FROM TABARCA TO LA CALLE.
We made a very short stay at Tabarca, only just long enough to obtain
the assistance of the Miralai in command to find some trustworthy
member of the Khomair tribe to guide us to La Calle, and by his
influence to protect us on our way. He induced a highly respected
sheikh, Si el-Hadj Hassan, to accompany us, and three of his followers
joined us as an escort. We absolutely declined to allow any of the
Government hanbas or the Kaid of Badja’s spahis to be of the party,
as we were well aware that they were held in small favour, and could
render no assistance in these mountains. Throughout our journey they
had proved a perfect incubus to us, and though it is impossible to
travel in the Bey’s dominion without them, they greatly interfere
with the traveller’s enjoyment, and make him painfully conscious
that, do what he will, unnecessary exactions are being levied on
poor people on his account. In my case this evil was very much
lessened by my being able to communicate directly with the natives,
but a traveller ignorant of Arabic is entirely in their hands and
at their mercy.
There are two roads between Tabarca and La Calle, one by the sea
coast, which the Commandant was anxious for us to follow. It has the
advantage of being short, though difficult for laden mules, and as
it passes through a country almost uninhabited the traveller is less
likely to be interfered with by the Khomair. The other is through
the very heart of their country, much longer, and in every way more
interesting, but it would be quite impossible for a Christian to
traverse it without being assured of protection beforehand. This was
the unknown region we were anxious to explore, and through which,
as far as I am aware, no European has ever passed.
The tribe of Khomair, as the name is usually pronounced—more
correctly _Akhmair_ in the plural, and _Khomairi_ in the singular—is
one of the largest and most important in the Bey’s dominions. We
could not form any accurate estimate of its number, but by all
accounts it must have at least 20,000 fighting men, if not more. They
are ready enough to admit the suzerainty of the Bey, and to style him
_Saidna_, our Lord, so long as their allegiance is confined to this
act, but they steadily refuse to permit any interference on his part
with their internal government, and pay no taxes or contributions
of any kind. On the contrary, their Sheikhs expect to be subsidised
by him, and do actually receive presents of _Kisowa_, or raiment,
from time to time.
Our guide assured us that the country was overrun at one time by lions
and leopards, and that red deer were very common. Persons still living
have seen all three, but now they are entirely extinct. This is the
more extraordinary, as in the comparatively civilised districts of
Algeria, bordering on the Tunisian frontier, lions are still found,
panthers are common, and the red deer exists in considerable numbers
amongst the forests and mountains of the Beni Salah.
Peyssonnel, in speaking of the country between La Calle and Bone,
says: ‘As this country is full of lions, _tigers_, _bears_, and
other wild animals, the flocks of the Arabs are often disturbed,
and even the Arabs themselves are not safe in their tents, so that
they are obliged to place sentinels, who cry out during all the night,
and cause the dogs to bark, in order to frighten away these savage and
ferocious animals. The lion, the king of beasts, is not so cruel or so
much to be feared as is supposed. He rarely attacks men, still Arabs
are found here who have fought and killed lions with their knives,
after having received numerous wounds, which these terrible animals
have inflicted with their claws and teeth. On the sea coast, where
there are woods and quantities of wild boars _and deer_ on which the
lions feed, these are less dangerous than in the mountains.’[243]
The tigers here mentioned are probably panthers, or some other of
the felines found in Algeria. Bears have long been extinct, although
the bones of several species have been found in the cave of Djebel
Thaya, and the Abbé Poiret, a zealous and accurate naturalist, saw
the skin of one brought in during a visit he paid to Bordj Ali Bey,
near La Calle, in 1785.[244] The red deer have quite disappeared from
the coasts, indeed from every part of Algeria and Tunis, except in
the territory of the Beni Salah.
The following interesting remarks on this subject are taken from
the Mémoires of the Archæological Society of Constantine for the
past year:—
‘While Captain Sergent occupied the position of chief of the Bureau
Arabe at Jemmapes, he collected information of the greatest possible
interest on the subject of the recent disappearance of the bear.
‘At the commencement of this century the bear was found all over the
mountains situated north of Azeba, between the two rivers of Saf-Saf
and Oued el-Kebir. It has gradually disappeared from that country,
until then inhabited, consequent on the migration of the tribes,
who occupied it, elsewhere. The Beni Mahenna have retained the
remembrance of a great number of hunters, who passed their lives in
pursuing the deer and the bear, on the crests, covered with arbutus,
between Djebel ben-Alia and Bou-Kseïba. The most celebrated of
these was Ali En-Nahel, belonging to the tribe of Oulad Ataï;
several others are also cited by name.
‘There are numerous sayings which perpetuate the remembrance of
the bear. Such an one is said to be as rude as a bear, he grumbles
like a bear. Rivers, rocks, springs, and even trees have retained the
name of this animal, such as Oued Deb, Geläat ed-Deb, Ain ed-Debba,
&c. The bear, moreover, is said still to be found in the mountains
of Morocco. From an archæological point of view the bear also
deserves our attention; like all the great animals of Africa known
to the ancients, it figures in the mosaics and on the earthen lamps
preserved in our museums.’
The remarks of Bruce before quoted[245] with reference to the Oulad
Sidi Bou Ghanim, were equally applicable to the Khomair; one of the
reasons of their exemption from taxation was their utility in killing
lions. At the present day they are no longer required to destroy wild
animals, but they readily admit the obligation under which they lie
to guard the frontier in their lord’s interests against all comers,
and so well do they perform this duty, that I am not aware of any
Europeans having been permitted to pass through it but ourselves.
There is a general opinion that this tribe is of Berber origin. I
am not aware of any direct authority for this hypothesis. There is,
of course, a strong presumption that the original Berber stock would
have lingered in a purer condition in these inhospitable mountains,
than in other parts of the country more liable to be overrun by the
Arab conquerors. The Khomair are tall and stalwart fellows, with a
bold and fearless demeanour, very different to that of the Arab of
the present day; but these are characters which their wild and active
life could hardly fail to engraft on any stock; they do not claim any
affinity with the Kabyles or Chawia, they speak no other language than
Arabic, and we saw no traces amongst them of light hair, blue eyes,
or a fair European complexion, such as are so frequently met with
both in the Aures Mountains and in the Kabylia of Djurdjura. When
pressed to give an account of their origin, they universally declared
themselves to be of Arab descent, but that their forefathers came
from the _Gharab_, or West, somewhere in the kingdom of Morocco.
Ibn Khaldoun, in his history of the Berbers,[246] makes no
allusion to this tribe, though he mentions an Arab one, the name
of which is somewhat similar in its European guise, though totally
different in Arabic, the _Ghomara_ inhabiting the mountains of
the Riff country. He derives their name from the root غَمَرَ
to overflow, on account of the manner in which they, being Arabs,
overran the Berber country. He says that they are broken up into an
innumerable number of branches and families all over the country,
and are found even as far as Tripoli. It is hardly possible that
these races can be identical, for although there are certain letters
in the Arabic language susceptible of transposition, it is unlikely
that the خ _kh_ should ever take the place of غ _gh_.
Berbers do exist in this valley; we met numbers of the Kabyle race of
Zoaoua (whence the modern word _Zouave_) whose ancestors came from the
Kabylia of Djurdjura to take military service under the Government
of the Bey; these men were the Swiss of Africa, and went all over
the country, as far even as the Pentapolis, as mercenary soldiers.
We had spent the previous evening in a most pleasant and instructive
manner amongst our new friends, and were delighted at the idea
of passing through their country to La Calle, and perhaps of
returning on some future occasion to explore it more thoroughly. As
we suspected, the tales of their barbarity and ferocity were very
greatly exaggerated; at the same time, I confess I should not like to
go far into their country without being accompanied by an influential
member of the tribe, who would be responsible for my safety.
We started from Tabarca at 9·15 a.m., and followed the left bank
of the Oued el-Ahmer (_Red River_), the most westerly of the three
which drain the valley of the Oued el-Kebir. We proceeded in a
south-westerly direction along a tolerably well-cleared path, made
by the Tunisian Government for the purpose of bringing timber down to
the coast. Even in the driest weather there is always a considerable
body of water in the river, and now it was swollen by several days’
hard rain. Beautiful rills and mountain streams descended at every
few hundred yards to add their tribute to the torrent; the banks were
in some places clothed with ivy and ferns, and everywhere densely
shaded by handsome trees, ilex, chêne zan (_Quercus Mirbeckii_),
aspens, and hawthorns of such gigantic stature as fully to merit the
appellation of forest trees; while the ground was carpeted with a
profusion of wild flowers of every hue—blue pimpernel, centaury,
valerian, pink and white cistus, myrtles, wild roses and yellow broom.
Instead of the koubbas so common in other parts of the country,
the tombs of holy men are here marked by a few stones, broken pots,
and one or two white flags stuck amongst them. The first that we met
was that of Sidi Bou Firnan (_My Lord, the father of cork oaks_), who
had possessed a number of these useful trees before his beatitude. As
our guide passed his rustic shrine, he stopped a moment, held his
hands open as if they were a book, and muttered a short prayer. The
good Hadj is a holy man himself; he has made the pilgrimage to Mecca,
and is delighted to find that I have been to Arabia, and have visited
Jerusalem and especially Kerouan, next to Mecca and Medina, the most
holy city in the eyes of Western Mohammedans. He is never tired of
telling everyone he meets the marvellous tale, and of communicating
the fact that the English are the most faithful friends the Sultan
has, and are almost Mohammedans themselves. It is not in the heart
of the Khomair country, that one would try to controvert this theory
of his.
After having ridden for about five miles, we crossed the Oued
el-Ahmer, and entered a country called El-Baiadha, now a moor of tree
heath, but once a great forest, as the blackened stumps of trees,
destroyed by fire, attest. Here and there a few Aleppo pines and
junipers are still found, and on the summit of the hill, about 1,100
feet above the sea, and under a gigantic oak, we observed the first
appearance of Roman colonisation in this district. Only a few cut
stones remain, but there could be no doubt regarding their origin.
We now descended into the valley of the Oulad Sidera, which runs
in a north-easterly direction for a distance of fifteen or twenty
miles. We entered it at about the broadest part, where it had a
width of rather more than a mile. A short distance lower down the
hills converge, forming a narrow gorge called Khangat el-Hadeed,
or _the iron pass_; but as our route lay in an opposite direction,
we were unable to examine it. Beyond it again appeared the high peak
of Djebel Atatfa, but the hills which bound the valley itself appear
to have no other name than that of the tribe which inhabits them.
If a poet or a painter wished to depict a valley ‘sacred to
sweet peace,’ he could do no better than take for his model that
of the Oulad Sidera. It is admirably cultivated throughout, and
from every direction beautiful sparkling streams join the river,
which flows along the bottom. The pasturage is rich and succulent,
and the brilliant carmine of some of the clovers contrasted with
the bright yellow of other species, nestling in a carpet of green,
still fresh and wet with the late rains, added a richness to the
landscape, which can nowhere be seen in a more northern country.
Not only by the river banks, but along the bottom of the hills,
and indeed here and there throughout the whole course of the valley,
are trees of very unusual size. As a rule, the cork oaks in Africa
do not attain the dimensions they do in Spain; yet here we saw some
not less than fifty or sixty feet high, and with trunks four feet in
diameter. I also observed, what I had seen nowhere but at the Fontaine
des Princes in the Forest of Edough, ancient trees of various kinds,
the upper surface of whose branches was covered with a thick layer of
moss, out of which grew masses of polypodium and other ferns. This is
the best possible certificate of climate, for in a locality subject
to great heat or drought, especially in one exposed to the sirocco
wind, such vegetation could not exist during a single summer.
