HOOKER AND BALL'S TOUR IN MAROCCO. 257 



" Tell the Governor," said Hooker, " that my Sultana gives 

 me a large house with a garden to live in ; hospitality would 

 require that the Governor of Marocco should provide me — 

 the guest of his Sultan — with a better house ; but, in any case, 

 I shall not live in a worse one." 



The messenger returned with the answer : " The Governor 

 has no better house to give the Christians ; but Marocco is 

 large, and they are welcome to provide for themselves." 

 Whereupon the cavalcade moved to the great square, or open 

 space, beside the chief mosque and tower of the Kontoubia, 

 sending at the same time a message to the Viceroy, son of the 

 Sultan, that they should encamp in their own tents until a 

 suitable house had been provided. The upshot was that on 

 the following day the Viceroy installed them in the palace of 

 Ben Dreis, with the adjoining garden, and soundly berated 

 the city governor for his churlishness ; but it leaked out that 

 the poor governor had ouly obeyed the express orders of the 

 Viceroy, who had directed him to begin by offering the mean 

 house, then one somewhat larger, and to leave it to the Vice- 

 roy himself graciously to meet the higher demands if they 

 should be insisted on. Fortunately, too, the row with the city 

 governor threw the travelers into the hands and good graces 

 of his rival, El Graoui, under whose protection and care they 

 were to explore the Atlas range. 



It was now full time to determine how this visit and the 

 laborious journey they were to undertake were to be made 

 intelligent and satisfactory to El Graoui and the other Moor- 

 ish authorities. The gratification of a desire to learn some- 

 thins: about the vegetation of the Great Atlas would have 

 seemed a thin pretext for some sinister design. An insanity 

 of this sort might possess the unaccountable soul of some one 

 Christian ; but that three should be simultaneously smitten 

 with it would be thought to pass the bounds of probability. 

 The pretense of collecting live plants for Kew Gardens could 

 hardly be made plausible to the Moorish mind, except, haply, 

 for that one use of plants that every one can understand. The 

 Royal Gardens are literally the Queen's Gardens, and herbs 

 that will cure diseases are among its most valuable collections. 



o 



