Journal of a tour in Marocco and the Great Atlas

by Joseph Dalton Hooker; John Ball

The sheik undertook that one of the houses in Arround should be cleared out for our reception; but, to provide for all contingencies, we arranged to take with us the two smaller and lighter tents, along with the usual supply of botanical paper and tin boxes.

Many natives of both sexes came to our camp during the day, in quest of medical treatment, as they had done during our absence the day before; and we were much amused to find that Abraham had coolly undertaken medical practice on his own account. He had provided himself with a large bottle of black stuff, containing heaven knows what nauseous ingredients, and this was doled out impartially to all applicants. It appeared to be a strong purgative, and may have answered sufficiently well in the rather frequent cases of indigestion arising from overeating. Of more serious complaints, ophthalmia was one of the most prevalent here, as elsewhere throughout South Marocco. Scrofulous sores and strictures were also common. Women desirous of offspring were brought to the camp by their husbands, and some cases of natural deformity also presented themselves. All seemed to have that great condition for remarkable cures that depends on a firm faith in the efficacy of the remedy. We had deliberately refused to follow the example of many African travellers, by including aphrodisiacs among the drugs carried with us, and all applications for such were met by a stern refusal.

We found time in the afternoon to examine the vegetation of the valley in the neighbourhood of our camp, of which we had hitherto obtained merely a passing view. The general aspect was very much what may be found at a level lower by 1,200 or 1,400 feet in Southern Spain or Calabria. In the valley bottom the prevailing trees were poplars—the common black poplar, and a small-leaved variety of the white poplar—and Salix purpurea, with walnut, olive, and carob, the latter three being extensively cultivated. The small-leaved ash, Fraxinus oxyphylla, was also rather common, but does not grow to so large a size as in North Marocco. On drier ground, on the stony slopes, Callitris occurs here and there; and two junipers—J. oxycedrus and J. phœnicea,—are rather frequent, and when allowed to reach maturity attain to the stature of small trees. The evergreen oak is the predominant tree on the flanks of the mountains, and exhibits several varieties, but rarely attains its natural size. Shrubs and low bushes, as usual in the Mediterranean region, are very numerous and varied, most of them, such as the alaternus, phillyrea, lentisk, oleander, and colutea, being widely diffused species of Southern Europe; and a beautiful honeysuckle (Lonicera etrusca), with large, sweet-scented flowers, was a conspicuous ornament. Along with these, several common forms of Central and North-western Europe, such as the common bramble, the ivy, the dog-rose and elder, here find their southern limit. It was not possible, however, for a botanist to look about him at any spot in the valley without being struck by abundant evidence that he had entered a region very distinct from any part of Southern Europe or Algeria. This impression was strengthened throughout our ride of the previous day, as we ascended from our camp to the foot of the ancient moraine, and everywhere saw conspicuous plants peculiar to the middle and lower zones of the Great Atlas. Our first impression was that the proportion of such endemic species was larger in this part of the valley than in the higher zone; but this was due to the fact, that so many more of those inhabiting the lower zone strike the eye by their greater size and by the brilliancy of their flowers. When we came to examine our collections with the requisite care, we found that about one-seventh of all the species found in the middle region of this valley is made up of peculiar endemic species, while the proportion of the same element in the higher region rises to one-fifth.[1]

We were especially struck by the complete absence of new generic types. There were, indeed, but two species seen in this valley belonging to North African genera—Callitris and Lotononis—that do not extend to Europe. All the rest are referable to European types, of which the large majority extend to the central and north-western parts of our continent. No representatives of tropical and sub-tropical types, such as are seen in Arabia, Persia, and Northern India, are here to be found.

