More sandy Desert--Fatiguing March--Water and
Herbage--Water-drinking--Sight the Plateau over the Mourzuk--Hot
Wind--Arrival in El-Wady--Tuaricks--Laghareefah--Fezzanees--The Chaouches
astray--The Sheikh Abd-el-Hady--Description of the Oasis--Tempest--Native
Huts--Official Visits--Desert News--Camel-drivers--Ruins of Azerna--Move
on--The Kaïd--Modest Requests--Ladies of the Wady--Leave the Oasis--Vast
Plain--Instinct of the Camel--Reach Agar--Reception--Precede the
Caravan--Reach Mourzuk--Mr. Gagliuffi--Honours paid to the Mission--Acting
Pasha--Climate--Route from Tripoli--Its Division into Zones--Rain in the
Desert.
On the 1st of May we had an arduous piece of work to perform. The
khafilah was in motion fourteen entire hours, over heavy sand, with the
hot wind breathing fiercely upon it. No amateur walking was indulged in.
Every one kept sullenly to his camel; and those who were obliged to
advance on foot dragged slowly along, seeming every moment as if they
were about to abandon all exertion in despair, and lie down to perish.
Our course lay mostly south, as usual; but varied occasionally from
south-east to south-west. The scene was one of the most singular that
could be imagined. Camels and men were scattered along the track,
treading slowly but continually forward, and yet not seeming to advance
at all. Instead of the cheering cry of "_Isa! Isa!_" which urges on the
burdened beasts over rocky deserts, the dull, prolonged sound of
"_Thurr! Thurr!_" was substituted. Beyond this there was no noise. The
men had no strength to talk or to sing, and the tread of many feet
awaken no echo in the sandy waste. Waves of red and yellow, or of
dazzling whiteness, swelled round in a circle of ever-varying diameter
as we rose and fell. Here and there stretched great stains of black
herbage. Every object is magnified and changed to the eye. The heat and
the swinging motion of the camel produce a slight dizziness, and the
outer world assumes a hazy indistinctness of outline--something like
dream-landscapes. There is a desert-intoxication which must be felt to
be appreciated.
We must not, however, libel even the Sandy Desert, by producing the
impression that it is all barren and comfortless. Though far more
difficult to travel over than the Hamadah, it possesses the inestimable
advantage of having water every day once at least. A little after noon,
indeed, we passed two lakes; one small, and the other of considerable
dimensions, containing sweet water, and bordered by a fringe of
palm-trees. At times there is very good herbage for the camels. The most
frequent shrub on which they browse is the _resou_, which has small ears
of grain, eaten also by men as food. Traces of animal life, as I have
observed, are few; but we saw this day two broken ostrich-eggs. How they
came there it is difficult to say: no traces or footmarks have been
remarked.
At length I had begun to find drinking a necessity. During these days of
sand I imbibed more than during the whole of the rest of the journey.
The eating of dates added to my thirst; and the blacks complained of the
same thing. Dates are much better in the winter, and keep the cold out
of the stomach; but I should recommend all Saharan travellers to eat as
few of them as possible, at any season of the year.
During this last day, beyond the expanse of sandy waves through which we
swam, as it were, had risen ahead some very conspicuous mountains. Even
at five in the morning we could see detached along the line of the
horizon the highest and most advanced portion of the edge of the plateau
of Mourzuk. In three hours the white line of cliffs came in view,
looking like a stretch of black-blue sea, contrasting strangely with the
sparkling white-sand undulations that stretched to their feet. Some of
us thought that an inland sea--never before heard of--had rolled its
waters athwart our path, so perfect was the illusion. The heavens, this
day particularly, attracted our attention. What a sky! how beautiful!
The ground was a soft, light azure; and on its mildly resplendent
surface were scattered loosely about some downy, feathery clouds, of the
purest white--veils manufactured in celestial looms!
