the[sic] original of which is in the British Museum; showing the Mole which we destroyed when we gave up the town, & which still appears now is a mass of stones running out into the Sea.
Tangier itself is a small place, walled in with getes 2 gates (shut at 6--7 pm) a maze of most pretty streets swarming with Moors Arabs & Jews, & supported by its trade with Gibraltar. The outskirts are not pretty. The climate is excellent, especially for chest diseases. -- They have fires throughout winter, but never in the bedrooms. The summer is not too hot; the climate is much

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moister than we anticipated: the vegetation more backwards; but they have had an exceptionally cold winter, snow having fallen at Gibraltar. (My pain in the arm has quite gone.)
This country is no doubt a magnificent one, vast tracts are under cultivation, of the most miserable sort however. Wheat, Barley, Legumes, Flax are the staple crops, & vegetables in the gardens -- but much of the people's food at certain seasons is of the a wild vegetable, a "Cynara humilis" a low thistle that covers the ground in all rich soils -- the leaves are gathered for fodder of Camels & Horses, & next month when the stems are shall have come up, the markets will be full of it for human food. -- it is allied to the Cardoon (which I see cult[ivated]) & artichoke, & called by the Arabs (Chimet) -- the plough is of the rudest form, just as you see it in the Sculptures of Egypt. The only mill is the Quern -- the bread, flat round loaves, is rather brown, but excellent, barring a little sand! Oranges are the staple fruit -- & Almonds, Ground nuts from Spain, Walnuts, from Spain & Dates from the S[outh] E[astern] provinces are abundant in the markets. The garden cultivar (salads &c.) is by Jews, the Field by Arabs.
Of races the Moor swarms here & speaks Mongrebari [Maghrebi] Arabic. The Rifs (whence our "Ruffians")

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the "Algiers pirates" & "Sabre rovers" of a few years ago, are still a ruffian coast tribe never visited by Europeans -- they are of Arab stock or the Arabs are of their stock & wear the head shaved with a long pig on one side of the scalp. The Berbers or Brebbers (Barbari of the Latins. Whereas Barbary for this country) are the mountainous & lawless race with a language or dialect of their own. Lastly we have the Arab of the plains, lawless dwellers in tents, children of Ishmael (these we have not yet seen) the same from the Persian Gulf to this Atlantic coast. All are bigotted[sic] Mussulmen,*8 who think the murder of a Jew or Christian, a passport to Heaven. All are most favourable just now to the English, from various causes, -- most through Sir J[ohn] Hay's influence & good policy. The Sultan resides by turns at Fez, Marocco [Marrakech] & Mequinez [Meknès] travelling with an army of 6,000 troops, chiefly black, or men with black blood. A disorderly set of rascals & little to be depended on. He is a very black himself but with Arab features, a capital Mathematician, & most quick & not an ill-disposed man of his kind. -- His rule is of reprise & plunder through his Bashaws or Governors of provinces & of them when they do not get enough

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through them -- We passed today a Caid, a Governor of one of the Provinces, heavily chained & guarded by a troop of cavalry on his way to be imprisoned at Tetuan. I asked what he had done, no one knew, then why he was taken all the way to Tetuan & not imprisoned in one of the capitals -- the answer was that these towns were too near the captive's own people, who would assemble & make a raid on the capital & liberate their chief. He is now safe here (Tetuan) & will be kept on bread & water in a filthy hole till he pays down so many thousand dollars, & be thankful if he escapes the national mode of torture which consists in putting a cut in each leg of the trousers.
Our Hotel at Tangier was not a bad one kept by a most intelligent Negro, who was a steward in the Navy (I think), with the D[uke] of Edinburgh: the food th was good & room clean, but charges high, & we shall I am told be sure to have a fight over the bill when we return. I dispatched my first box of live plants via Gibraltar on Monday -- & wrote to Mr Smith.*9 & then took Horses & Mules with a soldier & interpreter for Tetuan distant 42 miles S[outh] E[ast] intending to w