The villages throughout the district we traversed were carefully
concealed from observation, and sites have been chosen high up
on the crests of the hills, with the double object, no doubt,
of defence and economy of space. The huts are rude and squalid,
built generally of branches of trees and diss grass, sometimes with
a little plastering of mud. Near the upper end of the valley of
the Oulad Sidera, under the shade of some grand old olive-trees,
whose age it is impossible to conjecture, stand the remains of a
Roman farm. The walls are still in some places fifteen feet high,
built of small hammer-dressed stones, with finely-cut masonry at
the angles, and here and there an upright course of similar stones
in the walls. The building was rectangular, twenty-two paces long
by twenty wide, regular in shape except at one corner, where was
probably the entrance gate. The interior was so thickly overgrown
with briars and weeds that we could detect no remains of partitions.
We saw other ruins further up, and heard of the existence of many
more, so that there can be no doubt that even these inaccessible
mountains must have been occupied in a serious manner by the Romans.
Peaceful and smiling as this valley seems, it is occupied by a
sturdy and truculent race, whom one would rather meet as friends
than as foes, and it is the refuge of all the unquiet spirits
who have made the plains of Tunis or the frontiers of Algeria too
hot to hold them. While we were examining the ruins I have just
described, a party of ill-looking fellows kept creeping up to
us, dodging from tree to tree, to escape as much as possible our
observation. No sooner, however, did they see our friend the Hadj,
than they seemed to conclude that all was right; they came forward
at once and saluted him with great respect, kissing the palms of
each others’ hands. Then I overheard a whispered conversation—
‘Who are they?’
‘English travellers going to La Calle.’
‘By the life of the Prophet, are they English?’
‘Certainly, or you would not have seen them with me. This one has
been to Arabia, Jerusalem and Kerouan!’
‘Wallah! has he really?’
‘By the life of your head he has!’
This seemed to satisfy them entirely: we became excellent friends,
and they allowed us to examine their arms and curious leathern pouches
in the most affable manner. Each had a short straight sword, not
much longer than an English drummer-boy’s, with an old-fashioned
flint pistol; and two or three leathern bags curiously worked,
one containing flint and steel, another powder and ball, a third
a small knife, and some had a larger one to contain miscellaneous
articles. They laughed at our temerity in coming into their country,
through which they assured us that no European had ever before passed;
but as the English were such faithful friends of the Sultan, and in
the habit of visiting holy places like Kerouan and Jerusalem—in
fact, so nearly Mohammedans, we were welcome, and might go where we
pleased. I laughingly asked them what they would have done had we been
French. My friend gave a broad grin, and passed his forefinger across
his throat in reply. Perhaps they might not have adopted such extreme
measures; but it is quite certain, that there is not a man along the
frontier line, who would permit a Frenchman to advance a step after
he was observed; and even an Englishman would find it impossible to
penetrate from Algeria. The Khomair are very like Arabs everywhere
else when removed from civilisation, wild and fanatical while their
suspicions are aroused, but as tractable as children when these are
allayed. When a traveller can make them laugh, the victory is gained;
hence our success with the pot of jam.
The disturbances in European Turkey had broken out not very long
before our visit, and we were much interested to observe the eagerness
with which they demanded news of ‘the Black Mountain,’ for under
that designation they seemed to include all the disturbed districts;
but though they were in a state of great excitement, and would no
doubt have marched without the least hesitation to attack a body
of Christians anywhere near, if thereby they could have aided in
the Holy War, I doubt whether their love of the Sultan, or their
attachment to El-Islam would have carried them the length of forming
a contingent to go to the scene of war in his defence.
We had not a chance of forming an opinion of the fair sex in this
happy valley; every woman, who observed us in the distance, fled
into the woods affrighted at the unwonted spectacle.
About half-past two we arrived at the Oued Froor, a picturesque
mountain stream, which marks the French frontier; we had some
difficulty in getting our baggage animals across—several times
their loads slipped off—and we had to enlist the assistance
of some of the Khomair, whom we saw there, to enable us to cut a
way through the thick brushwood on the Tunisian side. They were
most obliging and willing to help us in our difficulties without
the least expectation of reward. One of them asked our aid in his
trouble—his brother had a wife and baby, the former of whom, on
account of some matrimonial difference, had fled over the frontier,
and would not listen to any proposition of reconciliation. We could
only advise him to apply to the French authorities, who are ever
ready to lend their willing assistance in such matters.
Their rule on the frontier is extremely just and paternal. The hatred,
with which they are regarded by such tribes as the Oulad Sidera,
is the inevitable result of a well-organised system of government,
coming into such close contact with savages unrestrained by any
power save their own will.
Shortly after crossing the frontier we saw on our left, on the
further side of a steep ravine, an important Roman ruin. Time would
not permit us to inspect it closely, but it appeared to be either
a fortress or a large agricultural establishment. The natives could
not tell me whether it contained any inscribed stones, but they said
that there were representations of rams and other animals sculptured
on the walls. This is called by them El-Kasr, _the palace_, and the
valley Oued el-Kasr. It is the spot marked on M. de St. Marie’s map
as _Ouksir R. R._, but the configuration of the ground, and especially
the course of the river, on this map are altogether incorrect.
The Oued Froor, where we passed it, flows in a south-easterly
direction, but I had no means of ascertaining its ultimate course. It
appeared to be an affluent of some other stream, which probably
joins the Oued Oulad Sidera, and not to flow directly towards the
Mediterranean.
The river of the Oulad Sidera flows in a similar direction, and
is probably an affluent of the Oued el-Kebir in the upper part of
its course.
The French have not shown their usual sagacity in fixing the
boundaries of their colony, or rather I should say a desire to
avoid even the appearance of encroaching on their neighbours, and
perhaps some pressure from other European Powers, has induced them
to abandon much valuable territory, which, if the prescription of
eighteen centuries deserves to be taken into account, undoubtedly
belonged to Algeria.
After the fall of Jugurtha, 106 B.C., the country between the east
coast of Tunis and the Atlantic was divided into three provinces,
Africa proper, Numidia and Mauritania. At subsequent periods
these were further subdivided, but two great landmarks remained
constant during all the political and geographical changes of North
Africa—the river _Tusca_, or Oued el-Kebir, formed the eastern
boundary of Numidia, and the _Malua_ or _Molochath_, the modern
Molouia, the western one of Mauritania Cæsariensis, dividing it
from Tingitana, the present Empire of Morocco.
These boundaries continued, almost to the period of the French
conquest, to limit the territory owning allegiance to the Dey
of Algiers and the Bey of Constantine. When the present boundary
question had to be settled, the French naturally claimed the line
of the Tusca on the east; the Tunisians as stoutly contended that
La Calle belonged to them; so a compromise was effected fixing Cape
Roux as the limit; about as unsatisfactory and undefined a frontier
line as it is possible to conceive.
The same thing happened to the west. The French claimed the ancient
line; the Moroccans demanded the Tafna, and, as a compromise, the
Kiss was accepted—a small river which does not run more than twelve
miles along the boundary line. This latter compromise was the less
necessary as the country in dispute was actually in the military
occupation of the French. The consequence is, that Algeria has no
natural frontiers at all, and it has on either side of it one of the
strongest, most warlike and most turbulent tribes in North Africa,
the Khomair to the east and the Beni Snassen to the west.
Some little distance from where we crossed the frontier, not perhaps
more than two miles in a direct line, though we traversed very much
more ground to reach it, is a douar of Arabs; and a ruined stone
building, called Bordj el-Aïoun, _Castle of the Wells_, from which
a high road, very rough at first, but gradually improving, leads
through a magnificent forest of cork oak to the copper mines of Kef
Omm-et-Taboul, a large and prosperous establishment exporting 600,000
francs’ worth of mineral per annum, situated on the last slope of
the mountain, and so past the fine fresh-water lake of Guerah el-Hout
(_lake of fish_), along the plain to La Calle, where we arrived,
men and beasts both thoroughly exhausted, at half-past eight at
night. Our day’s march, measured on the map, was not perhaps more
than from 28 to 30 miles, but we must have actually gone over at
least 44 miles of ground. Our horses, which had borne us so bravely
all the way from Susa, here gave in entirely; on the following day
they were unable to move, but the baggage mules were as fresh as ever,
and seemed absolutely incapable of fatigue.
La Calle is the nearest French town to the Tunisian frontier,
and though it has a very small and inconvenient harbour, it is
the headquarters of the coral-fishery, and a place daily rising
in importance. The old town was contained within the present
fortifications, built on a ridge of rocks about 400 yards long,
surrounded by the sea, except on the east side, where a bank of sand
150 yards in length connects it with the land. A new town has been
built on the mainland, and there is a project for creating a military
port and harbour of refuge at a short distance to the west. A new
and highly profitable branch of trade has sprung up within the last
few years, the salting and preparation of sardines, which bids fair
to become one of the staple industries of Algeria. But its former
history interested us more than its actual condition. The traveller
going from Bone to Tunis usually touches here for a short time,
and it is right that he should know what an important part it once
played in the relations between France and the Barbary States.
The French Compagnie d’Afrique was established under Louis XIV. Its
principal factory was at first established at the Bastion de France,
and its object was to fish for coral and to purchase grain; in the
latter pursuit it had as a rival an English company established at
La Calle, but on its failure, the entire trade fell into the hands
of the French, for which privilege, however, they were obliged
to pay very heavy taxes to the Government of Algiers and the Bey
of Constantine. Gradually, as the coral fisheries began to fail,
the Company devoted itself more to commerce, and purchased large
quantities of cereals, wool, leather and wax.
An interesting picture of life at La Calle is given by the Abbé
Poiret, who travelled in Barbary from 1785 to 1786.
When he landed, the country round was being devastated by the plague,
and the _comptoir_ of the French jealously barricaded its gates to
prevent all communication with the interior. The Arabs, irritated
and jealous at seeing the Christians exempt from a disease which was
committing such cruel ravages amongst themselves, tried by every means
in their power to introduce the contagion. They buried plague-stricken
corpses at the gates of La Calle, and they threw rags saturated with
virus over the walls, and, independently of these secret attacks,
a continued and open state of hostility seemed to prevail. La Calle
was governed by an agent, having the title of governor, with about
fifteen other officers under his direction. The Arabs were excluded
from the place, with the exception of a few who were retained as
hostages, or who were employed in manual labour. The inhabitants
were from three to four hundred, mostly Corsicans and natives of
Provence. Some were employed in the coral fishery; others, with the
name of soldiers, were occupied in guarding the cattle when taken
outside for pasture. Sometimes these same soldiers, in the guise of
carters, were sent to the neighbouring forests to cut wood. Others,
called _frégataires_, were occupied in loading vessels, transporting
corn, cleaning the port, and similar works, and there was in addition
a staff of bakers, blacksmiths, masons and other artificers. All
these employés were paid, fed and lodged by the Company, but the
fair sex was rigorously excluded. If sometimes the Governor was
permitted to bring his wife, serious troubles were sure to result,
and he was rarely able to keep her there for any length of time.
The climate was then exceedingly unhealthy. Violent fevers were of
constant occurrence, which carried off their victims in four days,
and the mortality amongst the employés was immense.
