is felt at once; and this feeling grows stronger on a prolonged
residence.[56] Even in the plantation which surrounds it there are only
a few favoured spots where, under the protection of a deeper shade of
the date-trees, a few fruit-trees can be cultivated, such as
pomegranates, figs, and peaches. Culinary vegetables, including onions,
are extremely scarce; milk, except a little from the goats, is of course
quite out of the question.
The town lies in a flat hollow, “Hófrah,” which is the appropriate
native name of the district, but nevertheless at the considerable
elevation of 1495 ft., surrounded by ridges of sand; and in this hollow
lies scattered the plantation, without the least symmetry of arrangement
or mark of order. In some places it forms a long narrow strip extending
to a great distance, in others a detached grove, while on the south-east
side of the town the desert approaches close to the walls in a deep
inlet. Towards the east a little grove apart forms as it were an
advanced post. The densest and finest part of the grove is towards the
north, where also are the greatest number of gardens and fields in which
wheat, barley, gédheb (or rather kédheb), and a few vegetables, are
cultivated with much labour. In the same quarter also the greatest
number of cottages are to be found, including huts (large and small)
made of palm-branches,—the former consisting of several apartments and a
small courtyard, the latter having generally only one room of very
narrow dimensions.
In the midst of this plantation lies Múrzuk. It is situated so as not to
face the cardinal points, but with a deviation from them of thirty
degrees, the north side running N. 30° E., S. 30° W., and so on: it is
less than two miles in circumference. The walls, built of clay, with
round and pointed bastions, but partly in bad repair, have two gates,
the largest on the east, and the other on the west side. There is only a
very small gate on the north side, and there is none towards the south.
This quarter of the town has been greatly contracted by ʿAbd el Jelíl,
as the remains of the old wall of the time of Mukni clearly show; but
the town is still much too large for its scanty population, which is
said now to amount to 2800, and the greatest part of it, especially in
the quarters most distant from the bazar, is thinly inhabited and half
in ruins. The characteristic feature of the town, which shows that it
has more points of relation with Negroland than with the lands of the
Arabs, is the spacious road or “dendal” stretching out from the eastern
gate as far as the castle, and making the principal part of the town
more airy, but also infinitely more exposed to the heat.
The bazar, of course, is the most frequented part of the town. It lies
nearly half-way between the east and west gates, but a little nearer to
the former, and affords, with its halls of palm-stems, a very
comfortable place for the sellers and buyers. The watch-house at the
east end of the bazar, and almost opposite Mr. Gagliuffi’s house (from
the terrace of which the accompanying view was taken), is ornamented
with a portico of six columns, which adds to the neat appearance of this
quarter of the town. The kásbah is the same as in Captain Lyon’s time,
with its immense walls and small apartments; but the outer court has
been much improved by the building of a barrack or kishlah, which now
forms its northern portion. It is a large quadrangular building, with a
spacious esplanade in the interior, around which are arranged the
principal apartments. The building is said to be capable of containing
2000 men, though at present there are but 400 in the garrison, who are
well lodged and fed.
[Illustration: Drawn by J. M. Bernatz, from a Sketch by Dr. Barth.
M. & N. Hanhart, lith. et impt.
MÚRZUK.
May 1850.]
The accompanying sketch of a ground-plan will give a tolerably exact
idea of the whole character of the town.
[Illustration:
