From J. D. Hooker   19 March 1871

Royal Gardens Kew

March 19/71

Dear Darwin

I am off for Marocco on the 1st. & shall be glad of any commands from you. I go partly to try & bake out my rheumatism, partly in faint hope of connecting the Atlantic Flora with the African,1 & (perhaps most of all) to taste the delights of savagery again. I have for some time projected such a trip with G. Maw, who is intelligent, pleasant, a capital plant hunter & grower, & fair Geologist— lately J. Ball has all but thrust himself into our party, & though I had rather have been alone with Maw, still Ball is so old a friend, & so good a man, that we shall take him with pleasure.2

Lord Granville has applied to the Sultan for permission & escorts for self & Maw to visit the highest peaks S. of the city of Marocco—but this permit is not yet arrived, & probably will not be granted.3 We take P. & O. to Gibraltar, thence cross to Tangiers & botanize there as far as we can go with safety under the ægis of Sir J. D. Hay—(the Minister), our future movements will depend on circumstances: if there is a chance of the Greater Atlas we shall take the steamer to Mogador & thence head Eastwards—4 We shall not be gone many weeks, & as the success of the whole project is dubious, I do not care to have much talked about it. I expect Alpine Maroccan Botany to be the most novel & interesting of any W. of Central Asia in the Old World. Of course we take Tents Saddles & such like, Soups, Tea, old watches, musical boxes &c—no end of paper for drying plants & so forth.5

I am busy clearing off arrears & prospective work,—& have not read your book yet—very much because every one asks me & worries me about it—& it is safest to say I have not even looked into it— I shall take it with me.6

Have you seen Cunninghams volume,?— it seems very dreary to me, but I have only read some 100 pages.7

I am very sorry to hear that Henrietta is not strong yet.8

Ever yr affly | J D Hooker

1
For Hooker’s earlier work on the geographical distribution of plants on islands in the Atlantic Ocean, see Hooker 1866. Marocco is an alternative spelling of Morocco.
2
Hooker refers to George Maw and John Ball.
3
Hooker refers to the foreign secretary, Granville George Leveson-Gower and to Sultan Muhammad IV of Morocco.
4
Hooker refers to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company and to John Hay Drummond-Hay, minister resident in Morocco. Hooker travelled on the P & O vessel Massilia, departing 1 April 1871 from Southampton; the permission to visit the Great Atlas mountain range was granted through Hay’s influence (see Hooker and Ball 1878, pp. 1 and 9). Mogador, a port city in southern Morocco, is now called Essaouira.
5
The watches and other articles were intended as presents to be given away on the journey (see Hooker and Ball 1878, p. 148).
6
The reference is to Descent.
7
Hooker refers to Robert Oliver Cunningham and his Notes on the natural history of the Strait of Magellan and west coast of Patagonia (Cunningham 1871).
8
According to Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242), Henrietta Emma Darwin was ill with measles from 4 to 25 January 1871.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7600,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7600