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break the journey at 30 miles, at a Caravanserai or "Fonduk"*10 where Arabs pass the night. Our soldier is a rahtaggy droll little Arab Moor, with a face like a crab apple that has hung through the winter and a gun as long as himself -- big bright eyes & a cheery laugh -- he rejoices in the name of Haj Mahommed, -- but tus he is called "Ballo" or some such name for his amusing qualities. The interpreter Mahommed Banil Haj -- is a lazy & not agreeable fellow, who we afterwards have since dismissed --The muleteers are decent civil Arabs Moors in rags. The route was first along the sea shore & then inland for miles over low flat valleys & genttle gentle cultivated slopes -- with tufts of Palmetto green where the ground spangled with a small very pale blue daisy, a little blue Iris, thousands of pink Erodium, Poppys[sic], small Star of Bethlehem & a most brilliant orange Calendula, that sometimes covered acres of ground. No trees, but an occasional Carob, Lentisk or Olive a very few Manna--Ash. The villages are few & far between & hardly distinguishable, often houses are mere mud hovels &

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scattered without order. Whole tracts are covered masses of brooms so that the hills they precisely resemble the slopes of Scotland or Jersey. We crossed many small streams but no large ones -- much of the land is under cultivation & we saw flocks of sheep & herds of good cattle & horses. Great Storks or Cranes sailed over the plains, ground birds & Larks abounded, with here & there a beautiful Bee-Eater. -- Crossing some high land about 500 feet or so above the sea we caught sight of some a snow capped hill streaked mountain, S[outh] of Tetuan, called the Beni Hassan, a place of pilgrimage, quite inaccessable to Europeans & then a grand mass of rocky mountains nearer Tetuan, the Beni Ousmar Hosmar, which we hope to get permission to ascend, through the Caid or Governor of Tetuan province to whom I have letters from Sir J.D. Hay. Returning to our route at about 20 miles the road, or rather horse-track, (for there is no road that a wheel-barrow could go on throughout Marocco) ascends to cross a dividing ridge that separates the waters that flow N[orth] & W[est] from those flowing to the Tetuan River: & the

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the[sic] scenery becomes very picturesque, the track winding by rocky water courses through gnarled old Olives & Lentisks with the quaintest Trunks & Heads of scrubby leaves, the trunks 1 -- 2 f[ee]t diam[eter] burnt half through by the Arab fires when bivouacking -- a very grim scene (grewsome[sic] Miss M M. would call it) like Durer's picture of Sintram in the forest, -- the sun was setting & the Cuckoos struck up in the middle of it also. We ascended about 1200 feet through Olive & stunted Oak & Lentisk to the "Fonduk" or Caravanserai*10 a square white-washed building on a spur of the a mountain -- with a court inside & flat roofs. Swarming with filthy Arabs[,] camels[,] mules & horses, the rooms were 6 or 8, holes like coal cellars hard without no windows, indescribably filthy & there was no other accommodation: so we took our traps up to the flat roof & determined to pass the night there as best we could -- but other details of the night I must keep for the boys, as also the wonders performed by a snake charmer who we overtook on the road.
On Tuesday we were off at day-light, it was blowing so furious a gale that we could not cook any breakfast, the path continued ascending a low broad valley

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to the top of the pass, about 1200 feet, whence we descended still in broad open valleys covered with low bushes of Oak, Lentisk, Olive, Heaths, Cistus, Brambles & the Golden broon Brooms of 3 kinds, -- & so on through immense tracts of cultivation to the broad flat valley of the Tetuan river where we caught sight of the city, occupying a long low terrain projecting Eastward from the hills on the W[est] into a rich cultivated valley through which the river wound, to the right, or S[outh] E[ast] of the river the peaks of Beni Hosmar Ho Olandur rose for about 4000 feet elevation, very grand & rugged, to the N[orth] the valley broadened out to the Mediterranean. The city contains about 60,000 inhabitants, Arabs & Jews, it is walled & dominated by a castle at the back, but this has been knocked to pieces by the Spaniards, & great tracts of the city also are in ruins. We entered by a handsome pair of gates low Moorish gate hurried along a broad (for a Moorish town) street skirting the walls, & then struck into the heart of the Town, through very narrow & indescribably filthy streets -- passed through a another gate into the Jewish quarter & took a narrow lane to the Hotel

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so called by courtesy -- which we entered by a low door & found ourselves in a snug little square building with a little open court open to the sky & a narrow staircase heading to a tiny gallery with 4 rooms off it. The floors stair case & steps & sides of the doors, which are broad Moorish arches, all covered with parquetry of little colored tiles, very pretty. The House is kept by a young round headed Jew, who is a sort of acting assistant interpreter consul, for England, to the Spanish Consul here, (who conducts the English Consular business.) He is a civil little fellow, speaks very broken English, & some Spanish, with much Arabic of course. His name is Isaac Nahum, his mother a fat old Jewess goes about a la slut half the day, & gorgeously dressed at times. This being Passover time, the Jews & Jewesses are all in holiday costumes & very splendid they are. No*11 leavened bread is allowed to enter the house & we were asked to get rid of any that we had. We eat very good flat, thick & thin broad sort of biscuits, some plain, some flavoured with sage. I am trying to get you a belt girdle for the waist & fillet for the head, which latter is worn with a spanish silk kerchief of the most lovely hues. Nahum's sister is a very handsome girl in all respects & looks extremely well "en costume," which is not over done. The Arab country women are horrid hags, they dress in loose rags, cover their faces all but over eye & wear enormous