We expected to reach our premeditated halting ground about noon, or
before, these cliffs seeming so near. But as day wore on, new expanses
of glittering desert seemed to stretch out before us; and every hillock
gained disclosed only the existence of new hillocks ahead. Meanwhile the
hot wind still blew with unremitting violence, scorching our faces, and
penetrating to the inmost recesses of our frames. The poor blacks, who
were on foot, gazed wistfully ahead, and ever and anon called to those
who were nodding on the camels, as if stunned by the heat, to tell them
if they might hope for rest. I found my eyesight dimming, and deafness
coming on. The thermometer was plunged into the sand, and the mercury
instantly mounted to above 130°.
At length we sighted the wady, stretching like a green belt between the
sand and the mountains beyond. We found that we had been traversing an
elevated swell of the desert, for we were full three quarters of an hour
descending to the level of the valley.
The first specimen of inhabitants we saw on arriving was a group of
naked children with their mother, who covered herself up in her barracan
on our approach. The children were nearly all females, and even those of
not more than three or four years of age seemed wonderfully developed.
They had formed a house out of a thick bush of wild palms over the well.
These people are what are called Tuaricks of Fezzan. They are a
dwarfish, slim race; and the Fezzanees call them _their_ Arabs. They
cover up their faces like their kindred of Ghât, but have for the most
part white _thelems_ instead of black. A few sport a red fotah, or
turban. They speak Arabic commonly, but some know also the language of
Ghât; which fact connects them certainly with that country. Their proper
name is Tanelkum, a genuine Tuarick word, and decisive of their Targhee
origin. Their trade is chiefly camel-driving between Ghât and Fezzan.
They are a fairer and finer race than the Fezzanees, and do not
intermarry with them. Their numbers are not great, perhaps scarcely more
than a thousand souls in all Fezzan; but they live in a state of entire
independence, and pay no contributions to the Porte.
We passed the first well and came up with the true Fezzanees at the
village of Laghareefah, where we encamped. It is situated in Wady
Gharbee, more properly called El-Wady _par excellence_, on account of
its superior fertility and culture. There is also Wady Sherky, and
several others; as Etsaou, Akar, Um-el-Hammâm, Takruteen, and Aujar. The
people of Laghareefah are all of a black-brown hue, and some had the
ordinary negro features. They were a little rude at first, but made some
compensation in the evening by sending us a good supply of meat and
fresh bread to our tents.
To our surprise, we saw nothing of our chaouches here; and on making
inquiries, we found that they were not with the caravan. They were known
to have pushed on ahead, impatient to arrive. We suspected they had
taken the wrong route, and did not remember to have seen the track of
their horses' hoofs on the sand as we advanced. At first we were not
sorry that they were suffering a little for their bad conduct all the
way from Tripoli, to which I have only made passing allusions. But then
we began to be alarmed for their safety, and begged the Sheikh to send a
man after them with water. They did not make their appearance until
morning, when we learned that with immense fatigue they had succeeded in
striking the valley lower down at another village, where they had
tarried the remainder of the night. As might be expected, they were in
no good humour after their excursion in the sand; but our people, who
had enjoyed a brief respite of unwonted tranquillity during their
absence, instead of condoling with them, received them with laughter and
jeers.
The Sheikh Abd-el-Hady sent us breakfast, and he and his people were far
more polite than yesterday. We learned that there was a caravan in the
wady about to start for Ghât, and I took the opportunity to write to
that place to produce a proper impression of our views and intentions,
as I learned that a very erroneous one had gone abroad. The Sheikh and
his elders came to ask me to _lend_ them twelve mahboubs, to make up the
amount of tribute now being collected by the agents of the Pasha of
Mourzuk. Of course I did not consent, representing that I was at the
outset of a long journey, and that the Pasha would certainly punish them
if he ever heard that such a request had been made. As a solace for the
disappointment, I gave the Sheikh three handkerchiefs and a
pocket-knife. The Tuaricks came in for a little soap, an article
seemingly in universal request.