These were people of the worst character, as the Company received
indiscriminately all applicants, without asking any questions. Most
of them were convicts who had escaped from justice in France, men
lost through libertinage and debauch, without principles of religion,
or the least sentiment of probity.
At La Calle it was only the worst crimes of which any cognisance
was taken, all others were allowed to go without punishment, as the
Governor had only the shadow of authority, and it was necessary to
humour this nest of ruffians always ripe for revolt. In addition to
the heavy taxes paid directly to the State, the Company was subjected
to indirect taxation to an enormous extent, and was also subjected
to the most humiliating restrictions. It was compelled to feed all
the Arabs, who chose to present themselves. If an Arab killed a
Christian he was liable to a fine of 300 piastres as blood money,
which was never paid, but in the event of a Christian killing an
Arab, he was forced to pay 500 piastres, which sum was exacted to
the last farthing. The Company was not permitted to appoint its own
interpreters; these were always named by the State, and the only
qualification, that appeared to be required, was sufficient sagacity
to enable him to betray the Christian.
In 1806 Mr. Blanckley, the British Consul-General at Algiers,
contracted with the Dey for the possession of Bone and La Calle,
which latter had been a century and a half in the hands of the French,
whose contract had expired. 50,000 dollars, or 11,000_l._, was the sum
agreed on as an annual rent. This was actually paid for some years,
without any result following, save that of keeping out the French
for a time.[247] La Calle was re-occupied by the French on July 15,
1836, shortly after the capture of Bone.
Here our journey may be said to have terminated; we dismissed our
horses and attendants, bade adieu to our Khomair friends, who had
accompanied us so far, and proceeded in an open boat to Bone, where
we took the steamer to Algiers.
In these two journeys, though I have not actually followed the route
of Bruce, I have visited every place of importance which he described,
and, with the single exception of Hydra, I have examined and described
every ruin which he drew, in Algeria and Tunis.
I could not spare time to follow him in the Belad el-Djerid and
eastward to the Pentapolis. There I must leave him to tell his own
tale, illustrating this as far as I can by the descriptions of more
recent travellers. The temptation to follow him to Tripoli was very
great, but I was reconciled to the impossibility of doing this by the
knowledge that Mr. Edward Rae, who has already earned the reputation
of being an intelligent traveller and an accurate observer, had
just returned from a journey through that country and the southern
parts of Tunis, including Kerouan. I had the pleasure of making his
acquaintance at Tunis, and I have little doubt that his ‘Country
of the Moors,’ which is being published simultaneously with the
present work, will give much valuable information regarding these
little-known regions. It will materially contribute to elucidate
the diary of Bruce, which unfortunately is out of all proportion,
as regards interest, to his admirable architectural drawings. How
different the case would have been, but for that disastrous shipwreck
at Bengazi!
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 243: Peyssonnel, ap. Dureau de la Malle, i. p. 272.]
[Footnote 244: Poiret, i. p. 238.]
[Footnote 245: _Ante_, p. 188.]
[Footnote 246: Ibn Khaldoun, trad. de Slane, ii. p. 134.]
[Footnote 247: Mrs. Broughton, _Six Years in Algiers, from 1806 to
1812_, p. 429.]
PART III.
CHAPTER XXXII.
BRUCE’S ROUTE FROM TEBESSA TO THE DJERID AND BACK TO TUNIS.
In the third part of Bruce’s wanderings, from Tebessa southward
through the Belad el-Djerid, and thence to Tripoli and the Pentapolis,
I have been unable to follow personally in his footsteps. I must
content myself with giving the journey in his own words, and trust to
the observations of others to illustrate his rough and fragmentary
notes. It is almost an injury to his reputation to reproduce what
was never intended for publication, notes which, in the event of
his death during the journey, he had particularly requested should
not be published. The reader is requested never to lose sight of the
probability that all his fairly copied manuscripts were lost during
his shipwreck, and that the present narrative is compiled from the
roughest memoranda, letters to his friends, and the autobiographical
sketch which he has left, written years afterwards in the retirement
of Kinnaird, when the particulars of this journey had been to some
extent effaced from his recollection by many years of more stirring
events in Abyssinia.
In the first part of this work, page 103, his arrival for the second
time at Tebessa was recorded on December 16, 1765; he continues:—
The 17th continued our course towards Ferreanah over the mountains
Tenoucla, on the skirts of which, in the neighbourhood of Jebbel
Usmir, found large strata of petrified oyster-shells. Passed
Tenoucla and lay (18th) on a plain without inhabitants or water,
called Lerneb.[248] From Lerneb arrived the 19th, in the evening, at
Melew, where the Bey of Constantine was encamped with about 3,000 men.
The 20th, in the morning, set out for Ferreanah, from whence we were
distant about 10 miles. Ferreanah is the ancient Thala[249] taken and
destroyed by Metellus in his pursuit of Jugurtha. I had formed, I know
not from what reason, sanguine expectations of elegant remains here,
but in this I was disappointed. I found nothing but baths of very
warm water, without the town; in these there was a number of fish,
above four inches in length, not unlike gudgeons. Upon trying the heat
by the thermometer I remember to have been much surprised that they
could have existed, or even not been boiled by continuing long in
the heat of this medium. As I marked the degree with a pencil while
I was myself naked in the water, the leaf was wetted accidentally,
so I missed the precise degree I meant to have recorded, and I do
not pretend to supply it from memory. The bath is at the head of the
fountain and the stream runs off to a considerable distance. I think
there were five or six dozen of these fish in the pool. I was told
likewise that they went down into the stream to a certain distance
in the day and returned to the pool, as warmest and deepest water,
at night.
The ruins of the ancient town begin at the mouth of a valley, or
opening of the mountains to the south of that valley, on the west
side of the bed of what appears to have been a river, but which is
now only sand. This part is called Gobul. On the river side is a
well or reservoir paved with cut stone, on which are the marks of the
cord of the bucket, which are so strong as to seem to indicate that
the water was brought from a great depth. The mouth is on a level
with the bed of the river. There are here the traces of a very large
fabric, which by the remaining ornaments, now much consumed, appears
to have been a very elegant Corinthian. There was no possibility
of making out the place, though there seemed to have been three
temples, situated nearly like those of Spaitla. These ruins extend,
with considerable interruption, south-east, till within a mile of
the sanctuary of Sidi Mohamed Teleely, the building of whose Cubba
has probably taken up many of the most elegant materials.
About two miles south-east of this marabout, there are four columns
on foot which seem to be in their places, about two feet buried in
the earth, forming the four angles of a square, 17 feet distant,
in very bad taste. These are all the remains at this time, no traces
remaining of Dr. Shaw’s.
The situation, in a plain everyway surrounded with mountains, agrees
with the ancient Thala; so does its extent; but Metellus might have
met with water nearer than 50 miles, as there were two large lakes
at Malen, in a very convenient situation, where the Bey encamped
. . .[250] from the history other objections in Jugurtha’s flight
to the desert before he came to Thala.
The 21st, left Ferreanah, continued along the river to the mountain
Sidi Eisa[251] within sight of his sanctuary, no water or inhabitants.
Next morning descended into a plain, passed Sidi Ali Ben Oune
and still further the Maretba (?), the route of the Tunis camp,
about seven miles east; continued along the plain, where copied the
following inscription on a monument of bad taste.[252]
VRBANILLA MIHI CONIVNX VERECVNDIA PLENA HIC SITA EST
ROMAE COMES NEGOTIORVM SOCIA PARS PARSIMONIO FVLTA
BENE GESTIS OMNIBUS CVM IN PATRIAM MECVM REDIRET
AV MISERAM CARTHAGO MIHI ERIPVIT SOCIAM
NVLLA SPES VIVENDI MIHI SINE CONIVGE TALI
ILLA DOMVM SERVARE MEAM ILLA ET CONSILIO IVVARE
LVCE PRIVATA MISERA QVESCIT IN MARMORE CLVSA
LVCIVS EGO CONIVNX HIC TE MARMORE TEXI
ANC NOBIS SORTE DEDIT FATVM CVM LUCIDAREMVR
The 23rd, came to Gaffsa, the Capsa of Jugurtha, situated immediately
in the narrow plain between the point of two mountains, a valley
to the south . . . . . the mountains east and west, advantageous
positions for a prince whose strength is horse.[253] The key of the
Jereed, the hilly place where Marius halted, to the south the Jugis
Aqua, a plentiful spring in two basins from one to four feet deep
and thirty feet square, in the middle of the town,[254] another
in the citadel,[255] the water, which is more than lukewarm, runs
in a pretty considerable stream, and is drunk up in watering the
plantations of date trees and gardens among them, on the west side
of which Gaffsa is situated.
Gaffsa is built of clay, but is considerable and much better than
Ferreanah. No antiquities.
The 24th to the 28th, stayed here correcting and perfecting my
designs; the 29th, set out for Tozer.
On the left, or east, Jibbel Orbatt;[256] on the right Jibbel ben
Younus to the Dowary, another mountain, and so on to the frontier
of Algiers. Passed Garbata[257] about four miles; lay that night at
a Dowar of Zowawas, Welled Seedy Abid.
The place where Marius encamped before the taking of Capsa was to
the east, at the foot of the mountain, and answers the description
_locum tumulosum_, as it agrees in distance. These hillocks are
continued to the brink of the river, after passing the dry bed of
which there is a plain of about 500 yards broad, and over this,
on a small eminence to the west, is situated Gaffsa.
On the night of the 29th, and all the next day, we were followed
by five of the Nememchah, who had not the courage to attack us,
but on our arrival at El-Hamma, about 22 miles, they fell suddenly
upon some people herding sheep and drove them off in triumph.
We lay here on the 30th; it is a small, mud-walled date village;
five miles further is Tozer. It is the largest of the date towns,
the residence of a Cayd, the chief of all the Jereed. It is the
ancient _Tisurus_, but nothing now remains of the old town but three
broken columns of cippolino, whose capitals were Corinthian, but
are now consumed entirely. It is the greatest mart in Barbary for
woollen goods, such as haicks, burnooses, baracanes, &c. Its next
commodity is dates, with which it furnishes the Bedouins throughout
the kingdom. 20,000 camels are annually loaded here with this
fruit. Here the caravan arrives from Timbuctoo in . . .[258] days
bringing gold of Tibar and negroes. Here also did formerly arrive
the caravans of the Gaddemsees, but being plundered and waylaid by
the Nememchah, they now direct their course to Nefzowah.
From Tozer to Wurglah is about ten days with camels; thence to
Tripoli ten days.
The second of January (1766), arrived at El-Hamma or Tegeuse,[259]
another set of villages about six miles east of Tozer.
Tozer is better situated than any of the date towns, by a number
of springs which break out above a mile west of the town, and
immediately form several considerable streams, which are divided by
the hour amongst the inhabitants as of old; between the palm trees
are gardens of figs, vines, and herbs. In some places, and chiefly
at Tigeuse, the ground between the trees is laid out in small beds,
about five feet long and two broad, sown with wheat, which is here
very scarce and only brought when the camp comes in November, when
the Dreedy and other clans attend, and bring this in exchange for
dates and manufactures.
The third of January passed the Lowdeah or Palus Tritonides, about
three miles below Tegeuse, the large lake of water called the Lake of
Marks, because in the passage of it there is now a row of large trunks
of palm trees set up to guide travellers in the road which crosses it.
Dr. Shaw has settled very distinctly the geography of this place
and those about it. It is the Palus Tritonidis,[260] as he justly
observes.