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heavy tattered sombreros, they are disgustingly dirty & all you see of them are a bundle of rags which is supported by 2 brown columnar ankles & huge feet & surmounted by the sombrero -- The men like all Orientals, are handsome & dress in the Bernous [Burnous], with red or blue sash, sword & pistols. The soldiers carry enormous guns; many of the Jew children are not only fair but rosy, but most are sallow, they are a decent race to look at, & very different from the ruffian looking country Arabs. Tetuan*12 Jews are famous all over the world & spread in all directions. I wish I could get photographs of this country & people, it is so very picturesque though as far as the 2 towns go, their best parts are like the back slums of Damascus or Cairo! We have poor horses & mules to travel on, my horse is a fair one however, & light galloper; but very quarrelsome with the others so that I am sometimes engaged unawares in a fight with another horse. The weather is delicious: the vegetation beautiful. The old crumbling walls, with broken Moorish arches, the water courses lined with gigantic reeds that wave overhead like miniature bamboos: the thickets of Hemlock & other Umbellifers, of Nettles, Thistles & other reed growing at least 6 feet high, & clothed [in]

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Convolvulous & brambles, climbing white roses, Bryony, Juncus, Honeysuckle & the great banks of Oleander not yet in flower by the rivers, the wild gardens of Orange, Pomegranate, Myrtle, Figs, Almond with Pumpkins, Melons, climbing Haricots & Scarlet Runners & the brilliant green fields of corn & other crops, make up most lovely landscapes. Not forgetting the white-washed Moorish Houses that gleam & almost sparkle in the sun from out of this luxuriant vegetation.
Yesterday, Wednesday, we got a guard from the Kai Caid (Bashaw or Governor) of Tetuan & an order to ascend Beni Hosmar Oraser, & had a splendid days botanizing -- up to about 3,500 feet. One Botanist an Englishman (a Mr Webb) alone had visited the mountain some 340 years ago having paid a bribe of £20 for permission to do so to the Bashaw -- it is a splendid rugged mass of limestone peaks, separated by very steep narrow-floored valleys, the flanks of which are crested with rifted white precipices. The whole na is clothed with stunted shrubs up to 3,000f[ee]t, of the trees I have mentioned already in the lower parts, & in the higher

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of a small gorse exactly like ours to look at the prickly legs but lower, 2-4 f[ee]t high. We found some very rare & some probably new plants on the upper parts of the mountain but could not reach the top which is about 4,000 feet & cut off by a steep gulley from the part we ascended. The view from the top was superb, westwards across the Mediterranean to the Spanish coast, with Gibraltar, (that looks so grand from the sea) like a contemptible little rock in the distance. WeEastwards a wild mass of low hills & valleys, the inaccessible domain of the Riff people -- Southwards the snowy crest of Beni Hassan -- Westward the hilly country we had crossed in coming from Tangier. -- Tetuan was cut off by the rocky ridges around, but the view of the city, the great green cultivated plain & winding river, seen as we descended, was exceedingly beautiful.
Mr Maw*13 returned to Tangier to day in order to get his (& my (2nd )) boxes of live plants off by the next P. & O. from Gibraltar. Mr Ball*14 & I stay here to botanize, -- tomorrow we shall ride to Ceuta, (30 miles) & then across to Algesiras[sic] [Algeciras] on the Spanish

