FROM MISRATAH TO TRIPOLI.
The Establishment of Signor Regini.--Visit the Acting Kaed of
Misratah.--Shabby Conduct of Mehemet Pasha to
Regini.--Description of the Villages comprised within the
Jurisdiction of Misratah.--Population and Condition of the Jews
in Misratah and Tripoli.--Regini sighs for the honour of hoisting
the Union Jack.--Village of Zeiten.--Leghma; and the tapping of
the Date-Palm.--Corn Fields and Grain Culture in North
Africa.--Manipulation.--Sahel or Salhin; its splendid
Gardens.--The Eastern _Terminus_ groups of Mount Atlas.--Ruins of
Lebida; and other Ancient Ruins.--Monosyllabic Old Moor.--Meet
the Bey of Misratah.--Wad Seid, and plain of El-Jumr.--The
Sand-Storm.--Our Slaves' first sight of the Sea.--Said left
behind.--Essnousee foiled in attempting to beat one of his
Slaves.--Trait of the Tender Passion in our Troop of
Slaves.--Result of my Observations on the Saharan Slave
Traffic.--Gardens of Tajourah.--The Gardens of the
Masheeah.--Distance, Time, and Expenses of my Tour.--Disposal of
Said, and the Camel.
_12th._--EASTER SUNDAY. It is a grand _festa_ with Signor Regini, and his
family are dressed out in their best. They are the only family of
Christians in this town, but keep the _festa_ with as much religious zest
and zeal as if in Malta or Rome. Poor Regini gets only twelve dollars a
month from the Pasha of Tripoli for his employment of quarantine agent,
and is obliged to look after three ports, for Misratah has three ports,
at a considerable distance from each other, as well as several hours'
ride from the town. Visited with Regini the acting Kaed or Governor of
this place, and brother of the Bey, now in Tripoli. The Kaed stared
stupidly at me whilst relating to him some things about the Touaricks.
He was astonished they treated me so well, instead of murdering me, as he
thought they had a right, or ought to have done. This Moorish beast
finished by consulting me respecting his health, and begging physic, but
which I refused to give him, seeing his indisposition proceeded from
sheer indolence. His people, or officers of the place, were all amazed at
my travelling as I was, and wondered what I could be doing. Mr. Regini
heard one say, "The Christian has written the country; the English are
coming to take all this land." Another observed, "This Englishman is a
dervish, and is mad. His friends send him here to get rid of him." I took
no interest whatever in the interview, feeling thoroughly tired of my
tour and the people. The Kaed had heard some merchants say, "The
Touaricks are a people of one word," which he now repeated, and which was
a good satire upon himself and his Moorish brethren, "A people of ten
thousand words." The Kaed informed me of the safe arrival of Haj Ibrahim,
and the rest of his party, at Tripoli.
Regini's house is a constant resort of visitors and idlers. Amongst the
objects of attraction, is Mr. R.'s pretty little daughter, who turns the
heads of all the Moors. Mr. R. says the Pacha is going to build him a
larger house, and allow it him rent-free, as an increase of salary. This
His Highness, indeed, promised to do. But Mehemet Pasha showed the usual
and insulting duplicity of the Turk, for the Consul-General heard
afterwards that, instead of giving Regini a new house, he increased the
rent of his old one. This unhandsome conduct of the Pasha so enraged
Colonel Warrington, that, on hearing it, after he had invited the Bashaw
to dine with him at his garden, the Colonel determined to withdraw the
invitation, or rather not give the dinner. So the Pasha's dining at the
British garden did not come off, much to my annoyance, for I wished to
have been present at the dinner. These little bits of Turkish duplicity
irritate and annoy our Consuls more than acts of tyrants like Asker Ali.
Visited the environs in the evening. Picked up some chamomile flowers,
which abound in the lanes and highways. The barilla plant is also very
common; it is collected and burnt, and the ashes exported in considerable
quantities. Several ponds of water are found during winter in this
neighbourhood, which are frequented by numerous flights of wild-duck,
affording capital game for the hungry sportsman. Date-palms are now in
blossom, whose flowers are all at first encased in a pod. Essnousee tells
me, Abd-El-Geleel destroyed the palms of Sockna by simply cutting off the
tops or heads of the palms, in the same way as people do when they tap
palms for leghma. Some of them grow again, others do not, it being all a
matter of chance. The date-palm is most abundantly cultivated on the
Tripoline Coast, supplying the people with a full third of their food.