1. Custom-house.
2. Guard-house.
3. Watch-house.
4. Mr. Gagliuffi’s house.
5. Garden.
6. House of the agent of Bórnu.
7. Mosque.
8. First courtyard of kásbah.
9. Kishla.
10. Staircase leading to the upper apartments.]
With regard to commerce, the condition of Múrzuk is very different from
that of Ghadámes. The latter is the residence of wealthy merchants, who
embark all their capital in commercial enterprises, and bring home their
own merchandise. But Múrzuk is rather the thoroughfare than the seat of
a considerable commerce, the whole annual value of imports and exports
amounting, in a round sum, to 100,000 Spanish dollars; and the place,
therefore, is usually in great want of money, the foreign merchants,
when they have sold their merchandise, carrying away its price in
specie,—the Mejábera to Jálo, the Tébu to Bílma and Bórnu, the people of
Tawát and Ghadámes to their respective homes. Few of the principal
merchants of Múrzuk are natives of the place. The western or Sudán route
is more favourable to commerce than the route to Bórnu. On the latter
the Tawárek are always ready to furnish any number of camels to carry
merchandise, and to guarantee their safety, while the road to Bórnu,
which is the nearest for Múrzuk, is in such a precarious state, that the
merchant who selects it must convey his merchandise on his own camels
and at his own risk. As for the routes through Fezzán, the Hotmán, the
Zwáya, and the Megésha are the general carriers of the merchandise;
while, on the route to Sudán, the conveyance at present is wholly in the
hands of the Tinýlkum.
As soon as Gagliuffi learned distinctly the plan of our expedition, he
made an agreement with these people to take our things as far as
Selúfiet; and they were anxious to be off. After much procrastination,
they fixed upon the 6th of June for taking away the merchandise with
which we had been provided here. We were to follow on the 12th; but the
luggage not being ready at an early hour, our final departure was fixed
for the 13th.
[Footnote 56: I will here only remark, that the degree of heat observed
here by Captain Lyon, which has astonished and perplexed all scientific
men, is not the real state of the atmosphere, but evidently depended
upon the peculiar character of the locality where that enterprising and
meritorious traveller had placed his thermometer.]
[Illustration: DR. BARTH’S TRAVELS IN NORTH AND CENTRAL AFRICA Sheet No.
4.
MAP OF THE ROUTE FROM MÚRZUK TO WÁDÍ FALÉSSELEZ 13. June to 5. August
1850.
Constructed and drawn by A. Petermann.
Engraved by E. Weller, _Duke Strt. Bloomsbury._
_London, Longman & Co._]
CHAP. VIII.
THE DESERT. — TASÁWA. — EXACTIONS OF THE ESCORT. — DELAY AT ELÁWEN.
[Sidenote: Thursday, June 13th.]
Accompanied by Mr. Gagliuffi, the Greek doctor, and the Bin-básha, we
left Múrzuk by the western gate. My parting from Mr. Gagliuffi was
cordial. He had received us and treated us hospitably, and had shown
an earnest desire to further our proceedings, and to secure if possible
the success of our expedition; and, if in his commercial transactions
with the mission he did not neglect his own advantage, we could not
complain, though it would have been infinitely better for us if we had
been provided with a more useful sort of merchandise.
In leaving the town we kept, in general, along the same path by which we
had first entered it, and encamped during the hot hours of the day in
the scanty shade afforded by the trees of Zerghán, the well close by
affording us delicious draughts of cool water, not at all of that
brackish insipid taste which is common to the water of Fezzán. We had
started in the belief that we should find our luggage in Óm el hammám;
but in this place we learned from the poor ragged people who come
occasionally hither to take care of the trees, that it was gone on to
Tigger-urtín. Not knowing, however, the road to the latter place, we
took the path to Óm el hammám, and encamped about seven o’clock in the
afternoon a little north of it.
Óm el hammám is a half-decayed and deserted village, built of clay,
which is strongly incrusted with salt, the inhabitants at present living
entirely in huts made of palm-branches. The plantation being intermixed
with a large number of ethel-trees (_Tamarix orientalis_), and
interspersed with gardens, exhibited a more varied aspect than is
generally the case with these groves; and having pitched our tent near a
large ethel-bush, we felt very comfortable, especially as we had the
good luck to obtain a few eggs, which, fried with plenty of onions, made
a very palatable supper.
Next morning we directed our course to Tigger-urtín, making almost a
right angle towards the north, and crossing a desolate plain incrusted
with salt, after we had left the fine plantation of Óm el hammám. Having
reached the village of our camel-drivers, which consists entirely of
huts of palm-branches, we looked long in vain for a tolerable camping-
ground, as the strong wind filled the whole air with sand. At length we
pitched our tents a few paces south from the well. It was an extremely
sultry and oppressive day, and the wind anything but refreshing.
In the afternoon we went to pay our compliments to Mohammed Bóro, who
had left Múrzuk several days before us. He informed us that he had
consumed all his provisions, and that he would have left to-day for
Tasáwa, in order to replenish his stores, if he had not seen us coming.