During our absence on the 13th, a courier had arrived from Mogador, with letters from M. Carstensen. The man had first gone to Marocco, and thence, for the most part following our track, had found us in our Atlas head-quarters, and was well pleased with the trifling pay of a few shillings for the journey. To-day another courier made his appearance, bearing answers to the letter despatched to El Graoui, on the morning of the 12th, so that we had no reason to complain of remissness on his part. Probably for the purpose of shifting an unpopular measure from his own shoulders, the wary old Governor forwarded a letter from the Viceroy, expressly sanctioning our stay in the Aït Mesan valley, for as long a time as should be required for the objects of our journey. Along with this, El Graoui wrote to Hooker, expressing a hope that our stay would not be prolonged more than was really necessary, inasmuch as the villages of the valley were very poor. Further provision was made to meet Maw’s desire to return to England, and an order sent that two soldiers should be detached from our escort to accompany him to Mogador.

It was curious to observe that whenever literary knowledge was in request, whether for reading and fully understanding letters addressed to us in Arabic, or for the composition of letters to be addressed by us in the same language, the member of the expedition always most relied upon was Hamed, Ball’s personal attendant, one of the poor fellows engaged at Mogador to act in a menial capacity and accompany the expedition on foot. It is true of the western dialect spoken in Marocco, as well as of the purer Arabic of the east, that a familiar knowledge of the spoken tongue does not imply a full acquaintance with the written language, and Abraham was evidently sometimes at fault. Education, in a literary sense, is not among Moslems a privilege of rank or wealth, and is quite as often found among the poorest as with those above them. Our two Kaïds were both ostentatiously illiterate, and the soldiers knew no more than their officers; and poor Hamed, alone of all our suite, seemed to be worth taking into council on these occasions.

Once more the insatiable rapacity of our escort gave us trouble, and proved to us that the objection to our making a long stay among these poor mountaineers was not an unreasonable one. We ascertained that the demands of these shameless fellows on their own behalf, apart from the rest of the expedition, rose to forty fowls a day, with bread, tea, and sugar in proportion, while they were constantly grumbling at the insufficiency of this allowance for ten persons, and demanding money from the natives in lieu of the other luxuries to which they thought themselves entitled. We sincerely regretted our want of power to put a stop to these abuses; but it was impossible to sacrifice the main object of our journey, and we merely resolved to acquaint El Graoui with the facts after our return to Mogador.

We rose early on the morning of the 15th, and lost no time in preparing for our departure. Just when all seemed ready for a start a new and serious difficulty arose. Hooker and Maw had both provided for the journey several large tin cases painted green, and intended for the transport of living plants from Marocco to England; and, as a matter of course, some of these were amongst the luggage packed up for the expedition to Arround. When the sheik arrived about 7 A.M. he at once declared that he had undertaken to conduct us to Arround, but that to carry the luggage he saw prepared was utterly out of the question. A long and vehement controversy ensued; at first it was impossible to understand the real nature of the difficulty, and when this was gradually made clear, the objections seemed to us so incoherent and inconsistent that we suspected them to be mere pretexts to cover some unavowed obstacle in the sheik’s mind.

It appeared that the tin cases were the real stumbling blocks. ‘When the people of Arround see those cases,’ said Si Hassan, ‘nothing will persuade them that they are not filled with treasure—they will attack us in the night, and will kill you and me too, in order to get possession of them.’ ‘They will believe the boxes to be full of gunpowder’—so ran another version of the difficulty—‘and think you have come to take possession of their valley, and will fight to resist your remaining there.’ We suspected at the time that the unavowed cause of offence lay in the boxes being painted green—the colour of the Prophet and his descendants—but from the slight attention paid by the mountaineers to the observances of Moslem law, even in more important matters, we afterwards rejected this explanation, and were inclined to believe that the sheik knew his own people, and truly represented the strange fancies to which they are subject.

The tin boxes were reluctantly sacrificed, and with them the possibility of making any large collection of living plants in the upper region of the Great Atlas. The luggage was repacked, and after several hours’ delay we started about 10.30 A.M. by the same track which had been the scene of our recent night adventure.