_13th._--Misratah is an aggregate or series of villages, scattered about
to an extent of a full day's journey, containing about 12,000
inhabitants, two-thirds Moors, the rest Arabs, Negroes, and Jews. The
houses and other buildings make but a mean appearance, built of mud and
stones, and some of lime-mortar. There are a few Marabets shining
beautifully white in the sun, with light and chaste cupola tops. A
drawing of one of these is given, that of Sidi Salah. The Marabet is a
common, but fair and picturesque, feature in coast scenery. The bazaar,
or market of Misratah, is held three times a week, but in different
places of the villages included within this circle of jurisdiction. The
principal port is three or four hours from the central village, the
inhabitants not enjoying an immediate view of the sea, so delightful on
the North African Coast. The grand cultivation is dates, but not of good
quality, then barley and wheat (the most of the former), olives, figs,
and some other fruit-trees. Oxen, goats, and sheep, are in numbers, and
there is a considerable export trade in hides and wool. The markets are
pretty well stocked with provisions, and cheaper than in Tripoli.
Nevertheless, the villages of Misratah are choked full of very poor
destitute people, and during the past year, in the midst of comparative
abundance, many of them lived almost entirely on herbs. These wretched
creatures congregate in Misratah from all the neighbouring districts, the
Gharian and Gibel mountains, the village of Touarghah, and other places.
The same system of spoliation by Government is going on here as in other
provinces of Tripoli, the inhabitants being reduced gradually to most
complete beggary. Every year the number of poor increases, whilst the
taxes on land, under the curse of Turkish oppression, as fatally
increase, reducing all to serfdom, leaving not an acre of land in the
hands of the people, excepting those lands protected by the sanctuaries
of religion. The civil power in this country has no conscience; the
people are alone protected from annihilation by their religion.
Fifty families of Jews are located in these villages, occupied as
brokers and petty traders, or in making essences. They pay a
poll-tax of a hundred mahboubs per annum to the Pasha. They have two
synagogues, and a Rabbi superintending them. Rabbi Samuel says he
has heard there are Jews in Soudan. Lyon has mentioned the same
report, and locates Jews south from Timbuctoo, supposing them to
have gone originally from Morocco. Many of the Tripoline mountains
contain Jews, and in Misratah there are a hundred families. As a
specimen of the state of Biblical learning and literature amongst
these Jews, I give the following conversation I had with Rabbi
Samuel. He explained the 53rd chap. of Isaiah as referring to
another and a past suffering Messiah, the Messiah of Ephraim, the
son of Ephraim, and not the son of David, who is to be the future
and conquering Messiah. To Philip's question, "Of whom speaketh the
prophet this?" &c. (Acts viii. 34), he candidly answered,
acknowledging that the prophet spake not of himself, but the suffering
Messiah. The epithets אל גבור and אבי־עד, in Is.
ix. 6, 7, the Rabbi explained, as denoting the reign of Messiah to be full
of peace and happiness for all mankind, quoting Psalm lxxii.,
observing properly, the words first refer to Solomon, and then to
the Messiah. Asking him for a passage of the Pentateuch, referring
to the future state, he replied;--"Moses did not speak at all of a
future state; Moses intended to have done so when he got to
Jerusalem, and settled the people in the Holy Land; but having
offended God, he was not permitted to enter there, and was prevented
from communicating knowledge about the future world. But you will
find in the commentaries all the information you require." He could
not tell where the future state was spoken of in the prophets, so I
pointed out to him Daniel xii. 2, 3. Rabbi Samuel now bestowed on me
the honorary title of English Marabout, earnestly recommending me to
call on Rabbi Jacob at Tripoli, the mighty scholar of the Regency.
He added:--"The Mussulmans say that our Messiah will conquer them
first; but afterwards, they (the Mussulmans) will recover their
strength and dominion, and destroy us and our Messiah. You see they
are idiots." So much for Jewish learning in Tripoli.