This was the most barren and unpleasant of my journeys in Africa,
barren not only from the nature of the soil, but from its having no
remains of antiquity in the whole course of it.
From entering the water to the small island half-way to Fatnassa,
the route is entirely through water, equal in saltness to the sea,
the depth is never above seven inches after passing this. It is
chiefly dry for the other ten miles of the distance to Fatnassa,
but never more than one inch where the water is deepest; it has a
fine gravelly bottom. I measured four hundred feet on each side of
the signals; the breadth nowhere seven miles.
It is nearly east and west; in the west end inclining more
southerly. The mountains of Lowdeah form the north boundary, but it
is plain on all sides on the south and south-west, and extends with
some very considerable interruptions far into the Sahara. Anciently
it was of consequence, much larger, and gave just reason for the
account of a number or succession of lakes, which Dr. Shaw thinks
impossible, from intervention of mountains, erroneously (_sic_).
M. Charles Tissot, in a notice about to be published in the
‘Bulletin de la Société de Géographie,’ and quoted by M. Roudaire in
his report,[261] thus describes the Chott el-Djerid: ‘The vast and
profound depression of the Chott el-Djerid is now to a great extent
filled up with recent deposits of sand. The central portion of the
basin appears, however, to contain a considerable mass of water
covered with a saline crust, which has caused the Arab geographers to
compare it, now to a carpet of camphor or crystal, and again to a
sheet of silver, or a mass of metal in fusion. The thickness of this
crust is very variable, and it is only at certain places that it is
sufficiently solid to admit of travellers trusting themselves to it.
The moment that they quit those passages the crust gives way, and the
abyss swallows up its prey. Even these passages are very dangerous in
the rainy season, when the water covers the saline crust and decreases
its thickness.’
M. Tissot did not observe the trunks of palm trees set up to mark the
path, so often alluded to by Bruce and other old writers; his guide
informed him that they had been carried away by the heavy rains,
and had never been replaced. A few stones had, however, been placed
on the surface at intervals of five or six hundred yards, which,
though actually small, were magnified by the mirage, and could be
seen at a considerable distance.
About the middle is a circular platform, two or three feet above the
level of the Sebkha, to which the names El-Mensof (_the Middle_),
Bir en-Noosf (_Well of the Middle_), or Hadjarat en-Noosf (_the
Middle Stone_), are given; it is also called Djebel el-Melah (_the
Mountain of Salt_). Here the caravans usually pass the night, if
they are not sure of reaching the opposite shore before dark.
There are 102 villages of dates here in Nefzowa,[262] but much
inferior to those of Tozer. The fruit is chiefly sent to Europe. The
eastern of these are called the Ghaara, inhabited by the Noile and
many others. The panther, or faadh, and the fennick are natives of
this district.
To the southward, Fatnassa is a small, mud-walled town. Telemeen
is the largest of this district; it has a small fort with a cayd,
and the town a sheikh. The fort is in a wood of date trees; it is
of stone, very small, with fifty Moorish foot, or Zowawa, for a
garrison. Few medals.
Arrived here the 4th; staid the 5th; the 6th, set out for Ebilla,[263]
arrived there at noon, being but 6 miles.
The 7th, went hunting to Ghaara, five miles southwards; killed three
wild boars with the lance.
The 8th, hunted likewise; killed one. At night, the house attacked
by banditti, and we were near assassinated; my horse wounded.
The 10th, we passed the camp of the Henneishah at the foot of the
mountains, to the north near the Thibkah,[264] and about 7 miles to
the eastward that of the Welled Yagoube, who that day were in motion,
and encamped at Nisse y-deep.[265] The next morning they fell upon
and robbed the caravan going from Biscara to Mecca.
The night of the 10th arrived at El Hamma of Gabbs, the Aquæ
Tacapitanæ of antiquity, consisting of three small mud-walled
villages, Sambat, Menzil, and . . .[266] The first we stopped at,
and were miserably lodged. It belongs to the Beni Zeed, a set of
banditti of the neighbouring mountains, whose douars we passed at
the foot of a mountain called Sidi Ben Owne, to the southwards.
There are about fifty hot springs at El-Hamma, all sufficient to form
a considerable rivulet, were they not drunk up. They are of different
degrees of heat, from bloodwarm to boiling hot, as intense as those at
the baths near Baiæ. There are, in many of the miserable hovels built
over the bagnios, remains of their ancient magnificence, such as bases
of columns and pilasters, and large blocks of white Grecian marble.
One of these springs arises in the castle, a weak ruinous building,
with a garrison of 50 Zowawa or Moorish foot. The Palus Tritonidis
arrives at El-Hamma, the brook of which falls into it to the
north-east [at a distance of] two miles.
The moisture which it furnishes most agreeably and suddenly changes
the desert scene, and covers the adjacent fields with all kinds of
flowers and verdure.
The 11th, changed to the neighbouring town, Menzil, where we were
better lodged.
The 12th, set out from El-Hamma, arrived in three hours and three
quarters at Gabbs; it is about 12 miles, though Dr. Shaw and the
Itinerary made it XVII, through a large plain full of the seedra or
lotus, a shrub not unlike blackthorn.[267]
Gabbs consists of three villages, as is the custom of the Jereed,
in groves of palms, Menzil, Jaara, and Shineny,[268] the two former
constantly at war with each other.
The river of Gabbs, which runs along the north side of the south
division of Jaara, separates it from a grove of palm trees where
is a house of the Bey, and behind it the town. Menzil is a short
mile to the south-west; in the same direction is the old Gabbs,
the Tacape of the ancients, formerly a very considerable place on
the Lesser Syrtis. Its ruins at present consist of three broken
frusts of granite columns of an oval form, and one square one,
which last is still standing, and seems to have had a statue upon
it. The buildings here seem to be so small in circumference that
I rather imagine this was some considerable temple than the city
itself, which I imagine did extend a mile further to the east,
to that chain of eminences which run north and south, upon which,
and between which, there are traces of ancient buildings. Between
these and the river was probably the port, now choked up by the east
and north-east winds, the violent ones on these coasts.
Digging for building materials four years ago, the inhabitants of
Menzil found a statue as big as life, which, contrary to their usual
practice, they did not break immediately to pieces; but after it
had been an object of contention between them and Jaara, the latter
obtained it and buried it under ground.
Here it continued till some months before I came to Tunis, when,
hearing of it, I did ask it of the Bey, who readily granted it,
and by a special order desired it might be delivered into my hands;
but upon my arrival I found it had been broken to pieces, to repair
a miserable bridge, and only some of the pieces could be gathered,
which were brought on producing the king’s order.
It was of white Greek marble, in a very elegant taste, the hair
before, gathered under a round crown-like ornament, which we see
on the medals of Faustina, from which a veil fell down behind. The
hair on the sides fell down in small curls on the shoulders. It was
in a sitting posture, the two feet appearing from under the robe,
one upon the other, in the attitude like the Agrippina the elder in
the Farnese Gallery; but the pleats in the clothing were larger than
those of the Agrippina.
The whole was in excellent taste. There was also brought me a piece
of a basso relievo, probably belonging to the temple, likewise a
half figure, that of a Neptune or Triton stretching his hand over
a stormy sea, with a dolphin before him; all diligence was used,
but it was impossible to find the other part.
The river is undoubtedly the Triton; it has no connection with the
Palus Tritonidis; it rises in a plain called Chausæ, directly west,
and near the palms it is divided; part continues its course by Jaara
to the sea, part is conducted through the palms, after which it is
again united, and continues its course to the sea, a small distance
from the palms.
The 13th being calm, I observed the flux and reflux of the tide;
the wind was from the S.W.; the tide rose on the bar at the mouth
of the river 37½ inches perpendicular height. 14th, stormy, wind
N.E. 15th, wind continued till 8 o’clock more easterly; fell calm
at midday. The evening we could not measure, having a swell.
The full sea the next evening rose 41 inches perpendicular height
upon the bar; no sea; the wind changed to N.W.; no swell.
Unfortunately, Captain Mouchez was unable to make any observations
regarding the tide here during his recent survey, but he remarks
that it rises as high as on any place on the Atlantic coast.
The plantations of Gabbs are laid out in the most advantageous as
well as the most pleasant manner; between the palms the grape is
made to run along cords of hair in festoons. Below, the plats are
laid out in squares, in which is planted the Al-Henna,[269] the chief
commodity of this place, a shrub like the myrtle, which the women use
when dried to paint themselves with. It is packed in large oblong
baskets of a caphise weight, and sells, according to its goodness,
from seven to eight and a half piastres of Tunis (four and a half
piastres being seven shillings English)[270] per hundredweight. This
is cut every year and kept low; the ground around is bordered with
roses. Between Menzil and Jaara is a castle, and under it encamps the
Cayd of Amadis.(?) He has with him 100 spahis of Tunis and Zowawa; he
collects the tribute from all the tribes of the south-east district
of this kingdom, resembles a Bey, and has the greatest command in
Tunis given to a subject. It extends to the frontiers of Tripoli.
Ottoman ben Mengsah was Cayd at this time; he was one of
the descendants of a Portuguese renegade, now called Welled
Hassan. Although considered as Turks, they were always abroad among
the Moors. In the time of Ali Bashaw, whose relations they were,
although in the wars of Younus he strangled eleven of their number
in one night, as well as in the present reign, they were always
employed in great commands among the Moors.
It is in this region, just below the thirty-fourth parallel of
latitude, that M. Roudaire proposes to pierce the Isthmus of Gabes,
which now separates the sea from the region of the Chotts, the ancient
Bay of Triton. Thus he hopes to create an inland sea, and introduce
fertility, commerce and life into the very heart of the Sahara.
The Governor-General of Algeria sent a mission in 1874 to examine
the region south of Biskra; it was commanded by Captain Roudaire, and
consisted of several eminent African geographers, amongst whom were
Captain Parisot, and M. Henri Duveyrier. M. Roudaire announces that
the basin capable of submersion in Algeria occupies an area of 150
kilometres long by 40 broad, or upwards of 6,000 square kilometres,
comprised between latitude 34° 36′ and 33° 51′ N., and longitude
(of Paris) 3° 40′ and 4° 51′ E. In the middle, the depression
below the level of the sea is from 21 to 31 metres. On the north
the slope is very gentle, so that there would only be two metres
of water at six kilometres from the shore. None of the great oases,
but at least three of the smaller ones, would be submerged.
Captain Roudaire was sent in the following year to continue his
investigations in the Regency of Tunis, and he reports that two
other basins there are capable of submersion; namely, that of the
Chott el-Gharsa, the superficies of which is 1,350 square kilometres,
and that of the Chott el-Djerid, which has a surface of 5,000 square
kilometres.
Whether the scheme prove practicable or not, Captain Roudaire has
certainly collected a considerable body of evidence[271] to prove that
the basin of the Chotts was in communication with the Mediterranean
as late as the beginning of the Christian era, and then formed the
great bay of Triton; and he believes that the result of his surveys
and levels entirely confirm this hypothesis. He quotes all the ancient
authors who have alluded to the locality; amongst others, Herodotus,
who mentions ‘the river Triton, which flows into the great lake
or gulf of Triton, in which is the island of Phla.’ Scylax, who
wrote his Periplus of the Mediterranean in the second century before
Christ, also alludes to both river and lake. ‘The entrance to the
latter,’ he says, ‘is narrow, and an islet is visible therein at
low tide, and vessels are often unable to enter.’ Pomponius Mela,
two centuries after Scylax, and Ptolemy, in the second century of
the Christian era, also mention the same natural features.
