charge each other at full gallop, and after firing their pistols
at the horses’ feet wheel round. It is a favourite amusement with
the Moors and Arabs.]
[Footnote 82: This place is called also Santa Cruz.]
[Footnote 83: The place of prayer, oratory.]
[Footnote 84: Name of Mohammedan Saints.]
[Footnote 85: First chapter of the Korán, used as the Lord’s
Prayer is by Christians.]
[Footnote 86: This is a preparation of grain, or rather grits, and
forms, like oatmeal in Scotland, the food of the common people in
Súdán, where it is called Mogús.]
[Footnote 87: People of Sús.]
[Footnote 88: Caravan.]
[Footnote 89: This person was the agent to the Sheïkh of Wád Nún.]
[Footnote 90: His illness had commenced by his having had some of
his ribs broken; to cure which, he had been hung up by his hands:
but this had been carried too far.]
[Footnote 91: Friendship for thee!]
[Footnote 92: It is properly Núl, and was so named when the Arabs
possessed Portugal: Queen Núnah is a modern invention.]
[Footnote 93: A good idea of the buildings is furnished by the
annexed lithographic engraving.]
[Footnote 94: This was the name of the Sheïkh.]
[Footnote 95: This port was at the mouth of the river Darah, as
stated afterwards.]
[Footnote 96: The letters in original MS. are written in such faint
ink, that it is difficult to decypher them.]
[Footnote 97: So in MS.]
[Footnote 98: This office had been previously done by a Jewess,
as stated a little farther on.]
[Footnote 99: He kept his promise. The gun is now in the possession
of Mr. D.’s brother.]
[Footnote 100: This person is a constant traveller to Tumbuktú,
and a very considerable merchant.]
[Footnote 101: This is the celebrated French traveller to Tumbuktú.]
[Footnote 102: Wind-bibbers, _i.e._ dromedaries. G. C. R.]
[Footnote 103: This is the Moorish name for a dagger, as already
stated.]
[Footnote 104: Properly Murábit or Murábut, equivalent to Fakír
or Dervísh, terms little used in Barbary. G. C. R.]
[Footnote 105: Tamar means date in Arabic. G. C. R.]
[Footnote 106: My prophet is Mahomet.]
[Footnote 107: Properly Maúlid, _i.e._ Mohammed’s birth-day kept
on the 12th of Safer.]
[Footnote 108: This is the name of the horse of the desert, which
is said to have been fed on camels’ milk. So too Xenophon, in his
Anabasis, speaks of the ostriches in Mesopotamia, that are run down
by fleet horses. Sháribu-r-ríh, pronounced Shérb by the Moors.]
[Footnote 109: This is probably done partly to allay the itching,
and partly to prevent the matter from collecting in the nose; from
whence it would discharge itself into the mouth, and passing from
thence into the stomach produce a most horrible nausea.]
[Footnote 110: This is a cant phrase for going away; for it appears
that Mr. D. was offended with him.]
[Footnote 111: Rághebát.]
[Footnote 112: The _poisoned_ (samúm) wind of the desert.]
[Footnote 113: El Hamdo li-lláhi (praise be to God).]
[Footnote 114: Berbers.]
[Footnote 115: This is the Moorish name for a dagger.]
[Footnote 116: By S is probably meant _Shade_. The point at which
the thermometer stood at one P.M. is omitted; because Mr. D. did not
then think of noticing the difference between the sun and the shade.]
[Footnote 117: Because it was a proof of the Sheïkh’s want of
hospitality, in compelling Mr. D. to purchase his food.]
[Footnote 118: Mr. D. perhaps meant to say, that Abú had no idea
of the relative bearings of places.]
[Footnote 119: Genii spirits.]
[Footnote 120: This is the same engagement as that taken by Mohammed
Múlid.]