We consoled him with the intimation that we hoped our whole party would
be soon ready for starting, and sent him a quantity of dates and corn.
The next day I went roving through the valley, which a little further to
the N.W. was much prettier, and had several fine clusters of palm-trees;
but the most picturesque object was the old village, built of clay, now
entirely in decay, but surrounded by a dense group of fine date-trees.
Subjoined is a sketch of it.
[Illustration]
At the south-west end of the grove also is a little village, likewise
deserted. Here I met a Felláta or Pullo slave, a full-grown man, who,
when a young lad, had been carried away from his native home, somewhere
about Kazaure, and since then had been moiling and toiling here in this
half-deserted valley, which had become his second home. He told me that
fever had driven away the old inhabitants of the village long ago, after
which the Tinýlkum seem to have taken entire possession of it, though it
is remarkable that its name seems rather to belong to the Berber
language, its original form being Tigger-odén (ŏdē means the valley),
which has been changed into the more general form Tigger-urtín. The
whole valley, which makes a turn towards the south-west, is full of
ethel-bush, and affords shelter to a number of doves. Groups of palm-
trees are scattered about.
[Sidenote: June 16th.]
In the morning I took a walk round the village of the Tinýlkum, which
exhibited some lively and interesting scenes. All the men were saying
their prayers together upon a sand-hill on the north side of the
principal cluster of cottages, while the women were busy in getting
ready the provisions for the long journey about to be undertaken by
their husbands, and the children were playing among them. About fifty or
sixty huts were lying hereabouts, most of them formed into groups;
others more detached. Some of them had pointed roofs, while others were
flat-roofed; but all of them had a neat and orderly appearance. Besides
camels, which constitute their principal wealth, as by means of them
they are enabled to undertake those long annual journeys to Sudán, they
possess a good many sheep. Two of our camel-drivers, Ibrahím and Slimán,
whom I shall have occasion to mention repeatedly, together with their
mother and sister, were in possession of a flock of about 200 head,
which they were sending to the fine pasture-grounds of Terhén in Wadi
Berjúsh. Besides the latter valley, the Tinýlkum also use the valley
Táderart as their chief pasture-grounds.
On the E.N.E. side of the village rose a hill about 100 feet high, and
affording a fine view over the valley-plain. From its highest summit,
where a niche for prayers has been laid out with stones on the ground,
it stretches from east to west, and forms a kind of separation in the
flat valley, limiting the ethel-tree to its western part, all the sand-
hills in the eastern prolongation being covered with palm-bushes, which,
from a distance, have the appearance of a thick grove. Descending from
this hill northwards, I came to the handsomely-decorated sepulchre of
Háj Sálemi, the brother of the sheikh, who resides in Múrzuk, and
further on met a party of Tinýlkum _en route_ for the wadi, where
numbers of them are residing. Another division dwells about Sebhha; but
the whole body of the tribe comprises from 350 to 400 families, which
are united by the closest bonds, and act as one body—“like meal” (to use
their own expression) “falling through the numerous holes of a sieve
into one pot.” About noon arrived the pilgrim-caravan of the Tawáti,
which had been long encamped near Múrzuk, on their way home; it had been
this year only 114 persons strong, with 70 muskets, while sometimes it
musters as many as 500 persons. Their chief, or sheikh el rákeb, was an
intelligent person of the name of ʿAbd el Káder, a native of Timímun,
who had been leader of the caravan several times. They encamped at no
great distance from us on the open ground.
Being obliged to buy another camel for myself (in order to be able to
mount our servant Mohammed el Túnsi on a camel of our own, the Tinýlkum
being very particular about their beasts, and not liking to see a man
often mounting them), I bought, in the afternoon, a fine tall méheri
from Háj Mohammed, for 69 Fezzán riyals or 55 Spanish dollars.
[Sidenote: June 17th.]
I made a longer excursion along the eastern part of the wadi, which
here, where it is lower and collects more humidity, is adorned with some
beautiful wild groups of palm-trees left quite to themselves; the valley
extends towards Wadi Ghodwa, which it joins. Keeping on in that
direction, I came to a poor hamlet called Márhhaba inhabited by a few
families, who bitterly complained of their poverty. Here was formerly a
village built of clay, and a large spacious castle about sixty-five
paces square. All is now deserted; and only a small part of the
available ground is under culture, forming about six or seven small
fields. The same picture is met with all over Fezzán, where the only
places exhibiting to the eye some degree of life and prosperity are
Sokna and Murzuk. The population of this wide expanse of country falls
short of even sixty thousand souls.