Signor Regini is an original in his way. Speaking of an old man about
taking a young wife, he observed, "Growing old, he became young." Of
himself, he says, "_Noi siamo molto respetati qui_ (We are much respected
here)."
"So you ought to be," I replied, "for I would not live here to be
despised."
"Stop, Signore Inglese," he rejoined abruptly, "I am the first man here.
You are a learned man, and have travelled all over the world, and you
know Latin; '_Aut Cæsar, aut nullus_,' that's my motto. I only want the
flag here. Get me appointed British Consul. I don't want a salary. Then
shall I be a greater man than the Bey of Misratah."
I promised, as in duty bound, after this sally of modest ambition, to
mention his wish to the Consul-General. The fact is, Regini is a very
deserving man, and could he hoist the Union Jack, might benefit British
subjects and promote British interests at the same time that he gratified
his own Cæsar-like ambition.
This afternoon we left Misratah for Tripoli, our last stage. We found the
gardens of Misratah very agreeable, getting clear of them by night, and
encamping in a hilly country, covered with the delicious green of spring,
with nibbling snowy flocks scattered and feeding, and Arabs' tents
pitched, "black, but comely." But I was surprised to see so few Arabs'
tents and douwars in this Regency. In fact, the Arabs of Tripoli are
nearly all located and confined to The Mountains.
_14th._--Afternoon, arrived at _Zeitin_, a small village. The palm is
abundant as usual, and the gardens are full of olive and
other Barbary fruit-trees. On encamping, I purchased some
_Leghma_--لقمة--according to some philologists, "tears" of the
palms, and others "foam," from the fermenting quality of the sap. At
this season many trees are tapped, being, indeed, the tapping season.
When a tree is tapped, a small hut of palm-branches, cut from off the
tapped palm, is set up close to it, which is turned into a sort of
_tap_-room, or boozing-place, for drinking the leghma, and half a
dozen Moorish louting fellows are always seen idling and skulking
about the hut, or sweltering with intoxication inside, as long as the
tree yields the spirituous juice. A tree, if a good one, will yield
its sap for two months, and sometimes a few days more. You can
purchase a tree, tap it and drink of its sap at your pleasure, for
only a couple of dollars. And for this trifle, people will often
destroy their best palms. The leghma is pleasant when quite new or
fresh; when a few days old it becomes very strong and acrid drinking,
continually fermenting. Moors do not understand drinking leghma, wine
or spirits, for their health, considering the object of drinking
fermented liquor is not attained until they become intoxicated. In
these palm-booths, or huts, the Moors occasionally bring their
provisions, and here they will pass night and day for weeks together
in dreamy drunken musings, each sot, shut up in himself, making
himself by a drunken and delirious imagination, Kady, or Sheikh, or
Sultan, or some mighty warrior, and all mankind his slaves and ardent
worshippers, as the bent of mind wildly leads him. Moderation Moors
cannot comprehend, they can neither drink moderately, nor eat
moderately; they must either abstain altogether or eat or drink like
beasts. Of course I speak of their general character. But such is the
case with too many amongst us, as well as these semi-barbarians.
We encamped amidst palms and barley-fields. High wind from the east. The
barley was getting ripe very fast, in some places being reaped. All these
crops of grain are thin, the stalk of the barley short, the ears
small--not the barley or wheat of England certainly. No part of North
Africa furnishes such fine and heavy corn-fields as my own native county,
Lincolnshire; I might, perhaps, add, no place in the world. The plains of
Morocco furnish thousands of acres of barley[127], but all straggling and
thinly growing. The wheat is the same. Add to which, you will find a
North African corn-field full of weeds, herbs, and wild flowers.
_15th._--Helping up my little Negro to a ride this morning, as the camel
ascended a hillock he was pitched off in a summerset. A slave immediately
got hold of him and began to stretch his neck for fear it was broken, and
otherwise pull and manipulate him, holding him up by the head and neck.
Manipulation and pulling and stretching are favourite appliances of
remedy in all this part of Africa. Manipulation is frequently used at the
baths, and is attended with surprising cures. Every muscle of the body is
stretched, and rubbed, and _coaxed_. To burning, bleeding, and charms,
some Moorish doctors add manipulation, as the fourth sovereign remedy.