The Arabs have a tradition that Nefta was at one time a seaport,
and it is said that no later than the end of last century a vessel
of unknown form, probably an ancient galley, was dug up in the
sand there.
Unfortunately, the most eminent authorities do not agree as to the
possibility of the project. Captain Mouchez, of the French Navy,
a very distinguished hydrographer, and a Member of the Institute,
surveyed the coast from Algeria to Tripoli in 1876. He states that
the coast of the Gulf of Gabes is formed by a natural bulwark 85
mètres high at the sea, and rising to a height of 700 or 800 mètres
further inland. If these measurements are correct, and no breach of
continuity exists in this chain of hills, it is difficult to see how
there could ever have been a communication between the sea and Lake
Tritonis, or how a canal can now be cut so as to unite them.
Three miles S.E. of Gabbs is a small village called Tobulbu, with
a plantation of dates; four miles further in the same direction
another called Zereega. About . . .[272] miles hence, still eastward,
inclining to the south, is Cattan,[273] another; and further is the
river el-Fert,[274] which comes from below the river Matamata. At
the head it is fresh, but receiving some salt springs in its course,
it turns brackish where it falls into the sea.
Zaratt is 18 miles from Gabbs; and from Gerba, which lies S.E.,
as Matamata does . . .[275] and Dimmer . . .[275] S.W. by S., and
El-Faggera, behind which is Jibbel Abeide, due south; over this lies
the way to Gaddems, according to some, eight days’ journey for
a camel lightly laden; that is, from Gabbs to Matamata, 22 miles,
or one day; thence to Jibbel Abeide, two days, or 40 miles; from
thence five days, but it is said by others to be much longer.
The inhabitants of Matamata live underground in the earth; their
houses go down with a stair about . . .[276] feet; from thence there
is a passage, on each side of which are the chambers. The inhabitants
of Jibbel Abeide are the Dowarets, a clan of about 1,000 fighting
men. Their houses are not sunk in the earth, as the Matamata, but
perforated in the rock itself, like the Trogloditæ of old.
Mela says that they lived in caves, and fed upon serpents; if
he had said fed together with serpents, his observation had been
just. They have such an esteem for snakes as to suffer them to feed
promiscuously with them, and to live continually in their houses,
where they perform the office of cats. These animals are perfectly
inoffensive to their protectors, and suffer themselves to be lifted up
and carried in their hands from place to place. Some are six or seven
feet long; they suffer no one to hurt them or transport them to any
other place. No persuasion or reward could induce them to let me carry
away one of them, it being universally believed that they are a kind
of good angels, whom it would be the highest impropriety, and of the
worst consequence to the community, to remove from their dwellings.
· · · · · · ·
The Jibbeleah runs in a direction parallel to the coast, which it
approaches as we advance eastward to Zarratt. Matamata is S.E. of
Gabbs. South of that is Toujan; S.E. is a sharp-pointed mountain
called Dimmer; again, continuing the line of Matamata eastwards,
is Feggera, due south from Gerba.
I was now arrived upon the Lesser Syrtis, and continued along the
sea-coast northward to Inshilla without having made any additions
to my observations.
I turned again to the north-west, and came to Tisdrus, as it was
anciently called, now El-Gemme.[277]
This was the last ancient building I visited in the Kingdom of Tunis,
and I believe I may confidently say there is not, either in the
territories of Algiers or Tunis, a fragment of good taste of which
I have not brought a drawing to Britain.
I continued along the coast to Susa, through a fine country planted
with olive trees, and came again to Tunis, not only without any
disagreeable accident, but without any interruption from sickness
or other cause.
During my journey through Tunis, I made frequent inquiries regarding
the custom of keeping tame serpents, and the reply was invariably
the same: ‘No one here keeps them, but the tribes further south are
said to do so.’ I mentioned the subject to M. Vignard, of Algiers,
who has travelled extensively in Africa, and he assured me that on
one occasion when he entered a native hut in the island of Goree,
near Cape Verd, he saw the mistress of the house sitting on a mat
with a tame snake coiled beside her, and he was informed that it was
a very common custom to keep such animals, in order to kill rats and
mice. They even asserted that the young shepherds took them to the
fields with them, and that the tame serpents watched over them while
they slept under the shade of a tree, lest their masters should be
bitten by poisonous snakes.
M. Repin[278] gives a curious account of the manner in which large
quantities of these reptiles are kept in houses built expressly for
the purpose, in the kingdom of Dahomey, and guarded with the utmost
care and veneration, exactly as Bruce describes them to be by the
inhabitants of Djebel Abeide; enough, however, has been stated to
prove that this story is not one of the traveller’s tales which
Bruce was for so long a time accused of fabricating.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 248: Bahiret el-Arneb, or plain of the hare.]
[Footnote 249: Bruce is at fault here. Feriana is probably the ancient
Thelepte of the Itinerary of Antoninus; Thala has been identified
with a village of the same name ten miles north-east of Haidra.]
[Footnote 250: Two words illegible in MS.]
[Footnote 251: Sidi Aïch.]
[Footnote 252: This monument is known by the name of _Soumat
el-Hamra_, the red minaret. The inscription as here given is corrected
by the subsequent rendering of Guérin. See his work, i. p. 288.]
[Footnote 253: Obscure in original.]
[Footnote 254: Known as _Thermyle el-Bey_, two large open basins
communicating by a vault, used as bathing-places, one by men and
the other by women.]
[Footnote 255: Used as a bathing-place by the Jews. Both contain
numerous snakes of the genus _Tropidonotus_, and fish, probably
_Chromidæ_.]
[Footnote 256: Djebel Arbet. 3,612 feet high.]
[Footnote 257: Oued Gourbaia.]
[Footnote 258: Left blank in MS.]
[Footnote 259: More correctly _Degeuche_, the ancient Thiges.]
[Footnote 260: Shaw’s Travels, p. 212.]
[Footnote 261: See note, p. 272.]
[Footnote 262: The Sheikh Et-Tidjani gives the following as the
etymology of the word Nefzaoua: ‘It derives its name from that of a
tribe established here since the earliest times, Nefzaoua ben Akhbar,
ben Berber, ben Keis, ben Elias, ben Modhar, ben Nezar.
‘Goliath, whom David slew, was of the tribe of Nefzaoua. It
is from the Nefzaoua that all the Zenata derive their origin;
they were originally Arabs, but subsequently became Berberised
by their proximity to the Berbers and by intermixture with
them.’—_Ann. Arch. Const._ xii. p. 150.]
[Footnote 263: Guebilli, or Kebilli.]
[Footnote 264: _Djebel Tebaga_ of the French maps.]
[Footnote 265: Perhaps the Bahiret Cedret ed-dib of the same.]
[Footnote 266: Left blank in MS., perhaps _Dabdaba_.]
[Footnote 267: _Zizyphus lotus_; the jujube tree.]
[Footnote 268: Perhaps _Bou Shemma_ is here meant.]
[Footnote 269: _Lawsonia inermis_.]
[Footnote 270: The present value of the Tunis piastre is sixpence.]
[Footnote 271: ‘Rapport à M. le Ministre de l’Instruction
Publique sur la Mission des Chotts, étude relative au projet de
mer intérieure, par le Capitaine Roudaire.’ Paris, 1877.]
[Footnote 272: Blank in MS.]
[Footnote 273: Ketena.]
[Footnote 274: Oued el-Ferd.]
[Footnote 275: These spaces are blank in the original. There is a
confusion here. Djerba lies N.E. of Zarat; Matamata S.W. of the same;
Djebel Zemerten S.S.W.]
[Footnote 276: Blank in MS.]
[Footnote 277: See _ante_, p. 159.]
[Footnote 278: ‘Voyage au Dahomey,’ par le Dr. Repin, _Tour du
Monde_, 1863; 1ère Semestre, p. 71.]
CHAPTER XXXIII.
BRUCE’S ROUTE TO DJERBA, TRIPOLI, AND BACK TO TUNIS.
After some weeks’ excursion of no moment about Tunis, I again
set out the eastern circuit by Gemme, or Tisdrus, towards Gabbs or
Tacapæ, and continued along that coast till opposite the island
of Gerba.
It is situated about half a mile from the land; it is the Meninx
Insula, or island of the Lotophagi, and is a sandy island with
several small villages, producing a few dates which are not good;
labouring under a great scarcity of water; even that which it has is
but indifferent. It has a small castle, not capable of any defence,
subject to the Bey of Tunis.
Dr. Shaw says the fruit he calls the lotus is very common all along
that coast. I wish he had said what was this lotus; to say it is the
fruit most common along that coast is no description, for there is
no sort of fruit whatever, no bush, no tree, nor verdure of any kind
excepting the short grass that borders these countries before you
enter the moving sands of the desert. Dr. Shaw never was at Gerba,
and had taken this particular from some unfaithful storyteller.[279]
In this island there is a very considerable manufacture of woollen
shawls; the generality of these are coarse and cheap, for common use,
but there are others where the best wool is employed, and these are
of great price and fineness.
They are all sent to Alexandria to be dyed, then returned, and are
the head-dress of the soldiery of the State of Tunis, and indeed
of most other people, unless those who profess law or religion,
who wear them white, and not dyed.
This wool, though employed here in Gerba exclusively, is not the
produce of the island itself. In the mainland, immediately south of
the island, the very numerous clans of noble Arabs, the Wargummah and
Noile inhabit, and pay only a nominal obedience to the Bey, passing
the frontiers as their occasions require. They have factors in the
island entirely at their devotion, and to them they send the wool,
which is dressed, woven, dyed and accounted for to the proprietors
through the hands of these factors.
Here we found that the Bey of Tunis had prepared a house for us,
and sent from his own palace every sort of refreshment that he
could devise, with orders to receive us with every possible honour,
and furnish us with what we required at his expense. Here I stayed
a month with an intention to proceed to Tripoli through the desert,
_making fair copies of my minutes_[280] and designs, and having sent
back to Tunis two of my spahis who had been wounded, and one that
was afraid to go further.
I sent a letter to Mr. Fraser, the consul at Tripoli, desiring an
escort, as I was now reduced to nine men in all, seven of whom,
though indeed resolute people and well armed, were encumbered with
the mules and camels which carried our tents and provisions; the
other two were an English servant, and a renegado, my dragoman, who,
with myself, were the only three mounted on horses and at liberty.
No return came from Tripoli, for the Bey being on ill terms with the
Consul, though he promised, he would not send any escort. I and my
servants did indeed most rashly attempt to pass the desert inhabited
only by ruffians and assassins, the Noile, the Wargummah and many
other tribes, at continual war, who pay no sort of acknowledgment
to any sovereign, and where the caravan from Morocco to Mecca, which
we found near Tripoli, had been defeated and plundered, though they
amounted to about 3,000 men.
This enterprise is one of so great a danger that when Younus Bey,
prince of Tunis, fled for his life, when the Algerines had murdered
his grandfather Ali Bey, and taken his father prisoner, he declared
that that passage was the greatest enterprise of his life; yet he
was a prince allowed among the first for bravery even to rashness,
nor did we escape, for the night of the third day we were attacked
by a number of horsemen, and four of our men were killed on the
spot. Providence, the prodigious resolution of our little company,
and the night, saved the remainder, and we arrived at Tripoli when
given over by everybody for lost.