[Footnote 121: Amongst the papers of Mr. D. was found the following
description of the Simúm, written while it was passing:—“To
describe the awful scourge of the desert defies all the powers
of language. The pencil assisted by the pen might perhaps afford
a faint idea of it. Winged with the whirlwind, and chariotted in
thunder, it urged its fiery course, blasting all nature with its
death-fraught breath. It was accompanied by a line of vivid light,
that looked like a train of fire, whose murky smoke filled the whole
wide expanse, and made its horrors only the more vivid. The eye of
man, and voice of beast were both raised to heaven, and both then
fell upon the earth. Against this sand-tempest, all the fortitude
of man fails, and all his efforts are vain. To Providence alone must
he look. It passed us, burying one of my camels. As soon as we rose
from the earth, with uplifted hands to heaven for its preservation,
we awoke to fresh horrors. Its parching tongue had lapped the water
from our water-skins, and having escaped the fiery hour we had to
fear the still more awful death from thirst.”]
[Footnote 122: Dagger.]
[Footnote 123: The Holy Book, _i.e._ the Pentateuch.]
[Footnote 124: Jewish Arabic, for Asháb, _i.e._ Companions,
Plur. of Sáhib.]
[Footnote 125: Robbers.]
[Footnote 126: The spellings of several proper names in these Notes
are very doubtful.]
APPENDIX.
* * * * *
[From the JOURNAL _of the_ ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY _of_ LONDON,
vol. vii., p. 144—172.]
* * * * *
_Extracts from the Correspondence of the late Mr. Davidson, during
his residence in Morocco; with an Account of his further progress
in the Desert._[127]
The much-lamented close of Mr. Davidson’s life, an event which
every member of the Geographical Society will unite in deploring,
has made it the melancholy duty of that body to preserve some record
of his latest exertions in pursuit of geographical knowledge. For
that purpose his various friends and correspondents were requested to
place in the hands of the Secretary such of his letters as contained
any observations of moment; to this request they readily acceded, and
the acknowledgments of the Society are more particularly due to his
Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, to whose gracious encouragement
Mr. Davidson was mainly indebted for his favourable reception
in Morocco, and who, with his wonted liberality, has allowed the
transcription of the most interesting communications received from
that enterprising traveller. To the extracts from Mr. Davidson’s
own letters, are added such accounts as have been at different times
forwarded respecting his further progress and the fatal determination
of his journey, the particulars of which are still involved in some
doubt, though concerning the main point, the loss of his valuable
life, there is unhappily no place for hope.
It would have been highly gratifying had it been possible to introduce
these extracts to the reader, by a detailed memoir of Mr. Davidson’s
extensive travels in every quarter of the globe; but the materials
furnished by such various and remote journeys could not have been
collected and arranged in the short period which has elapsed since the
sad intelligence of his end has been authenticated. Those journeys
were also performed before their author was in correspondence with
this Society, and for that reason are not necessarily connected
with its Journal. His instructive lecture on the site of Jerusalem
and the movements of the investing armies, the manuscript of which,
had it received its author’s last corrections, would have formed
a suitable counterpart to his description of a mummy which he opened
and described after his return from Egypt, might have been inserted
in this collection, had it not been too closely confined to topography
and history to be properly placed among geographical disquisitions.
In the summer of 1835, Mr. Davidson, whose ardour was not checked
by the many hazards and difficulties he had already experienced,
formed the adventurous project of a journey into the heart of Africa,
by what may be termed the most direct route. He therefore embarked
in September, 1835, for Gibraltar, on his way to Morocco, from which
country he hoped to reach Tumbuktú by the route of Tâfilêlt, the
road by which Réné Caillé travelled from that city northwards. To
the almost insurmountable obstacles which would meet him at every
step, Mr. Davidson was no stranger. His personal courage, however,
his power of enduring fatigue and change of climate, readiness at
finding expedients to obviate difficulties, and, above all, his
peculiar urbanity, which could not fail to prepossess even strangers
in his favour, gave his friends, and still more perhaps himself,
a confidence which even those excellent qualifications could hardly
justify. To many other accomplishments particularly valuable in
such an undertaking he added a considerable knowledge of medicine,
to which, indeed, he was in the main indebted for the accomplishment
of that part of his journey which he did execute; and should his
papers have escaped the notice of the savages who assassinated him,
they may hereafter add another leaf to the laurels with which his
brow is already graced.