Early, we reached Sahel (Salhin?). These cultivated lands are a
continuation of Zeiten; but Sahel is in a much higher state of
cultivation. The golden harvest is nodding over Afric's sunny plains.
Fields of ripe barley are waving in the wind, overshadowed with splendid
palms of young and vigorous growth. Besides there are most beautiful
olive plantations all around us. Essnousee, who now became a little more
familiar, kept crying out to me with spontaneous admiration, "This is the
new world (_Dunyah Jedeed_)!" The slave-driver had heard me praise the
vast fields of fertility in America. Sahel, in fact, is a country of most
vigorous and teeming fertility. But, to-day, from the camel's back, I saw
the sea. How rejoiced I was, after nine months _Ocean_ Desert-travelling,
over sands and rocks, and naked sultry plains, suffering all sorts of
privations and hardships, to see once more the world of waters! And this,
notwithstanding it had been so often unfriendly to me in my various
travellings by land and water. I kept straining (and pumping) my lungs to
breathe its pure cool air. Sahel is of considerable extent, but has no
nucleus of houses in the shape of a town, consisting merely of a series
of small villages and detached houses, like our cottage groups and farms,
but, of course, in Moorish style. Extremely warm to-day, though near the
sea. Cleared the Sahel the afternoon, and, at night, encamped amidst the
last groups of the Atlas, spreading and stretching eastwards. I had
observed we were about to enter these terminus groups and links of the
eastern Atlas chain, whilst at some distance, and easily distinguished
them from those of the Saharan groups and ridges. Their appearance is
strikingly different, being wooded and bristling on the sides, shooting
up in craggy heights, hoary and white on the uppermost peaks and ridges,
as if bitten by the cold and frost, and bared by the bleak winds of the
sea. The Great Desert ranges, on the contrary, are naked as nakedness can
be, dull, dreary, and dead, smoothed over as velvet, of black and purple
hues, and look more like mountains which children might paint than the
sterile realities of Old Sahara. Here, amidst the mountainous scenery of
the coast, I could recognise many of the features of Virgil's
description. (Æneidos b. iv.)
"Jamque volans apicem et latera ardua cernit
Atlantis duri, cœlum qui vertice fulcit:
Atlantis, cinctum assidue cui nubibus atris
Piniferum caput et vento pulsatur et imbri;
Nix humeros infusa tegit; tum flumina mento
Præcipitant senis, et glacie riget horrida barba."
But this grand portrait of Old Atlas, whose brawny shoulders support our
various globe, can only be realized (during winter) in the Morocco chain
of the Atlas, whose highest peak is Miltsin, in Jibel Thelge, or
"Mountain of Snow." This peak, some 15,000 feet in height, is near the
city of Morocco itself. Dr. Shaw, who never visited Morocco, was puzzled
to apply this classic description to the Algerian chains of Atlas. The
Atlas Chain, which here terminates eastward, strikes out into the ocean
just below Santa Cruz, in Morocco, being its western termination; but, in
Tunis, at many places, it is interrupted in its connecting links. I was
delighted to find a number of beautiful fruit-gardens, so many Hesperian
spots, in the small valleys of these Atlas groups, observing for the
first time the vine cultivated in vineyards. Several pleasant fields of
the vine adorned the valleys. But the date-palm disappears in these
mountains, whilst the olive increases, crowning the lower groups of
Atlas, or spreading in large fields in the valleys. Patches of wheat and
barley are also cultivated on the mountain sides. Arab stone-built
villages are seen scattered through the rising groups and valleys. I am
told these gardens belong to people in Tripoli. They are the sweetest,
prettiest, loveliest little things which I have seen in all my nine
months' tour. Oh, that these valleys were full of them!
