WHEN our workmen left us, and the excavations were stopped in the end of
April, we had a considerable collection of valuable sculptures in our
tomb, but were still uncertain whether we should be furnished by the
Government with the means of sending them home. To determine the best
method of conveying them to the shore, should the means of doing so be
granted, we had carefully examined the country between Cyrene and the
coast. The greatest difficulty to be overcome was the descent of the
Augubah, or lower range of precipitous hills near the sea, to which our
attention was, therefore, specially directed. We soon found, however,
that little or no choice was left us, the only practicable pass near
Cyrene being on the track of the ancient road to Apollonia, now called
Marsa Sousah. It was evident that the transport of the statues over such
a road would be a work of great labour and considerable difficulty; but,
at the same time, we thought it quite a feasible undertaking. We
accordingly sent a report of our proceedings to Lord Russell as early as
the month of February, soon after the discovery of the Bacchus, and
enclosed a detail of the means we considered best adapted for the
carriage of that statue and such others as might afterwards be found.
His lordship readily granted the required means, and, at his request, a
man-of-war, with all the stores and appliances we had suggested, was
ordered to proceed to Marsa Sousah to embark the sculptures. Owing,
however, to the want of communication with Europe, we did not receive
the reply to our report until after the actual arrival of the vessel in
the month of May. About the same time a letter reached us from Mr.
Panizzi, principal Librarian of the British Museum, informing us that
the Trustees had voted us a subsidy of £100 towards defraying the
expenses of the expedition.
H.M.S. _Assurance_, Commander C. M. Aynsley, arrived off Marsa Sousah on
the 10th of May, but finding a strong breeze blowing towards the shore
from the north-west, she steamed on about fifteen miles to the eastward,
and anchored in a more sheltered position behind Ras El Hilal. As the
fact of our being at Cyrene was by this time well known throughout the
country, the officers of the _Assurance_ had no difficulty in finding an
Arab to whom they could make themselves understood, and who was
forthwith despatched with a letter to inform us of their arrival. After
walking all night he reached our quarters early in the morning. As we
had hitherto received no letters from England, we were most agreeably
surprised by the good news he brought us, and gave him an unusually
liberal backshish in consequence. Independently of the encouragement and
assistance given us by the arrival of the vessel, we were, of course,
delighted with the prospect of seeing some of our own friends and
countrymen after our solitary residence of five months among negroes and
Bedouins. We immediately saddled our horses and started for Ras El Hilal
without delay, accompanied by the Arab who brought the letter, and by
our friend Amor Bon Abdi Seyat and his brother. Great part of the road
along the shore from Marsa Sousah was over sharp rocks and across deep
rugged wadys, so that it was with difficulty that we reached Ras El
Hilal after an eight hours’ ride. We there found some of the officers on
shore shooting, with whom we went on board for the night, leaving our
horses in charge of Amor and his brother.
Ras El Hilal, behind which the _Assurance_ was anchored, is the site of
the ancient Naustathmus, of which almost no remains are now to be seen.
The following morning, May 12th, the wind having moderated, the vessel
steamed round to Marsa Sousah, and anchored about half a mile from the
shore. A party of thirty blue jackets and marines, who were all that
could be spared from the ship, were immediately landed, under the
command of Lieutenant Luard, R.N., and encamped on the beach. The
waggons and stores of all sorts were then disembarked, and two ship’s
carpenters sent to Cyrene to make packing-cases for the marbles. Amor
and his friends meanwhile scoured the country in all directions to get
camels to carry the plank and stores up to Cyrene, but had considerable
difficulty in finding a sufficient number, as the Arabs were all at work
getting in their harvest. After two days’ delay we at last got about a
dozen collected at the camp on the beach. Besides those required for the
carriage of the planks and stores to Cyrene, a number of camels were
wanted to accompany the working party with the waggons to carry the
sailors’ tents and baggage, and keep them supplied with water. An
arrangement was accordingly made with the drivers, by which we agreed to
pay a certain sum _per trip_ for each camel carrying a load to Cyrene,
and a certain sum _per diem_ for each camel that remained with the
waggon party. The tents and baggage were consequently placed in one
heap, and the stores for Cyrene in another, the drivers being allowed to
distribute the work among themselves as they pleased. The usual tiresome
wrangling over the division of the loads ensued, as a matter of course,
and on this occasion it lasted all day. Towards evening the different
burdens were at last adjusted, and the camels loaded. We congratulated
ourselves that we were now on the point of effecting a start, when the
owners of the camels that were loaded with the sailors’ baggage changed
their minds, and said they would either go up to Cyrene or not go at
all. Argument and expostulation were in vain; they coolly unloaded the
camels and took their departure. We were accordingly obliged to pitch
our tents again for the night, and remain where we were as patiently as
possible.
Next day we fortunately met our friend Mohammed El Adouly, who undertook
to supply us with a sufficient number of camels, and to superintend the
drivers himself. We were thus saved a great deal of trouble and delay,
as he carried out his contract to our entire satisfaction.
We started from Marsa Sousah with the two waggons on the 14th, and
reached the foot of the Augubah the same night. Next morning we dragged
the waggons one at a time up the slope of the hill, until further
progress became impossible. The only way of getting them to the top was
by unscrewing all the connecting bolts, and carrying the separate pieces
on the men’s shoulders. Owing to the steepness of the narrow rocky path,
and the weight of the wheels and many of the other pieces, this was a
work of great labour; but the sailors had made up their minds that it
must be done, and they did it accordingly. It was only after three days’
incessant toil that they got everything to the top, when the waggons
were again put together, and the journey resumed in the usual way. Our
progress, however, was slow; as, throughout a great part of the way, a
road had to be cleared and made before it was possible to get the
waggons dragged along. Except at one or two places, the party was barely
strong enough to drag one waggon at a time, although our numbers were by
this time increased by the arrival of seven blacks from Benghazi.