About four days from Tripoli I met the Emir Hadjee, conducting the
caravan of pilgrims from Fez and Sus in Morocco, all across Africa
to Mecca. He is a middle-aged man, uncle to the present Emperor, of
a very uncomely, stupid kind of countenance. His caravan consisted
of about 3,000 men, and, as his people said, from 12,000 to 14,000
camels, part loaded with merchandise, part with skins of water,
flour and other kinds of food for the maintenance of the Hadjees.
They were a scurvy, disorderly, unarmed pack, and when my horsemen,
though but fifteen in number, came up with them in the grey of the
morning, they showed great signs of trepidation and were already
flying in confusion. When informed who we were, their fears ceased,
and after the usual manner of cowards they became extremely insolent.
The inhabitants of that district have in no wise improved during the
past century, the very latest account of them we have is given by
Captain Mouchez. In a paper which he read before the _Académie des
Sciences_, at Paris, on January 8, 1877, he says that the littoral
is extremely dangerous, shelter and ports of refuge do not exist,
and when he landed, even for a few hours, to take observations, he
found himself surrounded by natives, who exercise the profession of
robbery and brigandage on a large scale.
The coast is composed of sandy downs, which stretch inland as far
as the eye can range, an absolute desert, without trees or traces of
habitation. The beach is strewn with vestiges of wrecks, which have,
no doubt, been pillaged and the crews murdered by the nomades who
frequent the country, and who recognise neither the Government of
Tunis nor the Bey of Tripoli.
‘One day,’ says M. Mouchez, ‘I landed unarmed, with a secretary
and an assistant, and had already fixed my instrument, when a large
number of Bedouins, on horseback and on foot, appearing from behind
the downs, literally fell upon and surrounded us.
‘They first pointed their guns at us to prevent our flight,
then approaching, lay hold of me, searched me, and tried to drag me
away. This I strongly resisted, and at last made them understand that
this violation of the law of nations would be instantly punished,
and that my steamer would carry a complaint to the Governor of
Tripoli. This had its effect, and they allowed us to go. In the
evening we proceeded to Tripoli to claim satisfaction. This was
readily granted by the Governor, who was lately a professor at
the School of Constantinople; he placed at our disposal a guard of
Turkish soldiers, who protected us during our survey of the coast.
‘I never saw anything so extraordinary as the arms of the natives
who surrounded us,’ continues M. Mouchez. ‘Some of them had
swords apparently of the sixteenth century, beautiful Damascene
blades; one took aim at me with a flint gun of great antiquity. I
was desirous of purchasing one of these arms, but they did not
understand me, and there was no time to be lost in useless talk,
for their attitude was by no means reassuring. The Mussulmans of the
coast bear no goodwill to the French nation, and do not forgive us
the conquest of Algeria.’
At Tripoli we found the Hon. Mr. Frazer, of Lovat, the King’s
Consul; he complained heavily to the Bashaw, who excused himself
poorly.
I am persuaded he would have laid the blame upon Mr. Frazer, if any
accident had befallen us.
I cannot allude to this gentleman without mentioning that he is,
as I hear, recalled upon a complaint of the Bashaw of Tripoli,
who, after many other irregularities, at last confined him to his
house. This grand complaisancy to these Barbary gentlemen, who answer
the complaints for national grievances by personal exceptions against
the Consul, will soon have the effect of making neutral freighters
believe that our flag is insecure and without protection, and will
certainly in the end throw all this caravan into the hands of the
French, who support their Consuls and colours with the utmost spirit
both at Tunis and Tripoli.
His Royal Highness the Duke of York having given orders to Commodore
Harrison to desire, in his name, that all encouragement and assistance
might be given to me in my journeys from each of these regencies,
and that gentleman being soon expected at Tripoli, I left a letter for
him, begging him to obtain of the Bashaw of Tripoli the same liberty
I had in Algiers and Tunis, to visit the antiquities of the kingdom,
after which I returned along the coast of the Lesser Syrtis down to
Cape Bon, the Promontorium Mercurii, from thence again arrived at
Tunis, after an absence of more than six months constantly encamped.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 279: Bruce mentions in the previous chapter, p. 270, that
he passed through a plain covered with _seedra_ or _lotus_. No doubt,
the _zizyphus lotus_ is here alluded to, a shrub common in South
Africa, the fruit of which, in a wild state, is just edible. When
cultivated it is somewhat better, and is sold in Arab markets. This
was probably the _lotus_ of the Lotophagi.]
[Footnote 280: These were probably lost in the shipwreck hereafter
narrated.]
CHAPTER XXXIV.
TRIPOLI.
There appears to exist no detailed record of Bruce’s second journey
to Tripoli. He resided at Tunis till August, 1766, and again set
out for Tripoli by Sfax and Djerba.
There is nothing worth seeing without the walls of Tripoli. In the
town itself immediately above the port, stands a four-faced triumphal
arch of white marble, covered with a profusion of ornaments, both
within and without, even to a fault, if there could be fault in so
much excellence.
Yet notwithstanding its convenient situation and the commodiousness
it presents for measuring and delineations, and that there are seven
consuls of different nations residing at Tripoli, and a number of
private merchants, no information, much less any drawing of these
beautiful remains has been ever given, till that which I then made.
Tripoli from its ditch and rampart has the appearance of a place of
strength, but it is not so. The entrance of the port is naturally so
bad, and the sands from the desert falling into it have made it so
shallow, as to disqualify it from being a place either of trade or of
war. The country about it is very barren, and necessaries consequently
very dear. Bad government has checked population or caused emigration
elsewhere. The sands of the desert, no longer imprisoned by the grass
or roots that necessarily attend frequented places, are now become
loose and cover most of the ground fit for cultivation, to the very
walls of the town, upon which they are heaped up, except as I have
said, upon the side of the harbour, where upon any blast of wind,
shower after shower sinks to the bottom and remains never to return.
Here I insert an extract from a paper found amongst Bruce’s
manuscripts, but certainly not in his handwriting, headed, ‘Memo. on
Tripoli in Africa.’
The three cities of Leptis, Sabrata and Oea constituted anciently a
federal union, and the district governed by their Concilium Annum
was styled Lybia Tripolitana.[281] This council was composed of
the representatives of all orders of the people, and through its
president received the commands of the Emperor, and transmitted
to him the representations or complaints of the province. Under
the reign of Valentinian,[282] we read of the oppression under
which they groaned from the tyranny of the Count Romanus, military
governor of Africa, whose protection they had sought against the
attacks of the Austuriani, barbarians of Getulia, who had laid
waste their territory, and killed or carried into captivity many
of their principal citizens. The impunity of his misgovernment, the
venality of the Imperial notary sent to inquire into the complaints
of the Tripolitains, and the public execution of their president,
Ruricius,[283] at Sititi, because he had presumed to pity the distress
of the province, presents a frightful picture of the evils to which
the distant and tributary possessions of the Romans were exposed under
the emperors. As the overgrown rule of these princes obliged them
to depute the investigation of the wrongs complained of by their
subjects to officers exposed to every influence of corruption,
we can scarcely wonder that those wrongs, often unredressed,
occasioned frequent revolts, which were one great source of the
ruin of Africa. The crimes of Romanus drove the Africans under
Firmus the Moor into rebellion, and for a time the whole province
was lost to the empire. It was restored by the restorer of Britain,
Theodosius. The impunity of the first, and the ignominious death of
the second of these generals, who was publicly beheaded at Carthage,
on a vague suspicion that his name and services were superior to
the rank of a subject, show how dangerous to its possessor was,
under those princes, the union of ability and virtue.
Leptis and Sabrata were ruined by the frequent recurrence of such
commotions, and by the policy of Genseric, King of the Vandals,
which led him to destroy the fortifications of almost all the African
cities, thus leaving them a prey to the Moors. Procopius[284] tells
us that Justinian repeopled the first by inducing the inhabitants
of the neighbouring country to renounce their idolatry, become
Christians and settle in it, and that he rebuilt the walls, both of
it and of Sabrata.
Before the reign of Constans the Second,[285] they had again yielded
to the joint attacks of the barbarians and the moving sands of the
deserts, for we find that the wealth, the inhabitants, and the
name of the province had then gradually centred in the maritime
City of Tripolis, built on the site of Oea, the native country of
Apuleius.[286]
The Prefect Gregory, who had perhaps assumed the purple, since
Theophanes brands him with the appellation of tyrant, at this time
ruled the provinces. He was called on to check the progress of
the victorious Saracens, who under Abdallah, the most renowned and
dextrous horseman of Arabia, had crossed the desert from Egypt and
pitched their tents before the walls of Tripoli. The army of the
Caliph Othman did not exceed 40,000 men, and the fortifications
of Tripoli were strong enough to resist its first assaults. That
of Gregory amounted to 120,000 men and compelled the Saracens to
relinquish, for a time, the labours of the siege.
The utter defeat of the Christian army and the triumph of the
Mohammedan invaders has been already narrated.
Marmol, on the authority of Ibn al Ragny, an African historian, tells
us that Tripoli was completely ruined shortly after this time, and
its inhabitants either killed or carried into slavery. Long after,
he adds, the town was rebuilt by the Africans in a sandy plain,
producing palm trees but no corn, as the ever-encroaching sands of
the desert have covered plains of considerable extent to the north
of the town, which were anciently cultivated.
The ancient Tripoli, he says, stood to the north of the present,
in this cultivated tract; but the situation of the triumphal arch,
which still attests its former magnificence, would seem to disprove
this assertion. The neighbourhood of Numidia and Tunis, and its
being the last place on the coast of consequence between Barbary
and Egypt, have given it a great share of commerce, and the riches
of its merchants have adorned it with splendid mosques, colleges,
and hospitals, with squares and streets better ordered than those of
Tunis. Provisions are, nevertheless, scarce and dear, and the want of
wells obliges it to depend on large cisterns for its supply of water.
Tripoli was taken by assault in 1510 by the Count Pedro of Navarre,
who ruined it, but it was re-peopled some time after in the name
of the Emperor, who in 1528 gave it, with Malta, to the Knights of
St. John, who had just lost the Island of Rhodes.
In 1551 Canan Basha, General of Soliman, retook it, since which
time the Turks have held a garrison in it, and the town is peopled
with Moors.
Mr. Drummond Hay, Her Majesty’s Consul-General at Tripoli,
has been good enough to forward me the following note on the great
triumphal arch there, thus redeeming the slur which Bruce casts upon
his predecessors:—
‘In the north-east quarter of the town, about a hundred yards from
the Marina Gate, in the street which leads directly from it, may
be seen this ancient and remarkably fine monument. It was erected
by the Consul Scipio Œfritus in the reign of Antoninus Pius, and
afterwards dedicated to Marcus Aurelius and L. Aurelius Verus, his
successors. The form of the monument is that of a rectangle nearly
approaching a square. It is made up of four circular arches surmounted
by a dome, and is quadrifrontal, with its largest façades to the
east and west. The length of these is 41 feet, while the other two,
looking north and south, measure little less than 33 feet. Its height
from the ground to the highest corner-stone is at present 23 feet;
but to this must be added over five feet of mud and stone, which
reach to the dome. At the time of its construction, however, its
height was much greater, as the level of the ground was then lower
by many feet. Large quantities of sand, carried towards it at some
subsequent period by the winds, accumulated round it, burying it to
near the middle, in which state it has since remained. Even the half,
or little more, above the surface, is now not all visible, because
house and shop walls, and rubbish and mortar, conceal much of what
remained of the north and east sides. The whole of this structure is
composed of fine marble, closely put together in beautiful order,
but no cement has been used to fasten the stones together; yet so
solid are they that, so far as the ravages of time are concerned,
the pile may be pronounced quite uninjured. It is a matter of wonder
to the beholder how such enormous stones came to be conveyed from the
quarry, and raised to their proper places, in an age when means of
conveyance were but limited. Travellers have esteemed this building
above any of the most celebrated in Italy, preferring it to the
Temple of Janus, which though of marble, has only a plain roof.