At noon, we passed the ruins of Lebida (or Lebdah) on our right, situate
on the sea-shore, several miles out of the line of route. What nonsense
to believe Cicerones in these parts. Regini told me I should be sure to
see Lebida, for it was in the road--that is to say, five or six miles
off, behind sand-hills. The whole of the ground, from Sahel to these
first groups of Eastern Atlas, is scattered over with Roman and Greek
ruins, and, as it happens, there is a huge piece of an ancient building
in the road itself, apparently a temple. I was too weak, however, to
descend from the camel, to look closely at it. Many of these
mountain-ridges are crowned with ancient forts, and farther on, when we
arrived close by the sea-shore, we observed the remains of a Roman
road,--a firm broad layer of cement and small stones embedded in the
shifting sands. This was making a road in a business-like, dominion-like
style, and worthy of those once mighty masters of the world. In our
traverse of the mountains we met the Bey of Misratah returning from
Tripoli, full of the confidence of his Turkish master the Pasha, and very
splendidly attired though _en route_, with some dozen mounted Moors, all
very gay, showing themselves off on their prancing barbs. Essnousee, with
all our people, descended from their camels to pay their respects to
these big-wigs, and made them a present of some crushed Sockna dates,
called Krum. Here new cavalry horses were feeding, attended by the
Nitham, or new troops. The Turks in Tripoli have but one small troop of
horse.
The old Moor with one slave, and I frequently had some serious talk
together, but I could seldom draw him out. I spoke to him about Said
to-day.
_Myself._--"I don't know what to do with Said. If I take him to my
country, the cold will hurt him, and perhaps he'll die."
_Old Moor._--"Rubbee (God)!"
_Myself._--"I thought of giving him my camel, and letting him turn
camel-driver; but the Arabs are such thieves, they will soon steal the
camel from him."
_Old Moor._--"Rubbee (God)!"
_Myself._--"He's such a goose, too, he gives away all he has."
_Old Moor._--"Rubbee (God)!"
_Myself._--"Perhaps I shall leave Said at Tripoli."
_Old Moor._--"If it please God."
_16th._--All the morning we continued to traverse the Atlas groups. I
found the lesser summits of these groups also strikingly contrasted with
the Saharan ridges. Here were heights crowned with fresh and green
cultivation. On the contrary, the Saharan mountain tops are covered with
lava and columnar green stone, and overstrewn with other loose stones,
forming an extensive black and dreary plain. At noon, we got upon
undulating ground, a great part of which was under cultivation, with here
and there sheep and cattle grazing. Encamped in the Wady Seid (Zag). This
undulating ground is sometimes called the fertile plain of El-Jumr. Wady
Seid is now quite dry, but evidently has a strong and large current
during the winter rains. In the course of this day's march, crossed many
small but deep dry ravines, all of which have water in the winter. No
hares or gazelles were started in these few days' journey from Misratah,
the country being generally populated, but birds increased on every side.
Noticed here, as in Tunis, a great variety of beetles. North Africa,
indeed, is the classic land of beetles; also a few snakes and many
lizards were observed. Our people now all shaved their heads and washed,
changing their linen in preparation for our entering Tripoli to-morrow or
next day. A Moor will wear a shirt three months, an Arab, six months or a
year. They cannot comprehend the necessity of the frequent changes of
linen by Europeans. And yet, Moors will take a bath once or twice a day,
whilst they re-put on their linen for three months together.
_17th._--When we started this morning we fully expected to reach Tripoli
in the evening, at least I did, leaving the ghafalah at Tajourah. But,
after we had marched a few hours, the sky was suddenly overcast, and the
wind blew until it became a horrible tempest--
"Sudden the impetuous hurricanes descend,
Wheel through the air, in circling eddies play,
Tear up the sands, and sweep whole plains away."
We got safely over Wady Rumel, whose bed is covered with reeds, having
besides a good deal of stagnant water. My nagah forded the river as well
as any of the camels, if not better. We now entered the sands of the
sea-shore, and after two hours sat down to eat a few dates. We resumed
our march through the sands which line the margin of the sea, the wind
meanwhile blowing a perfect gale.
Now I witnessed what I had not seen in my nine months' Saharan travel, a
veritable sandstorm. The wind so filled the air with sand, that we could
hardly see, or get on groping our way, and we were obliged to hold on our
camels, for fear of being blown off. Our poor slaves shrunk back aghast
from the tempest, whilst the sea now and then broke open upon them
through the sand groups, showing, to their amazement, its most
tempestuous aspect.