Our usual method of proceeding was as follows:—We got up at daybreak,
had breakfast, and started with the waggons before sunrise. We remained
at work till eight or nine o’clock, when the party returned to the camp
and rested till about three in the afternoon, when the tents were struck
and packed with the baggage on the camels. From the distance traversed
in the morning, it was easy to foresee what point would be reached
before night. A convenient place for encampment was therefore chosen
after the morning’s work, and two or three men were sent on with the
baggage in the afternoon, to pitch the tents and cook the men’s supper,
before their arrival with the waggons at sunset. The men worked most
cheerfully, and seemed quite to enjoy the change from shipboard. After
supper, their great amusement was to build large bonfires all round the
camp, for the purpose, as they said, of keeping off the wild beasts.
Even after their hard day’s work, they used to sit round the fires
telling stories and singing songs till far into the night, much to the
wonder of the Arabs and negroes who were in the camp.
Meantime the carpenters had packed the statues, so that on our arrival
at Cyrene on the 24th, the loads for the waggons were ready. On one
waggon we placed the Bacchus and the largest of the small statues, and
on the other the Apollo in three cases. The smaller objects, such as
heads, statuettes, &c., were packed in small boxes to be carried by
camels. We were obliged to leave three of the largest of the small
figures, and also the statue of Hadrian, as there was no room for them
in the waggons, and they were too heavy for the camels.
We started from Cyrene on the morning of the 29th, and, taking only one
waggon at a time, reached the plain at the base of the hills the same
night. The five following days were spent in crossing the lower plateau
to the top of the Augubah, where we arrived on the 3rd of June. The
wheels of the waggons were by this time considerably shaken by the heavy
jolting over rocks and stones, but still remained unbroken.
We had now to face our chief difficulty, the descent of the Augubah.
After considering every possible way in which it could be done, we
decided on lowering the waggons straight down the face of the hill by
means of tackle. The least rugged part of the hill being selected, our
first care was to provide the means of making fast the lowering tackle,
which was done by placing heavy boat’s anchors in holes cut for the
purpose in the rock. The front axle of the waggon was then lashed to the
body of the carriage to prevent the fore wheels from getting locked
against the sides of the waggon, and thereby upsetting it. A tackle,
consisting of a 3½-inch rope, rove through two double blocks, was then
made fast to the anchors, and to the centre of the fore axle, and the
waggon lowered slowly, hind wheels foremost. About one-third of the way
down, there was a nearly level ledge or terrace, forming part of the
ancient road to Apollonia, which served as a convenient halting-place
from which to make a fresh start. To reach this point, however, the
waggons, as they were being lowered, had to be guided in a slanting
direction across the face of the hill, which was safely done with the
first waggon by means of handspikes. Not content to “let well alone,” we
unfortunately thought to improve upon this simple method in the lowering
of the other one. In addition to the anchors already in position,
another was placed some distance to the right, and directly above the
part of the terrace to which the waggons had to be taken. After the
waggon had been lowered to a convenient place, the standing part of the
tackle was to be transferred from the first anchor to the second one,
thereby causing the waggon, when the lowering was continued, to slant
across to the right until it was directly under the second anchor, to
which the whole tackle was then to be transferred, and the waggon
lowered straight down to the halting-place on the terrace. It was, in
fact, an application of the principle of the _whip_ used for taking
weights over a ship’s side. Unfortunately, the second anchor was not
properly placed in the hole made for it. The petty officer sent to look
after it, instead of letting it remain as we had left it, thought he had
improved its hold by placing it horizontally in a cleft of the rock, so
as to act not as an _anchor_, but as what is called a _toggle_. The
result was, that whenever it felt the indirect strain of the slanting
motion of the waggon, it at once tilted up and lost its hold. To our
horror, away went the waggon at a tremendous pace, and the anchor after
it almost flying. For a second or two the destruction of the waggon and
the Apollo seemed inevitable, as it was heading straight for a precipice
two or three hundred feet in height, when, to our relief, it gave a
great bound, and landed itself in a large cavity in the rock. Strange to
say, not even a spoke of a wheel was broken. With considerable
difficulty we got it out of its lodgment, and along the terrace to the
part selected as the starting-point for the further lowering to the
bottom of the hill. Here the face of the hill presented a continuous
slope, about 400 yards in length, and so steep that it was impossible to
climb it at some parts, except on hands and feet. All the ropes the ship
could afford were spliced to make a tackle of sufficient length. The
anchors were again placed in holes cut in the rock, and the fore axles
of the waggons lashed as before. The great danger to be avoided was the
_serging_ of the waggon, caused by the elasticity of such a length of
tackle. To prevent this, a few men with handspikes went with the waggon
to keep it moving as uniformly as the nature of the ground would admit.
Both waggons reached the bottom without accident, and were saluted on
their arrival there by three hearty cheers from the whole party.
The following day the _Assurance_ anchored abreast of the Augubah, and
the waggons were dragged to the beach, where a triangle was set up in
water deep enough for a loaded boat. The waggons were then run under it,
and the cases, one by one, weighed and lowered into the ship’s boats. On
the same day, Mohammed El Adouly’s camels brought down the last of the
smaller cases; so that before night everything was on board.
For the success of all the operations connected with the transport and
embarkation of the statues we were greatly indebted to Captain Aynsley,
the officers, and crew of the _Assurance_, and particularly to
Lieutenant Luard and the working party under his command. He was himself
indefatigable in his exertions to get the work carried on, and his
orders were most cheerfully obeyed by the men, whose “pluck” and
determination overcame every obstacle.
Early the following morning, the 8th of June, the _Assurance_ left for
Malta, and we returned to our solitary residence at Cyrene.