In Denmark I will plant the melon seeds I got from African soil, and I hope they will thrive, blossom, and bear fruit.
God give you and yours blessings and happiness.
Your grateful and devoted
H. C. Andersen.
It has been said that the native peasantry resorted to the British Legation for sympathy, and assistance in time of need, from the man they looked on as a kindly friend. In Sir John the victims of injustice, greed, and oppression found a ready advocate and powerful defender. The favour which he was known to enjoy with the Sultan added weight to his remonstrances with petty tyrants, and with officials who, even if not themselves guilty, readily connived at tyranny or oppression. The authorities dreaded lest they should be reported at Court for acts of misgovernment—reported, as they well knew, from a desire for justice and not from personal motives—and this wholesome fear drove many a venal Moorish official along the straight path. Thus it was that Sir John obtained so great an influence in Morocco.
The following story illustrates the way in which an act of kindness done by Sir John was remembered and bore fruit after many years. It was told by a Moorish soldier who accompanied an intrepid English traveller into the interior. This attendant had been recommended by Sir John, and on his return to Tangier came at once to report himself and give some account of the journey. He related that having arrived at a certain stage of the journey they were detained. The tribesmen who occupied the district through which it was necessary to pass, refused to recognise the authority of the Sultan, whose troops they had lately defeated. Declaring their belief that the Christian traveller was a French engineer come to spy out their land, they said they would have none of him. The officer of the escort sent by the Sultan dared not proceed, and there was thus every prospect that this, the first, attempt on the part of a European to penetrate into this part of Morocco, would have to be abandoned.
At this juncture there appeared on the scene the Sheikh of the tribe occupying the district adjacent to that of the rebels.
In the words of the narrator of the story:—‘This Sheikh rode up to the tents and inquired of me whether the Christian was a Frenchman, or whether there was any truth in the report, which had just reached him, that the traveller was the son of the English “Bashador.” I told him that he was not the son, but a friend, of the Bashador, who wished to pass through that part of the country, and to whom the Bashador had given letters recommending him to the good offices of the Uzir, in consequence of which an escort had been sent by the Government to take him as far as possible in the direction he desired to go, and that now the officer of the escort dared proceed no further.
‘“Where are you from?” queried the Sheikh.
‘“From Tangier.”