‘The upper part is unfortunately mutilated, having received
considerable damage from the ignorant curiosity of the Moors. On the
outside are enormous groups of whole-length figures of men and women,
forming allegorical scenes or representing facts in history, and over
each of the four niches on the east and west sides is seen the large
prominent bust of a man. Smaller figures and other bas-reliefs are
dispersed over the rest of the building. The natives, on account
of their religious aversion to images, have knocked off the heads
of the four busts, and otherwise damaged them, as well as the other
figures which have now become indistinct. Those on the north side are
the only ones which have escaped with but little injury, probably
because they were concealed by house walls. The ceiling, however,
is the part which has suffered least; it is ornamented with beautiful
sculpture. Some also of the ornamentation yet visible on the outside
is of the finest description, especially about one of the corners
where vine branches, with bunches of grapes, are seen woven together.
‘Of several inscriptions only one, partly hidden by a house,
is legible, and, unlike the rest, remains in a perfect state of
preservation; it runs thus—
IMP. CAES. AVRELIO. ANTONIN. AVG. P. P. ET. IMP. CAES. L. AVRELIO.
VERO. ARMENICO. AVG. SER. S. OEFRITVS. PROCOS. CVM. VTTEDIO. MARCELLO.
LEG. SVO. DEDICAVIT. C. CALPVRNIVS. CELSIVS. CVRATOR. MVNERIS. PVB.
MVNERARIVS. IIVIR. Q.Q. FLAMEN. PERPETVVS. ARCVM. MARMORE. SOLIDO.
FECIT.
‘For a long succession of years the arch, having had its
openings built up, has served the purpose of a warehouse. Many years
ago it fell into the hands of its present owner, an old Maltese wine
merchant, of the name of Giovanni Cassar, who, after converting
it into the principal wine-shop in the town, again made use of it
as a warehouse, and it is now, at the present day, filled with his
casks and boxes. Part of the above description is taken from “The
History of the Barbary States” by the Rev. Michel Russell, in which
book, as well as in Tully’s “Court of Tripoli,” Blacquiere’s
“Letters from the Mediterranean,” and Captain Lyon’s “Travels
in Africa,” will be found references to the triumphal arch. In
both Tully and Lyon are illustrations of the building.’
[Illustration: _Plate XXVII._
J. LEITCH &. Co. Sc.
QUADRIFRONTAL ARCH AT OEA (TRIPOLI)
FAC-SIMILE OF UNFINISHED INDIAN INK DRAWING BY BRUCE.
HENRY S. KING Co. LONDON.]
Bruce has left us a most exquisite and elaborate series of drawings
of the arch with all its details, of which I have selected two for
illustration (Plates XXVII. and XXVIII.) From these it will be seen
that it is an _arcus quadrifrons_, of which style of monument the
only two other specimens existing are that of Janus Quadrifrons
at Rome and the arch of Caracalla at Tebessa (Plate IX.) It has a
carriage-way in both directions, one crossing the other; and when
in its original condition, clear of all obstructions, it must have
had a most imposing appearance.
Each archway has subordinate Corinthian pilasters at the angles
surmounted by a regular entablature; the face of the pilaster is
sunk in a panel and enriched with a running ornament. The arch has
a regular archivolt, without keystone, and the spandrils are filled
with winged figures of Victory. The general order of the front is
Corinthian, and the entablature runs unbroken all around. There
are two slightly projecting pilasters on each side of the central
opening, raised on pedestals, which have enriched panels, with a vase,
tripod, or other emblematic object. The outer pilaster has a panel
from base to capital, enriched with running foliage. The pilaster
next the arch is fluted.
The entablature consists of the usual features and divisions, and
is unbroken round the monument. The frieze is carved in its whole
length from the outer to the inner pilasters, but the long interval
between and over the arch itself is left plain for the inscription.
Between each pair of pilasters is a fine square-headed niche,
two-thirds of the height of the pilaster, surmounted on the east and
west sides by a circular panel containing, in alto-relievo, busts,
probably, of the Emperors to whom the arch is dedicated. Above these
is the frieze as far as the capitals, with two winged boys carrying
a garland (Plate XXVIII.)
The soffit of the archivolt has a panel filled in with carving,
and there are richly sculptured _caissons_ in the general depth of
the arch.
The return faces or sides differ from the principal fronts in having
only pilasters close to the angles, without square niches. The face
of the work between the angle pilaster and the small pilaster of the
archway is filled in with sculptures of figures, trophies, victors in
quadrigæ, and other appropriate ornaments. The rough structure only
of the attic remains, no regular coursed masonry being perceptible.
[Illustration: _Plate XXVIII._
J. LEITCH &. Co. Sc.
QUADRIFRONTAL ARCH AT OEA (TRIPOLI)
FAC-SIMILE OF PLATE OF ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS
EXECUTED BY BRUCE AFTER HIS RETURN TO SCOTLAND.
HENRY S. KING Co. LONDON.]
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 281: Valesius in Ammian.: adnot. i., xxviii.]
[Footnote 282: A.D. 366.]
[Footnote 283: Ammian. Marcell., xxviii.]
[Footnote 284: L. vi., C. iv., _De Edific._]
[Footnote 285: A.D. 647-8.]
[Footnote 286: Apuleius, probably the most celebrated original thinker
which Africa had ever produced up to his time, fixed his residence
here after quitting his native place, Medaura, which has also the
honour of having given birth to St. Augustine. His most celebrated
work is _The Golden Ass_, an allegory in eleven books, one of which
contains the beautiful story of Cupid and Psyche.—R. L. P.]
CHAPTER XXXV.
BRUCE’S ROUTE CONTINUED — LEBIDAH — BENGAZI — TEUCHIRA —
PTOLOMETA — SHIPWRECK AT BENGAZI — DEPARTURE FOR CANEA.
After some stay at Tripoli, I visited Lebidah, the ancient town of
Leptis Magna, three days’ journey from Tripoli, where there are
a great extent of ruins, but all in bad taste; chiefly done in the
time of Aurelian—indeed, very bad.
It is said that in the time of Louis XIV. seven monstrous columns
of granite or marble were carried from this place into France;
the eighth was broken on the way, and lies still on the shore.
There were then many statues of good taste dug out of the sands,
which were intended to be carried off likewise, but the Government
of Tripoli, following their usual ignorant beastly prejudices, would
not suffer them to be transported, pretending they were bodies of
unfortunate Mussulmans petrified or confined there by magic; so that
the Consul could do no better than bargain privately for the heads of
those statues, which were struck off and shipped with the columns. All
I can say is, that we saw several of very good taste in this mutilated
state, one very beautiful colossal statue of black marble, with a
quiver hung by a belt over his shoulder, two others something above
the ordinary size of a man; these three of Greek workmanship.
From Tripoli I sent an English servant to Smyrna with my books,
drawings, and supernumerary instruments, retaining only extracts
from such authors as might be necessary for me in the Pentapolis,
or other parts of the Cyrenaicum.
I then crossed the Syrtis Major to Bengazi,[287] the ancient Berenice,
built by Ptolemy Philadelphus, and arrived there in the time of a
most dreadful famine. The inhabitants of the town were dying with
hunger for want of grain; two tribes of Arabs, whose territories
surround the town, and who, when at peace, by their crops, their
milk, butter and flocks, were the sources of its wealth and plenty,
were then accidentally at war through the bad and weak government
of the brother of the Bey of Tripoli, who then commanded at Bengazi.
The two tribes had fought; those farthest from the town and fewest in
number had beaten the most numerous and nearest to Bengazi, called
Welled Abeed, and stripped them of everything, and they had forced
them to fly into the town.
[Illustration: _Sketch Map of_ BRUCE’S ROUTE IN TRIPOLI AND THE
CYRENAICA.]
A number of men, women and children, equal to double of those in
the town, unprovided with every necessary of life, were forced in
among those that were already dying with famine. The streets were
every night strewed with people dead or dying with hunger.
Bengazi was situated upon a promontory, which, having lost
considerably to the sea, is now, where broadest, less than
half-a-mile. Nothing now remains but its port, which, though dangerous
in its entry, is certainly the best anywhere on the coast of the
kingdom of Tripoli. On the north there are still to be seen, beyond
sea-mark, the foundations of several large buildings, of stones
eight or ten feet long and three broad, which by their own weight,
and being bound with strong cement, have preserved their places
notwithstanding the violence of the waves.
Above the port, and below the town to the south-west, are large
lakes of salt water, which formerly probably joined to the water of
the harbour, and enclosed the south side of the town, forming the
peninsula called by the ancients Pseudopenias.
About ten miles to the eastward is the lake Tritonis, with a small
island, where was the Temple of Venus, now Monastier, and to the
northward of this, the lake Zeian or the Beautiful, formerly called
that of the Hesperides, into which a stream rising in a small hill
above it runs into the sea, which has a communication likewise with
the lake, and is the Leithon of Strabo.
About seven miles from Bengazi, to the south-west, is a small low
cape called Teyonis, which, running out considerably to the north,
is that which Strabo says makes the mouth of the Syrtis, with Cephala
or Cape Mesrata.
The country about Bengazi, for several miles, is chiefly sand and
gravel, brought thither from the coast by the violent winds, but
beyond the influence of these, towards the mountains, to the east
and south-east, it is a reddish clay of the same soapy quality as
fuller’s earth; and provided plentiful and frequent rains fall
about November, December and January, their seed-time, nothing can
be more fertile; but these rains have failed for several years, and
now the famine is so great, that people hourly die in the streets,
and many people have been detected, chiefly women, with the heads
and remains of children, murdered and eaten, all but the parts which
were saved for another meal.
There was no staying at Bengazi, the Bey recommended me to a Sheikh
of distant Arabs, where the calamity of famine had only reached
in a smaller degree. We went to Arsinoe and several cities in the
Pentapolis, the works of Ptolemy Philadelphus, which are now totally
obliterated.
We went to Ras Sem, the supposed petrified city,[288] concerning
which so many lies have been told. It is about nine miles south
from El-Wadi, between that and El-Murag, and four days’ smart
travelling south, a very little west of Bengazi; it is not so named
either from the supposed fable of the Gorgon’s head, or from the
petrifactions of men, horses, &c., which have been idly invented and
believed, but from a fountain of mineral water of a greenish colour,
so strongly impregnated with metal that it instantly, upon drinking,
discharges itself by purging and vomiting. The head of a fountain
or spring is called in Arabic _Ras el-Ain_, so that _Ras Sem, the
fountain of poison_, is all that is implied in this name.
The only antiquities here consist of a ruined castle, not of earlier
date probably than the wars of the Vandals, perhaps much later,
and there are no petrifactions but what are common in many other
parts of Africa.
This is all of that immense city which the Tripoli ambassador made
Sir Hans Sloane believe was of considerable extent, with petrified men
and horses, women at the mill and churn, and cats and mice petrified
also. This severe accident has, I suppose, destroyed the breed,
as neither of these animals are to be seen in the country now.
