Letter and/or further information available at http://jdh.aetopia.net/p/jdh?q=jhc589.
Please cite as “JHC589,” in Ɛpsilon: The Joseph Dalton Hooker Collection accessed on 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/hooker/letters/JHC589
JDH sends belated birthday wishes to his mother, Lady Maria Hooker. He complains that the officials in Morocco are causing delays so the party's main excursion to the Atlas mountains has only just been organised. The trip will be facilitated by El Graoui, Governor of the Atlas Province, by order of the Sultan. The Sultan has guaranteed them supplies & safe passage, which is able to do in the third of his country that he actually has control over. JDH will spend two or three weeks in the Atlas with the mountain people before returning home to England via Mogadore [Essaouira]. He plans to ingratiate himself to the mountain people with gifts of knives, music boxes & other sundries. The sultan & his ministers are doing their best to 'improve' Morocco by making it more accessible & utilising their natural resources, such as copper, lead, iron, antimony & saltpetre. JDH describes the climate & local people as agreeable & has a good opinion of the local Governors but criticises the corrupt way that the Government is run & the squabbles between chiefs. JDH was received by Sir John Hay Drummond Hay at Tangier, he briefly describes the family; Lady Hay is related to Mr Carstensen [Cazytensen] the V[ice] Consul of Mogadore. JDH is pleased with his traveling companions, John Ball & George Maw. He explains that he could not miss the chance to go to the unexplored regions of the Greater Atlas mountains, especially when it took such diplomatic efforts to persuade the Sultan to give his permission. Hay had to tell the Sultana that JDH was the Queen of England's 'Hakeem & gardener' & that to refuse his request would offend her. JDH explains that they have travelled by mule & camels with additional animals to carry the baggage, and with an escort of black soldiers.
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