El-Wady is a deep valley, lying like a moat between the elevated sandy
desert and the plateau on which Mourzuk is situated. This plateau, at
the distance of every few miles, juts out huge buttresses of
perpendicular cliffs, which frown over the broken thread of green
vegetation in the valley. Thick forests of palms stretch at various
points along the low plain, where are springs plentifully furnished by
filtration from the high ground on either hand. The various kinds of
oasian culture are pursued here with success. Wheat and barley are
produced in considerable quantities; and camels, asses, and goats find
plentiful nourishment. The villages are numerous; but some contain only
few men, and none exceed forty-five. Takarteebah, the largest place,
pays four hundred and ninety mahboubs per annum, cultivates four
thousand palms, yielding a hundred and fifty kafasses of dates, thirty
of wheat, and eight of barley; it feeds eleven asses. I observed that
all domestic animals, the goats especially, attain a very diminutive
size in these oases, the nourishment for them being but scanty.
In this oasis the palm-groves are much more dense than in any other I
have seen. They almost merit the name of forests, both from their size
and wild luxuriant appearance. The Fezzanees pay little attention to
their culture, and when a tree falls it is frequently suffered to lie
for months, even though it block up the public road. In contrast to the
burning desert we had just traversed, these dense woods casting their
shadows on the white sand produced a most pleasing effect. We eagerly
wandered into the cool arcades, and watched with delight the doves and
hippoes, and other birds, as they fluttered to and fro amidst the
drooping leaves.
Laghareefah, like Edree, had been destroyed by the brilliant, though
ruthless usurper, Abd-el-Galeel, on account of its resistance to his
authority. The old town is at a little distance from the new, and was
evidently a much better-built place, commanded by an earthen kasr or
fortress.
On May 2d, we had a tempest of thunder and lightning to the south on the
hills, produced by the intense heat of the morning, and its accumulation
during the previous few days. Rain seemed to be falling at a distance of
a few hours. In the evening the mercury still stood about 100°. The heat
now was still very distressing. The wind came charged with dust that
rolled in columns, like smoke beaten down by a tempest, across the
surface of the valley. All the vegetation seemed withered, as if in an
oven; and the wheat in the ear was brittle, as though roasted. There is
a good deal of wheat in this oasis. I observed an old woman reaping, and
went to chat with her. Her sickle had a long handle, and the blade
itself was narrow, but slightly bent and somewhat serrated. I tried it,
and found that it answered its purpose very well, however rude in
appearance.
I entered one of the huts made of palm-branches, and carelessly smeared
with mud--an attempt at plastering that can hardly be called successful.
The door was formed of rough planks of date-wood, and the flooring of
hard-trodden earth, covered with mats. The principal article of
furniture was, as usual, the small hand corn-mill, for nearly every
person in the East is still his own miller. The huts, though rude in
outward appearance, were dark, cool, and comfortable within. In the town
itself, many of them are built entirely of mud; that is to say, of round
mud balls, first moistened with water, and then dried in the sun. I
entered several, and found that most were empty. Where we found people,
they were courteous and cheerful in manners, and smiled at the curiosity
with which I lifted up the wicker covers of their pots and jars. In one
I found a little sour milk; in another, some bazeen; in another, a few
dates soaking in water. A small vessel now and then occurred, full of
oil; but this is the greatest luxury they possess.
None of the doors has either lock or key. The Fezzanee observed,
"Strangers may steal, but Fezzanees never. All the dates remain securely
on the trees until gathered by the owners." It must be observed,
however, that the anomaly of vast possessions being held by one man, who
can scarcely consume or utilise the produce, whilst others have not a
stone whereon to lay their heads, and depend even for a burial-place
upon charity, is not to be observed in this barbarous country.
The children of the Wady, up to the age of seven or eight years, go
about perfectly naked, which may partly account for the bronze-black
colour of their skins. The Tuaricks are generally fairer than the
Fezzanees, though some of these latter are fair as the Moors on the
coast, whilst others are black as very niggers.
We received a visit from the Nather, or civil governor of the Wady. He
is a Fezzanee, Abbas by name; and thankfully received the present of a
handkerchief. The Kaïd, or military commander, is a Moor from Tripoli.