The only person by whom Mr. Davidson was accompanied was a negro
baptized in the West Indies by the appellation of Edward Donnelan,
but better known in this country by his Muselmán name of Abú Bekr,
of whom some account has been given in this Journal.[128] He is
occasionally mentioned in the following letters by the name of Abou,
and should he not have sunk under the privations and fatigues of
the desert, may possibly hereafter supply us with a more authentic
account of his lamented employer’s end than any which we have
hitherto received.
Mr. Davidson, as was before remarked, was well aware of the
difficulties which awaited him, and at Gibraltar, where he was
detained nearly three months by the impossibility of clearing
his way into the empire of Morocco, he met Mr. Hay, his Britannic
Majesty’s Consul-General in Barbary, who “seems to think”
(he says in a letter to Dr. Lee, dated 13th September, 1835)
“that we shall not be able to get on.” His resolution was not
so easily to be shaken; he proceeded to Tangier,[129] and after
waiting there a considerable time, had at length the satisfaction of
informing his brother, Mr. T. Davidson, on the 13th December, that
he had “that morning received a most kind and flattering letter
from the Sultán of Morocco, accompanied by a few lines from his
minister,” commanding him to repair to the court, where he should
experience nothing but what would be agreeable to him. This letter
was accompanied by another to “El’ Arbi Essaidi, the káïd of
Tangier, directing him to provide everything for his safe conduct,
and enclosing letters to all the governors by whom he had to pass,
that they should pay him respect, honour, and hospitality, inasmuch as
he was travelling to benefit his fellow-creatures; that the governor
[al-káïd] should provide him a guard of ten horsemen, commanded
by a káïd [captain], who would enforce respect and ensure the due
performance of the Sultan, their master’s orders, which were that
he should be treated with respect and consideration; and that his
Majesty enclosed for him, the governor [of Tanjah], money for the
soldiers, and extra pay for the káïd, who were to act under his
orders, and be guided by his discretion.” “Such,” he adds,
“is the manner, after a delay of three months, that I commence
my arduous undertaking. I almost fear it is of too flattering a
character, but must only use the more discretion.”
Antecedently to the receipt of these gracious orders from the
Sultán, Mr. Davidson’s residence at Tanjah had not been either
agreeable or encouraging, as appears from the following extract
from a letter to Dr. Lee, written (10th December) only three days
before the last:—“My good and grateful companion [Abú Bekr]
begs me to forward the few lines he has this morning written to
you, and I wish I could send you any particulars as to our journey,
or any new observations on the small portion of this country which
we have seen. With the exception of two or three excursions, [at]
the utmost under fifty miles, I have been confined to the walls
of this place, waiting the Sultán’s permission to proceed into
the interior. The jealousy of this people exceeds all belief; their
insults [are] innumerable, and I fear their determination is not to
allow us to proceed. I have, however, by means of a few presents,
bought the interest of the governor of this place and of Tetuan, and
have been allowed to visit the places in the neighbourhood, but never
without a soldier, from whose view I cannot proceed one step. I have
examined some of the neighbouring mountains, most rich in iron, and
specimens of jaspar and large masses of fossils. I have also passed
some hours at the various douars,[130] or Arab encampments, have taken
measurements of the ruins of the Outset,[131] or Pharaoh’s Peg,
as it is called; some observations on which I hope shortly to send
to England. I propose next week, should I not receive my permission
to proceed south, [to] go from hence to the Divarretts, amongst
whose hills are some Bedouins. One large tribe, who used to escort
the hadjis from this to Mecca, still remain in the neighbourhood;
and I think some of them would for a good consideration take me to
Mourzouk, from whence I could get upon the caravan-track for Soudan. I
have had some conversation with the Sheïk of Wadnoon[132] here,
on his return from Mecca; but he states he cannot take me through
Morocco, but will protect me, should I get to his dominions. The
second rains have commenced with more than usual violence, and part
of the country is impassable, which may account in some degree for
[my] not receiving my answer from Morocco. I shall lose no time as
soon as I receive this, nor shall I delay more than this month, and
if this fail, I shall commence the year by a new route. My health,
thank God, is very good; but I am sorry to say that Abou has had his
sight much affected; and I fear he is very unequal to the journey. I
am taking every care of him by nursing him; and he is too, I grieve
to say, an object of great suspicion.”