Only the jerboa, or rat of the Cyrenaicum, is very plentiful here;
our Arabs killed many of them, and eat the hinder part. I engaged
one of them on the journey to kill me several hundreds, which was
very easily done, in time enough to carry them to Bengazi to deliver
them in charge there to my Greek servant, going to Tripoli, who was
to dry and take care of them. I brought these home for the lining
of a cloak, flaying the tails in the manner they do ermine, happy
if we had taken charge of them, and gone home with them ourselves!
The _leffah_, or cerastes of the ancients, is also very common
here. It is a horned viper, generally about 16 inches in length,
though often considerably longer. That of which I made a design
in the desert of Barca was 22 inches long. The colour varies in
darkness according to the colour of the earth in which he lives. It is
remarkably supple in the spine, according to the observation of Lucan,
Spinaque vagæ torquente cerastæ.
Luc. _Bell. Civ._, l. ix.
Its bite is accounted mortal by the Moors, especially in summer, and
they immediately fly for remedy either to amputation of the part,
deep incisions or actual cautery; however, application of oil of
olives, rubbed over the fire upon the wound, after an opening was
made by a lancet, never failed to obviate any fatal consequence, even
when the poison had occasioned convulsive vomitings and sickness,
by having had time to circulate.
Almost as bad as the cerastes is the _Istell_,[289] a very venomous
Phalangium of the Cyrenaicum; it dwells chiefly upon shrubs,
and builds a nest of moss like a bird; it is larger than a spider
of the largest size in England, and is of a dark black colour, or
rather inclining to blue. The male is covered with fine down or hair;
the female is smooth. When young they are painted with yellow along
the back, with a figure much resembling the representation of the
Silphum upon the medals of this country. The bite of this animal is
in hot weather said to be attended with death; those who sleep on
the ground among the bushes are generally those that suffer. One bit
by this animal had his tongue in about half-an-hour so swollen as to
be incapable of speech, but had no other mortal symptom. The glands
of his throat were much swelled, and down his shoulder and arm. The
bite was in the neck, which was but little discoloured; he recovered
by rubbing oil upon the wound and places affected, and by repeatedly
swallowing, as much as the swelling of his tongue would permit. He
complained of pain in his veins, and shivered often suddenly, as
before the attack of a fever: he had no remarkable thirst. Many who
recover from the bite of this animal and the _leffah_ continue lame
in the hand or foot, the parts generally affected. This seemed to me
extraordinary, and not easily accounted for, till, upon examining one
who was in these circumstances, I found that he had, in his incision
into the upper part of the foot, cut the tendons of two of his toes,
which, after long torment and suppuration, remained useless. This
is the case, I suppose, with the others, for they make no use of
outward remedies, and could scarcely believe in or be brought to
use so simple a remedy as oil, though they had seen its effects, and
admired them, not knowing what it was. Those who have not courage to
lay open or cauterise the part, apply to marabouts for charms, and
swallow certain characters, or hang them on their persons as amulets;
such people, if the bite is given in hot weather, usually die.
At Ras Sem begin the sands, which continue to Ougela, and from thence,
as far as is known, to the banks of the Niger. The sands are charged
or impregnated to a very great degree with salt, the prevailing
mineral in Africa, and from Bengazi to Ougela, and much beyond,
the country is as perfectly level as the ocean.
Ougela is the seat of a Bey dependent upon, and named by Tripoli. It
is in his district, and not, as has been advanced, in that of Derna,
that Ras Sem is situated. Ougela consists of three villages; the
largest, or capital, is Zibeel, the next Zaila, about 16 miles
south-west, governed by a Caid; the other is Marad, still further
south-west, but scarcely inhabited, save by those who come hither
to hunt wild cows or beeves, for it is very unwholesome, by reason
of stagnant water and marshes full of canes. These habitations are
surrounded by large plantations of excellent dates, which are ripe
in September, and hither the Arabs of the province of Bengazi come
annually to load their camels with dates, for the rest of the year.
Ougela is in the way of the caravan from Fezzan to Mecca, with which
come the merchants of Borno and Tombucto, as well as many other
black nations to the south and south-east. Those from Tombucto are
nearly two months upon their journey to Fezzan, chiefly along the
Niger. Ougela is in the direct road from Fezzan to Cairo. From this
to Cairo they are twenty-three days. Each camel pays one sequin, 8_s._
6_d._ to the Bey of Ougela. They bring with them manna and gold-dust,
some ostrich feathers, &c., but the trade of Tombucto is of late much
decreased or turned some other way, by reason of war among the Arabs,
through which the merchants have to pass. From Fezzan to Ougela,
twenty-eight days. Seven days east and by north of Ougela is Siwah,
which pays no acknowledgment to Tripoli, but is governed by four
sheikhs of its own; it is situated on a very steep rock, and the
way to the town is by a narrow winding passage, only wide enough
for one person, till you arrive at the top. The water here is very
bad though in great abundance, and this makes the air so bad that
it has always proved fatal to those who attempted to conquer it. It
is eight long days’ journey due south of Derna, and is the place,
which, like Ougela, supplies the Moors of its district, the most
considerable of whom are the Welled Aly, with dates.
All the interior of this vast country is very badly laid down,
both as to latitude and longitude, in the French maps of Rollin,
Delisle and Sanson.
The small islands, or rather rocks, before Derna, are called Kerse
at this present by the Moors, and the desert to the southward of
Bengazi is still called Barca or Barga.
The most distant community known to the southward of Ougela is
Cuffra, that is to say, in the language of the country, _the City
of Infidels_, so the Arabs call a nation or people of blacks, which
inhabit the desert, seven days’ journey, or about 130 miles due
south of Ougela.
These blacks live within a town enclosed with high mud walls; they
are very numerous, but so afraid of fire-arms and horsemen that any
surprised without the city are easily taken. There is here a large
plantation of dates, and the Arabs of Bengazi, the Jowassi, and Aid
Jelleed, who go to buy dates at Ougela, often undertake this journey,
which they perform in seven days, carrying water on camels, and make
slaves of all the blacks they can surprise without the walls, whom
they sell to the Turks to carry to the Levant. After this they encamp
near the water among the palm trees, and there wait the ripening of
the dates, which they likewise gather without payment, and so return
with their booty. These blacks are dressed in sheep or goat skins,
and have for arms, bows and arrows—the bow made of wild fennel,
the arrows made of the branch of the date tree, about five feet in
length, including the head, which is nine inches.
I found at Bengazi a ship bound to Tripoli in Syria. It was out of my
way, but it was absolutely necessary to send a part of my baggage,
for which I had not occasion, to some place of future rendezvous,
safe from such accidents as were to be expected every day in Bengazi.
I had formerly sent my books and most of my arms, and many other
articles to Smyrna, and wrote to Mr. Murray, then our Ambassador at
Constantinople, to send my firman of the Porte thither; from thence my
correspondent was to forward it by another opportunity to Alexandria.
We are obliged in these countries to make use of the first ways
that present, however round-about they are, or we might linger
long for direct opportunities. I sent a reflector, with some other
instruments, and proposed to go myself from Ptolometa to Grenneh,
thence to Derna, through the desert of Libya to Alexandria, and the
caravan of pilgrims from Morocco would probably have joined me at
the latter part of the road.
Ptolometa is placed by the Itinerary forty-six miles from Bengazi,
but is in fact Tochara. It is at the point of the mountains which,
having run nearly north-west and south-east, now run north-east and
south-west. They are of a moderate height, covered to the top with
shrubs, chiefly of a plant called _jiddāry_, a species of thorn.
Tochara is entirely ruined, and is close upon the shore, partly
destroyed by the sea, and appears to have had no port; not a piece of
marble nor ornament of sculpture or architecture to be found.[290]
The earth is reddish clay and very fertile. From hence we continued
our way chiefly by the seaside to Ptolometa.[291]
The plain is about two miles broad, the soil the same, covered with
a species of whitethorn, but nearer Ptolometa it is gravel. Ptolometa
occupies the whole valley, which there is not more than a mile broad,
the breadth of the town from south-east to north-west not so much. It
seems to have been an oblong square; on the north-east angle is
the port, which must have been small, defended by a small island,
and much encroached upon by the sea.
The city, though small, seems to have contained a quantity of
magnificent public buildings, but the whole is thrown down, and the
ornamental parts, except many Corinthian capitals, which lie dispersed
about, carried away and applied to the building of two modern castles,
one a fort, probably for the defence of the port, the other larger,
a little above it. There remain, besides the building here described,
only three columns on foot, all of the Doric order, one in front a
[true] column, the rest square in the flanks, probably intended as
an angular one to a wall which surrounded the portico of the court
of the Temple. The other two are about 200 yards higher up, nearer
the foot of the mountain.
Near the centre of the city is the fabric delineated[292]; it seems to
have been the portico of a temple, but the rest of it is so entirely
ruined that no positive account or plan can be given of it. The front
is to the mountains; before it was a large court with a colonnade,
paved with stones as in causeways, and afterwards covered with rude
mosaics. Under these are large cisterns for the reception of rain
water. There are likewise wells by the seaside, but a little brackish.
These columns will probably not stand long, two being already
undermined by the Arabs in search for lead, which they imagine to bind
the joints of the columns. The same search made them, while we were
yet there, throw down the small fragments of architrave and cornice
yet remaining, and ruin one of the capitals, so that we left the three
naked columns standing without any part of the entablature upon them.
A copy of Bruce’s sketch is selected for the vignette on the cover
of this work. The building has been so frequently delineated that
it was hardly worth while giving a facsimile of the drawing.
There is a very large building of the Corinthian order to the east
of this; part of the wall is still remaining.
The columns were of different . . . . . .[293] as in the above Ionic,
which seems to have been a part of it, for the north, which seems
to be the vestige of the temple, behind and immediately connected
with it, does not seem of itself to have merited a portico so large
and magnificent as this; but all is so destroyed that nothing but
conjecture can be alleged either in support or the contrary. What
remains could be recovered are in the King’s Collection, with all
the parts that could be found.[294]
Bruce’s account of Ptolometa is very obscure, and in some places
hardly legible. Pacho, in describing the same ruins, says:—‘The
only ones that have resisted the ravages of time are at some distance
from the sea, and on the last slopes of the mountain. One of the
most important is a Roman barrack, surrounded by a wide ditch,
and having a double _enceinte_. In the interior exist, still in
perfect preservation, the fireplaces which served for the domestic
use of the soldiers. On the façade of this edifice are three immense
blocks of freestone, on which is a very long Greek inscription,[295]
but so dilapidated, that one of our most celebrated philologists,
M. Letronne, affirms that a complete rendering of it is, if not
impossible, at least very difficult. The little that it tells us
increases our regrets, as it contains a rescript of Anastasius I.,
relative to divers subjects of public administration, and notably to
military service. Not far from this barrack, and almost in the centre
of the town, are the remains of a pronaos, with three columns erect,
the sole remains of a Roman temple, below which is a great vault,
divided into nine corridors, coated with cement, and certainly
intended to serve as a reservoir. Lastly, at the extreme west of the
ruins are two great massive constructions, a sort of Pylon, sloped
in the Egyptian style, which appears to have formed the entrance to
the town.’[296]
Beechey thus alludes to these ruins in his description of the
Cyrenaica and Pentapolis, published in 1828:—