Throughout these troubled times Mr. Hay rode daily, unattended, on the beach or in the country. One afternoon, when riding along the narrow road leading outside the town walls to the sea, he encountered an armed tribe coming in to join the forces then bound for the Tetuan district, the seat of war. As he passed quietly through them, one of the men, cursing him for an infidel, spat at him. Mr. Hay at once retaliated by bringing his heavy hunting crop sharply down on the head of the offender, abusing him roundly the while.
In a moment the long guns of those who witnessed the occurrence were brought to their knees, and he heard the click of the clumsy flint-locks as they cocked their pieces.
Undaunted, he cried, ‘Shame on you, that would call yourselves men! Cowards, go and fight with women!’
Some of the elders, who were rather in the rear, observing the pause and disturbance, hurried forward and checked the excited tribesmen, and Mr. Hay, turning to them, said, ‘It is most unseemly and unworthy of the warriors of your race that these young men should attack an unarmed and unoffending individual. Is it for these youths to insult and abuse me, an Englishman, and the friend of the Moors?’
The elders soundly rated the offenders, and offered to bastinado, then and there, the chief culprit, which Mr. Hay however declined. They then frankly apologised, pleading that the men were under the influence of great excitement at the prospect of fighting the Spaniards, else they would never have behaved so ill to the ‘Ingliz,’ their friend. The weapons were lowered, and Mr. Hay rode through the midst of the horde, who made way for him quietly.
When peace was finally concluded, in 1860, it was in great measure due to Mr. Hay’s intervention. All the variations between hope and fear are chronicled in his letters home.
At last, on March 29, he is able to write:—
Thank God! on the 25th preliminaries were signed. Entre nous, though Spaniards continue to rave against me, it was I who got this Government to agree to peace after a hard-fought battle in the plain of Tetuan.
Altogether this period had been for him a time of great anxiety. His troubles were increased by a sharp attack of what is now known as ‘Russian influenza,’ which prostrated him just when affairs were in the most critical condition. He fought against the malady, however, in his anxiety to secure peace; but when his family returned to Tangier they found that the illness had left him with snow-white beard and moustache, who before had not a gray hair.
The three letters that follow were written from Meknes during a mission undertaken by Mr. Hay to the Moorish Court with the object of inducing the Sultan to concede the demands of Spain, and to place the peace just concluded between the two countries on a firm basis.