Secure under such a protection, Mr. Davidson lost no time in
proceeding to the capital, and had the satisfaction of giving his
brother an account of his progress in the following letter:—
“_The Garden of Mulai Moussa, Morocco, 18th Jan._ 1836.
“My dear Brother,—I fear from what has accidentally transpired,
that it is the Emperor’s intention to detain me here for some
time. I have little cause for regret, this not being the season
for me to cross the chain of Atlas, and any hurry on my part would
only lead to suspicion, which might prove highly injurious to my
projects. According to the Sultan’s directions, I started from
Tangier with my caid [káïd, or captain] and his ten soldiers,
accompanied, [for] the first two hours, by thirty of the consular
corps: the good wishes of all, I believe, I possess—Mr. John Hay,
the Consul’s son, and M. Crusentolphe, the Swedish Vice-Consul,
accompanying me on to Rabat,[133]—eight days’ journey. I found
much benefit, and derived great pleasure from the company of these
gentlemen, the former of whom is a perfect master of Arabic. I have
been also most fortunate in procuring an excellent dragoman,[134]
who holds the office of interpreter to the British Consulate at
Tetuan, and who has obtained three months’ leave of absence, and
is now my paid servant. He has twice attended the English medical
men who have been sent for to attend the Sultán, with whom he is
a great favourite. To Rabat, the country presents little worthy
of observation; a fine fertile plain, rich valleys, with numerous
streams, and a succession of mountain ranges reaching as far as the
eye will carry one. A little circumstance had nearly deprived me
of the great source of safety, and the main stay on which I have
to rely. Crossing an arm of the sea, at the Coubba of Mulai Ben
Absolam,[135] my mules got into a quicksand, and I was obliged
to dismount my soldiers, who had to wade the ford, their horses
accompanying the baggage, the ropes being passed round the mules’
necks and haunches to draw them out. Most of my clothes [were]
spoiled, and many of my little luxuries destroyed. Our weather,
fortunately, was fine, and this induced us to stop and dry our
clothes, which keeping us too late to reach our place appointed for
encampment, we sent on the Sultán’s letter to have a mona and
house prepared at Mehidia.[136] The man mistook the road; and on our
arrival, the Governor refused to give anything to either the soldiers,
muleteers, or the animals. He had been told all his directions
were in the letter, and his only verbal orders were to pay me every
respect and hospitality. He took me and my party out to his gardens,
got ready a part of his house, provided most amply for the three and
my servants, but left both men and beasts starving, they not having
had any food, this being Ramadan, for eighteen hours. Starting me in
the morning, he gave me an additional escort of thirty men, to take
me to Sallee,[137] opposite to Rabat. Arrived there, we were again
without our letter; but the Emperor’s son had sent orders about
me. I had to make some disturbance here; was detained two days, to
wait for an escort of two hundred horse, to be relieved by other two
hundred, owing to an insurrection which has just broken out amongst
the Zaire, who, it appears, expecting I was coming richly laden, had
determined to take me. They had plundered all the parties who had,
for the last three days, passed their district. My letter arriving,
the Governor altered his tone towards me. I had refused to pay him
a second visit, because I was not treated with sufficient respect,
and informed him I should appeal to the Sultán on my arrival at this
place [Morocco]. He now comes to say my guard is ready, and he intends
to accompany me the first two hours, when the Lieutenant-Governor
is to take me on to the Commander of the Forces, who is posted at
midway between this and the Douar at which I am to sleep. This sight
was most beautiful: the variety of dress and arms, the beauty of the
Barb horse, and the meeting of sixty of the Oudaia,[138] who, added
to my first escort, swelled our party to above three hundred. We
had a slight row on the road, [and] took one man, which had nearly
set the escort at war. The poor fellow claimed the protection of the
Oudaia by a sign which they must acknowledge, and these, with some
of their comrades amongst the party who accompanied me from Rabat,
separating from the main body, prepared their guns for action. I had
some difficulty, with the assistance of my caid, who appealed to
their conduct before the person they had to escort. One man [was]
severely wounded, and many [were the] losses of turbans, caps,
&c. At our halt, having been joined by a large caravan on the road,
we covered a considerable space.