The heat of the day had already set in, when I returned to the tents,
where I was extremely rejoiced to see the different members of our
caravan collecting at last, so as to afford a fair prospect of our soon
setting out for unknown and more interesting regions. There had arrived
Mohammed el Sfaksi, a man with whom Mr. Gagliuffi had entered into a
sort of partnership for a commercial journey to Negroland, and whom he
had supplied with a tolerable amount of merchandise; and in the
afternoon came the boat. The following day Yusuf Mukni, Mr. Richardson’s
interpreter, came with the rest of the luggage, so that gradually
everything fell into its right place, and nothing was now wanting but
the Tawárek chiefs to set our whole body in regular motion. We therefore
procured a load of dates from Aghár, and, getting everything ready,
roused our spirits for the contemplation of novelties and the
encountering of difficulties; for the latter could certainly not be
wanting where the former were at hand.
[Sidenote: Wednesday, June 19th.]
While the greater part of the caravan took the direct road to the well
Sháraba, Mr. Overweg and I, with the remainder, chose the road to
Tessáwa, or, rather more accurately, Tasáwa; but though our party formed
but a small body of people, yet it presented a very animated spectacle.
The lazy Arab mode of letting the camels go singly, as they like,
straggling about right and left, strains and fatigues the traveller’s
attention; but his mind is stimulated and nerved to the contemplation of
great distances to be traversed when he sees a long line of camels
attached one to the other, and led by a man at a steady pace without any
halt or interruption. As for myself, riding my own méheri, I was quite
at liberty to go before or fall behind, just as the circumstances of the
road called for observation, or presented something worthy of attention.
Having passed some tolerably-deep sand-hills accumulated in the wadi, we
obtained a sight of an advanced spur of the plantation of Aghár to our
left, when the ground became firm, and the country more open. Then,
keeping along the southern border of the principal plantation, we passed
the village and our former camping-ground, and having left further on
some deserted villages and a few scattered huts of palm-leaves, still
inhabited, a little on one side, about noon we again entered a sandy
region with a few detached palm-groups. Here I observed a specimen of a
very rare sort of bifurcated or divided palm-tree (not the dúm, which is
generally so) with two distinct tufts hanging down on the opposite
sides: this is the only specimen I ever saw. We then passed the village
of Tasáwa[57], which, with its clay walls and towers, looks much more
considerable from afar than it appears when viewed from among the
deserted houses within it; still it is one of the more wealthy and
important places of the country. A little beyond it we encamped on the
open sandy ground, when, as our small tent had by mistake gone on in
advance, and our large tent was too bulky to be pitched for one night’s
rest, we contrived a very tolerable airy shade with our carpets.
We had scarcely made ourselves comfortable, when we received the joyful
news that Hatíta, with two sons of Sháfo, had just arrived from Ghát,
and were about to call on us. Their arrival of course had now become a
matter of the utmost importance, as Mr. Richardson had made his mind up
not to start without them, though it might have been clear, to every one
well acquainted with the state of things in the interior, that their
protection could not be the least guarantee for our favourable reception
and success in the country of Aïr or Asben, inhabited and governed by an
entirely distinct tribe. And, on the other hand, the arrival of these
chiefs made our relation to Mohammed Bóro extremely disagreeable, for,
after waiting so long for us, he now clearly saw that Mr. Gagliuffi, in
declaring that we relied entirely on him for our success, while we were
in fact placing ourselves wholly at the disposal of the chiefs of Ghát,
was only trifling with him. He therefore flew into a violent passion,
threatening openly before the people that he would take care that we
should be attacked on the road by his countrymen; and these were not
empty threats.
After a hot day followed a very fine evening, with a beautifully-clear
moonlight; and cherishing the fervent hope that, with the assistance of
the Almighty, I should succeed in my dangerous undertaking, I lay down
in the open encampment, and listened with hearty sympathy to the fervent
prayers of the Tinýlkum, which in melodious cadence, and accompanied
with the sound há, há, sometimes in a voice of thunder, at others in a
melancholy unearthly plaint, were well adapted to make a deep impression
upon the mind, the tall palm-trees forming majestic groups, and giving a
fanciful character to the landscape in the calm moonlight.