Assuredly this, their first sight of the sea, will be associated in
memory hereafter with the greatest and most cruel sufferings of our poor
slaves, for to-day they suffered unusually from the wind and cold--the
tempest of sand blinding them, and the miserable creatures falling
continually on the wayside. I secured my eyes and face from the sand by
tying round them a dark silk handkerchief, through which I saw my way
without getting eyes, ears, and mouth full of sand. All our animals, as
well as our people, had a thick coating of sand round their eyes, the
cold and wind making their eyes run, and the water collecting the sand.
Unable to proceed farther, we were obliged to encamp about 2 P.M., close
by the sea-shore, under the shadow of a great cliff, the spray of the
waves washing our feet and resting-place, and the noise of their chafing
and roaring stunning our ears, whilst the sand-storm worked its way of
desolation over our heads. The slaves surprised by this new sight of the
sea, lashed into its wildest form, stared with wonder and horror at the
tempest-tossed waters; some grinned and chattered with their teeth;
others looked savage and moody, as if asking, "Whether the devils of the
white men inhabited these waters?" whilst others, cowered down and
sinking, hid their faces under their tattered clothes. I love to look
upon the sea in its wildest shape, possessed by the tempest, and am
disposed to be very poetical about it, but, mind you, rather from the
land, than pitching over its briny foamy billows. We had some rain, and
the cold was intense during the night. In very deed, it seemed as if
heaven and earth were conspiring against the wretched, slaves the nearer
they approached the end of their sufferings! Still there was an end of
this, as of all things, and God sent us fair weather the next day. I was
grievously afflicted about Said this night. He had suddenly disappeared
during the sandstorm, and what had become of him I could not tell. I kept
asking myself, "Whether he was doomed to perish at the gates of Tripoli,
on his return, after his painfully wearying journey?" I sent out people
on all sides. No tidings were brought of him. All was a blank...... We
called, and called...... No answer.
_18th._--Started early, but without Said. I began to be overwhelmed with
sadness at his unaccountable disappearance. My impression was, when more
calm, that he had overslept himself during the day, whilst we rested an
hour to eat a few dates on the sand, and the slaves walking with him, or
his companions, allowed him to sleep on without waking him. I missed him
immediately, but was told he was a short way behind and would soon be up
to us. As he was in the habit of loitering behind in this way, I saw no
reason for not believing what the slaves said. However, I lectured the
slaves and all the people, knowing he could not have been left behind
without some trick, or connivance on their part, threatening to bring
them up before the Pasha. This startled them, and they were all uneasy.
Before, they seemed to care no more about it than if a dog had been left
behind. But at noon, Said was brought up by an Arab who had found him on
the roadside, lost and wandering about. He pretended he had been sick and
stayed behind voluntarily, afraid to accuse the slaves to me of their
unkindness in leaving him sleeping on the sands. Said knew very well we
had fed them and clothed them often _en route_, and the sick had often
been placed on my camel, whilst I walked wearily over Desert. I really
felt deeply wounded at this ingratitude of the slaves, but I believe it
was a trick planned by Essnousee, to give us annoyance. Poor Said had
slept all night in open Desert, amidst sand and wind, and cold and rain,
with nothing to eat. His lips were blanched and his eyes streamed with
water. I got him placed on a camel.
The wind continues to blow high, and the storm still lingers late,
scattering about sand. Several of the female slaves are placed on the
camels from utter exhaustion. Others are cruelly driven on. Just as we
arrive at Tajourah, a negress of tender age falls down from exhaustion,
bleeding copiously from the mouth. The Arabs on foot cannot get her
along. Essnousee, seeing this, called out, "Beat her, beat her." But the
people not obeying his brutal orders, he immediately jumped off the
camel, taking with him a thick stick to beat her. As soon as he did this,
not being able to restrain myself, I instantly also jumped off my camel,
and ran after him, taking with me a stick, a match for his. When I got up
to him, surrounded with a group of people, some of whom were from the
neighbouring village, all striving to save the girl from his stick, I
called out, "Now, stop, stop your stick, we are now in Tripoli; no more
whipping on the road," holding up my stick and assuming a threatening
attitude, determined to resist the slave-driver at all risks. Seeing
this, he cowered back at once, and screamed out, "Oh, it's a she-devil!"