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coast & take boat thence to Tangier arriving on Friday Saturday. I hope we shall soon get a boat thence to Mogadore -- Crump*15 is improving, he is very good, but not very quick either at plants or any thing else, he was completely knocked up on the mountain yesterday, much as you were once on the Mer de Glace -- & had to give in, but is I hope all right today.
Please tell Prof[essor] Oliver*16 that I found Hemicrambe on Beni Onahsan Hosmar: a fine plant (Cruciferous) just coming into flower, it is not in the Herbarium.
Love to the Children, Timothy Atkins*17 Timothy Atkins Timothy Atkins Timothy Atkins
Ever your affectionate | Jos D Hooker [signature]
Tetuan Thursday
Since writing [the] above Maw went back to Tangier. Ball & I staid over Friday & then rode to Ceuta, 30 miles N[orth] W[est], thence crossed by Spanish courier boat to Algesiras[sic], near Gibraltar, hoping to get boat to Tangier yesterday, but find that a Bullfight Tetuan at Cadiz or Seville, has taken all the boats Thursday off the line! So we crossed to botanized the day at Algesiras[sic], & then took row boat to Gibraltar this morning (Sunday) where we find that no [P.S. No Fleas hitherto!]*18 regular boat will go for 2 days! back to Tangier & shall but I hope to get taken across to-night by a small steamer -- belonging to a merchant here. No news yet of the boat for Magadore. The next will be a French one, all call at Tangier.
Please give accompanying to Oliver -- if Masters*19 wants any of it for the Gard[eners'] Chron[icle] please copy & put it into grammar! I shall post this here Gibraltar Sunday 16th.
Gibraltar Sunday.*20 Please tell Mr Smith that Crump is an exemplary lad -- but has suffered much first a cold -- then a complete knock up on the mountain and now a horrid boil on the back of his neck -- he behaves remarkably well under all the circumstances & does his very best.

ENDNOTES


1. The letter although written in Morocco has an embossed letterhead for Royal Gardens Kew.
2. April 12th in 1871 was a Wednesday.
3. Frances Harriet Hooker (1825--1874). Daughter of naturalist John Stevens Henslow, she married Joseph Hooker in 1851 and they had four sons and three daughters.
4. Sir John Hay Drummond Hay (1816--1893). Envoy Extraordinary at the Court of Morocco where he spent most of his career.
5. Quern stones are stone tools for hand-grinding, used in pairs. First used in the Neolithic period to grind cereals.
6. Fez or Fes is one of the largest cities in Morocco, formerly the capital city. It is famous for its two ancient medinas or markets. And is known as a centre for traditional Moroccan craft including pottery.
7. The Anglo-Moroccan Alliance was established at the end of the 16th century and early 17th century on the basis of a mutual enmity to the Spanish King Philip II. Tangier was given to Charles II of England as part of the dowry of Catherine of Braganza.
8. Mussulmen is an archaic name for a Muslim.
9. John Smith (1826--1886). Succeeded his namesake as Curator of the Royal Gardens, Kew, in 1864. Formerly the gardener to the Duke of Northumberland he assisted Joseph Hooker with Garden duties until he retired due to ill-health in 1886.
10. Fonduk or caravanserai are inns or hostels for travellers in desert regions of Asia or North Africa.
11. The following two sentences describing the bread were written vertically up the left hand margin of page 12.
12. This sentence was written vertically up the left hand margin of page 13].
13. George Maw (1832--1912). Tile manufacturer, geologist, botanist and antiquarian. Partner with his younger brother Arthur in the encaustic tile Company, Maw & Co. of Brosley, Shropshire, he was an expert on crocuses.
14. John Ball (1818--1889). Irish politician, naturalist and alpine traveller. Under Secretary of State for the Colonies from 1855--1857, in which role he advanced the natural sciences including aiding efforts to publish colonial floras. A keen naturalist he published papers on botany and glaciers but is best remembered as an alpinist. He travelled to the Atlas Mountains in Morocco with Joseph Hooker in 1871.
15. Edward Crump (d.1927/8). Gardener at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 1871. Accompanied Joseph Hooker, George Maw and John Ball on a botanical expedition to the Atlas Mountains, Morocco in 1871. Later became a market gardener at Whitnash near Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.
16. Daniel Oliver (1830--1916). British botanist. He was Librarian of the Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, from 1860 and Keeper from 1864--1890, helping Joseph Hooker with the scientific work. He was Professor of Botany at University College, London, from 1861--1888.
17. The name Timothy Atkins has been written on top of the original sentence text, which is now illegible. It is unclear whether Joseph Dalton Hooker covered the text or whether it was done in another hand and/or at a later date.
18. The text in square brackets appears to be out of context. It may have been written by Hooker prior to the addition of the text under date 'Thursday, Tetuan' which then had to be written over the original post script about the absence of fleas.
19. Maxwell Tylden Masters (1833--1907). English botanist and taxonomist. Editor of the Gardeners' Chronicle 1866--1907.
20. This last paragraph is written up the left hand margin and across the top of
page 1.

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