It is a remarkable fact that, while the Mohammedan religion in general
is manifestly sinking to corruption along the coast, there are ascetic
sects rising up in the interior which unite its last zealous followers
by a religious band. The particular sect to which belong the Tinýlkum,
who in general are Máleki, has been founded by Mohammed el Médani, who
established a sort of convent or oratory (zawíya) near Masráta, and
endowed it with a certain extent of landed property, from the produce of
which he fed many pilgrims. The best feature of this creed is the
abolition of the veneration of dead saints, which has sullied in so high
a degree the purity of Islám. Mohammed el Médani is said to have died a
short time ago; but his son continues the pious establishment.[58] It is
a sort of freemasonry, and promises to make a great many proselytes. I
am not one of those who think it a sign of progress when Mohammedans
become indifferent to the precepts of their religion, and learn to
indulge in drinking and such things; for I have not given up my belief
that there is a vital principle in Islám, which has only to be brought
out by a reformer, in order to accomplish great things.
In Tasáwa also reside a few Tinýlkum, who, however, have been intimately
intermixed with the Arabs, while the others in general keep their blood
pure, and do not intermarry with the people of Fezzán.
Having assured ourselves that, owing to the arrival of the Tawárek
chiefs, we should have to make some stay here, we determined to pitch
our large tent early the next morning, while the chiefs had a long
dispute with Mohammed e’ Sfaksi, the subject of which I must relate, as
it throws some light on the history and the present state of this
country. The northern Tawárek, when they occupied the country round
Ghát, established a sort of tribute, or gheráma, to be paid by merchants
passing through their territory, and on payment of which the trader
should be no further molested, but enjoy full protection. At that time
the Masráta—a section of a very powerful Berber tribe—had made, as we
shall see, a colonial settlement in Ágades, and, owing to their great
power, commercial activity, and near connection with the Tawárek, were
considered wholly exempt from any tribute, while the inhabitants of
Tunis, who seem to have excited the jealousy or hostility of the great
lords of the desert, were subjected to the highest personal exaction,
viz. ten dollars a head. Now Gagliuffi’s partner was a native of Sfákes;
but having long resided in Masráta, he insisted upon being free from
tribute, like the inhabitants of the latter place: but our friends were
not to be cheated out of their right, and made him pay as a Tunisian.
Having settled this little business, they came to us. There were Hatíta
Inek (the son of) Khóden of the Manghásatangh, Utaeti (the eldest son of
Sháfo), a younger son of the latter, and several more. The first, who
had enjoyed the friendship of Captain Lyon, behaved throughout like a
man well acquainted with Europeans; but Utaeti conducted himself like a
strict Tarki, neither showing his face, nor speaking a single word.
Hatíta expressed the wish that we should not proceed until he returned
from Murzuk, where he assured us he would remain but a very short time;
and we engaged to do our best to keep back the camel-drivers, who were
but little inclined to stay here long.
In consequence of this state of things, I determined to return to the
town, in order to ascertain the terms entered into between the parties;
and accordingly, starting at five in the evening, and resting a few
hours after midnight in Zerghán, I reached Murzuk on Friday morning at
seven o’clock. I found that Mr. Gagliuffi had been very ill during the
hot weather of the last few days; but to-day he was fortunately a little
better.
Having waited in vain for the chiefs the whole of Saturday, we received
a visit from them on Sunday, when they appeared in the finery with which
they had been dressed by Mustapha Bey, but would not come to any terms;
and it was not till Monday, when they took up their residence in the
house belonging formerly to Mukni, but now to the Wakíl of Borno, that
they concluded an arrangement. The sum which they then received would
have been moderate, had they undertaken to see us safe under the
protection of Annur, the Chief of the Kél-owí. I urged, with Mr.
Gagliuffi, the necessity of having a written copy of the agreement; but
to this the chief would not listen, and thus confessed that there was
really no distinct contract, as we had been given to understand, to the
effect that Utaeti should not leave us till he had committed us to the
care of the chief Annur.