The people now took courage against the monster, and said, "No, no, she's
exhausted with fatigue (with the way)." Essnousee then had her carried on
the back of a camel to the village, and afterwards she continued riding
to Tripoli. I was just in the humour for giving this miscreant
slave-driver a thrashing, and taking on him satisfaction (but a millionth
part indeed), for the torments he had, during forty days inflicted upon
these wretched slaves, and should have done so had he attempted to beat
the poor exhausted bleeding negress. I felt myself secure enough at the
entrance of the gardens of Tripoli, and could well stand the risk of
being brought up before the Pasha for flagellating an honourable
man-dealer.
We sat down under some olives a minute, ate a few dates, drank a little
water, and then entered the gardens of Tajourah, which offered nothing
new, except that they were more richly cultivated than most of those we
had seen on our way. Threading our way amidst the mud garden walls, I was
gratefully soothed with the sight of increasing culture, and population.
A sweet trait of the tender passion must be here recorded as taking place
amidst this havoc of human cruelty, perpetrated on our sable brothers and
sisters. At the side of my camel were two young things, a lad and a girl,
who every now and then, when the Moors turned their heads, watching their
opportunity, kept locking one another's fingers together. The lad now
started off as if shot from a bow, and instantly brought some beans from
a neighbouring garden, and these he presented gracefully to his
lady-love. With such a little innocent incident, and there were many of
the kind, I bid an eternal farewell to this slave caravan, by stating
succinctly the results of my observations on the traffic in slaves, as
carried on in The Great Desert of Sahara.
_1st._--The slave-traffic is on the increase in The Great Desert; (though
temporarily decreasing on the route of Bornou).
_2nd._--Many slaves are flogged to death _en route_ from Ghat to
Tripoli, and others are over-driven or starved to death.
_3rd._--The female slaves are subjected to the most obscene insults and
torments by the Arab and Moorish slave-drivers; whilst the youngest
females (children of four or five years of age) are violated by their
brutal masters, the Tibboos, in coming from Bornou to Ghat, or Fezzan.
_4th._--Slave children, of five years of age, walk more than one hundred
and thirty days over The Great Desert, and other districts of Africa,
before they can reach the slave-markets of Tripoli to be sold.
_5th._--Three-fourths of the slave-traffic of The Great Desert and
Central Africa, are supported by the money and goods of European
merchants, resident in Tunis, Tripoli, Algiers, and Egypt.
_6th._--A considerable traffic in slaves is carried on in the Southern
Provinces of Algeria, under French protection, by the Soufah and Shânbah
Arabs.
_7th._--At present there are no wars carried on in Central Africa, except
those for the capture of slaves, to supply the markets of Tripoli and
Constantinople; (so far as my information goes).
_8th._--Slaves are the grand staple commerce of the Soudan and Bornou
caravans, and without slaves this commerce could hardly exist. Twenty
years ago, the Sheikh of Bornou reiterated to our countrymen; "You say
that we are all the sons of one father; you say also, that the sons of
Adam should not sell one another; and you know every thing. God has given
you great talents. What are we to do? The Arabs who come here will have
nothing else but slaves. Why do you not send us merchants?"
The gardens of Tajourah are about one and a half hours' ride. There was
then the break of an hour, where are pools of stagnant salt-water, with
snipes running about. Afterwards we entered the gardens of the Masheeah,
amongst which is the British garden, or residence of Colonel Warrington.
The Masheeah is a series of mud-walled gardens, or small fields of corn,
fruit, and vegetable cultivation, and houses within the enclosures. Some
of them not unlike town farms. The whole stretches some ten miles along
the sea-shore. The population of the Masheeah, including Tajourah, is
equal to that of the city of Tripoli itself, if not greater. These
suburban villages have their mosques and religious establishments. They
have besides a separate Governor from that of the town, and their
inhabitants exercise great political influence during a revolution. In
the last, these people supported one Bashaw, or pretender against the
other, or that of the city. The Masheeah is two-thirds of a mile from the
gates of Tripoli. The houses and gardens being situate mostly on the east
and southeastern suburbs of the city.
We arrived in the neighbourhood of the British Consul's garden an hour
before sunset. On the road, near it, are great gaping holes, very
convenient for tumbling in on a dark night. These holes were dug years
ago to store grain in. The Tripoline Government thinks it not worth while
to fill them up. Immense fig-trees have grown up in some of these holes.