“I encamped in the centre: my marquee, my caid’s tent, two tents
for my soldiers; Hassan, a sort of consular agent, going to Mazagan,
with a little black tent between mine and the caid’s; our muleteers
in the rear; our horses and mules in a circle, and surrounded by
about sixty soldiers: outside of this, the camels and the rest of
the party. We [were] disturbed in the night by a large wolf, who had
prowled in amongst us. Of these and the wild boar [there are] many
traces. [We were] off early, and at eleven experienced a hurricane,
which obliged us all to stop. Our animals [were] unable to face it,
and we obliged for safety to dismount. Here our guard left us. All
drenched to the skin, [we] proceeded to Dar-el-Beida,[139] and had
no sooner got our tents up, than I received a message from Mulai
Abdrahman,[140] the Emperor’s second son, to say he had prepared a
place for me in the court of the palace, and that it was too dangerous
to sleep outside the walls. I went, praying to be excused the fatigue
of striking the tents uselessly.
“On entering the town I was received by his guard, who galloping
close to me, fired their guns so near my face that I was nearly
blinded. [The Prince is] a poor, puny boy, but having a very
intelligent, wary Mentor. He had the orders of his father to bid
me welcome. From this to Azamor,[141] on the Omer Begh,[142] where
I met with the best of all receptions; the Governor accompanied
me to Morocco with sixty horse. We ascended the three steps to the
plain of Morocco. On the last night, at a place called Swynia, I was
robbed of your gold watch and part of Abou’s clothes. They have
since been returned. On crossing a kantarah[143] over the Tensift,
I was met by a party of soldiers commanded by a caid, to bid me
welcome in the Emperor’s name, his Majesty being out reviewing his
cavalry. They were to conduct me to the ruins I now inhabit. I was
taken round the walls by Haha, the place of the lepers, who have not
the privilege of entering the city. This added above six miles to my
already long journey. I found this place greatly in ruins: it must
have been splendid. My room, which is bed-room and parlour and all,
is thirty-eight feet long, eighteen wide, twenty-six high, richly
ornamented, but without the slightest article of furniture. This forms
one room of a square, the other parts [being] occupied by my servants,
the caid, his soldiers, &c. And I have this day an accession of fifty
persons, with the Emperor’s father-in-law, who has come to pay his
respects, this being the season of the feast after Ramadan.[144]
The old Moor, Seedy Mulai Ben Alee Abdrahan, has paid me a visit,
and has become a patient. This evening I had to see his ladies,
all fancying they were ill, [and eager] to see the Christian after
two days’ quiet (as they call it), that is, not travelling. I
was ordered to be in readiness as soon as it became dark, to go and
see the Minister. A person would come for me, and I was to put on
a cloak, and follow with a dragoman. At seven, an old Moor, with
two soldiers carrying lanthorns, came for me. I was surrounded,
as soon as I was out of my gate, by soldiers, and taken, as well
as I could judge, about two miles, through large masses of ruins,
crowded bazaar,[145] (the people giving way,) and numerous narrow
streets. Not a word; but at each gate my guard pronounced the word
El Hadge, and we passed. Arrived at a low door-way, a black slave
asked for the word—this was pronounced—and then my dragoman and
I were ushered into a narrow passage in total darkness. Through the
court-yard into which this opened we observed several persons pass
out; when a small door opening behind us, the Minister (whom we had
seen at the palace in the morning) was waiting to receive us. Tea
was brought, and in the centre of this room stood a single chair,
on which I was to sit. I was then bade welcome in the name of the
Sultán, [and was told] that I was to consider myself his guest;
that I had only to wish, and it should be granted; that his master
was only waiting for the fast to terminate, when he would see me. A
host of fulsome compliments!