I deemed it prudent to wait near the Consular Gardens till dark, having
rather a dervish appearance, and being without an European hat, cap, or
shoes. Whilst waiting in a neighbouring garden, a Moor came up to me and
talked, and then brought me a little cuscasou. I felt sensibly this
trifling manifestation of hospitality on my return.
It is now just eight months and a half since I left Tripoli for Ghadames.
I have passed eighty days, or nine hundred and sixty hours, out of this
on the camel's back, and made a tour in The Sahara of some one thousand
six hundred miles. I reckon my distances and days thus, averaging one
with another:--
DAYS' JOURNEY.
From Tripoli to Ghadames 15 days
From Ghadames to Ghat 20 "
From Ghat to Mourzuk 15 "
From Mourzuk to Tripoli 30 "
--
Total 80 "
These eighty, days, at the rate of twenty miles per day, make 1600 miles.
I walked every day, one day with another, about two hours, which, at the
rate of two and a half miles per hour, makes the distance of four hundred
miles that I went on foot through the Great Desert.
I wore out two or three pairs of shoes, but not one suit of clothes. My
Moorish articles of dress I gave to Said, except the burnouse, which I
gave away afterwards in Algeria. My whole expenses, including servant,
camel, provisions, lodging, Moorish clothes, &c., &c., for the nine
months' tour, did not exceed fifty pounds' sterling, and nearly half of
this was given away in presents to the people and the various chieftains,
who figure in the journal. I am sure, for I did not keep an exact
account, my expenses did not exceed the round number of fifty by more
than half a dozen pounds. I hope, therefore, I shall not be blamed for
want of economy in Saharan travelling, especially when it is seen that
the Messrs. Lyon and Ritchie expedition cost Government three thousand
(3000) pounds' sterling, whose journey did not extend further south than
mine, nor did they, indeed, penetrate so completely into The Sahara as I
have done. Capt. Lyon likewise writes, that without "additional pecuniary
supplies," he could not think of proceeding farther into the Interior,
and accordingly returned. But were a person to ask me these questions,
"Did you spend enough? Did you supply all your necessary wants? Could you
safely recommend others to follow your example?" I must reply negatively
to them all. This tour, to have been performed properly, as undertaken
only by a private individual, ought to have cost at least one hundred
pounds. The reader will, perhaps, be inquisitive to know, at whose
expense the journey was accomplished. On this score, I am also disposed
to be as communicative as on other points, for I do not wish this or that
patronage to be suspected, although certainly the spending of fifty or
sixty pounds' sterling is not a very mighty business. Well, then, the
expenses were paid out of the funds of a salary granted for
correspondence by one of the London newspapers. So much for the aid
supplied by the Fourth Estate for the prosecution of philanthropic
objects and discoveries in Africa. Let our printers' devils have their
due in these days of universal patronage and pretension.
I now lay down and stretched myself at full length upon the fresh herbage
under a sheltering palm, watching with a silent melancholy the last
departing rays of the sun. I then thought over all my journey, beginning
with the beginning and ending with the end, all the incidents of the
route from first to last, and all the privations and sufferings I had
undergone--praying to and thanking the Almighty for having delivered me
from every ill and every danger.
POSTSCRIPT.--Said, on my leaving Tripoli, was committed to the care of
Signor Merlato, the Austrian Consul, who promised to find him employment,
or keep him in his own service. My poor camel, for which, were I a poet,
I would chant a plaintive strain of adieu! I was obliged to sell. The
Bengazi Arab who bought her promised me, however, to treat her lightly,
and only to use her to ride upon.
"The world and I fortuitously met,
I owed a trifle, and have paid the debt."
FOOTNOTES:
[127] On the plains of Angadda the French troops, at the battle of
Isly, passed two or three days together through fields of barley.
THE END.
LONDON: HARRISON AND CO., PRINTERS, 45, ST. MARTIN'S LANE.
Transcriber's Notes:
1. On page 249 of Vol. II, there is a possible line missing.
A period has been changed to a comma & marked. See the original
page image for details.
2. <th> in dates has been italicised consistently.
3. There are numerous spelling inconsistencies in proper and place names
as well as within accented characters. These have been left as printed.