Everybody seems interested about us, and there is a perfect flux of
visits. All the authorities around seem to make our arrival a holiday.
We are quite the fashion. The chaouch gets drunk in the evening on
leghma, furnished by the Nather, who wants to worm out all the news; and
there is little doubt that he has learned the whole truth, and a good
deal more. El-Maskouas, the Turkish officer employed in collecting
contributions for Mourzuk, arrived at the camp and brought letters from
M. Gagliuffi. He also told us that the Sheikh of Aghadez had not yet
returned from his pilgrimage to Mekka. The motions of all these desert
magnates are circulated from mouth to mouth as assiduously as those of
our Mayfair fashionables.
Among our visitors was Haj Mohammed El-Saeedy, the owner of our camels.
His social position answers to that of an English shipowner. He is a
marabout of great celebrity in this country, and moves about in an
atmosphere of respect. By the way, when it became clearly impressed upon
my mind that the Fezzanee camel-drivers were merely employed for hire,
and had no property whatever in the beasts they drove, my opinion of
them began to rise. It would have been impossible to take more care of
the camels than they did.
We remained stationary in the Wady, from the 1st of May to the evening
of the 3d, when we moved on to Toueewah. After dark was passed Azerna,
in the neighbourhood of which stood the ancient town, celebrated for its
ruins. The modern place, though presenting a martial kind of appearance
with its battlemented mud walls, contained only ten inhabitants, who
live like so many rats in holes or under the piles of ruins. On the 4th,
when the people removed our beds in the morning, a scorpion sallied
furiously forth. We had been sleeping with him under our pillows. We
moved on, still in the Wady, for a couple of hours, until we came to the
house of the Kaïd, and once more encamped. His habitation is large,
commodious, and well protected from the sun. He showed us his
sleeping-apartment, which is airy and well protected from the sun. A
number of little wicker baskets, the handiwork of his wife, served as so
many clothes-presses. The baskets of Fezzan are perfectly water-tight.
This Kaïd, called Ahmed Tylmoud, is quite a character, and looks very
droll with his single eye. He has twenty soldiers only under his command
throughout the valley. The Turks do not waste their men, making up by
severity for want of numbers. Like the commandant of Shaty, this Ahmed
Tylmoud insisted on "playing at powder" with his men for our
edification; but was also obliged to beg his ammunition. It is singular,
that although these people are only armed with matchlocks, and are
supposed to be ready for service, either to defend the country or levy
contributions, they seem entirely destitute of all necessary provisions
for that purpose.
We were pestered with two very modest requests, which were not in our
power to grant. In the first place, the native inhabitants sent a
deputation to ask us to use our influence with the Governor of Mourzuk
to procure a reduction of their taxes; and then the Arab troops desired
that we should procure for them their discharge. Our refusal even to
take the charge of these verbal petitions seemed very harsh. An
impression had evidently got abroad that we came to bring about a
general redress of grievances; or, at any rate, that our influence was
far greater than we chose to avow.
I gave to the Kaïd a handkerchief, as well as some snuff and tobacco. In
return, he sent a little bread and a fly-flapper; so that we parted good
friends. During our stay, we heard this jolly fellow entertaining the
chaouches and his own horsemen with a description of the ladies of the
Wady, who had no reason to be flattered by his account. And yet he seems
to have married one himself: _hinc illæ lachrymæ_, perhaps. My chaouch
had already given me a confirmation of these libels, and was evidently
greatly delighted by this testimony to his exactitude.
There are several roads from the Wady to Mourzuk, all much about the
same distance. It is said, also, that Ghât is only ten days from
Laghareefah. We moved on a little further on the evening of the 4th, but
did not start properly until next day, when we made a long stretch of
more than thirteen hours, and encamped at the village of Agar, where I
remembered having halted once before on my way from Ghât. During this
day's march we found, that what we had supposed to be the border of the
Mourzuk plateau was not in reality so. We soon reached the summit of the
cliffs, and having cast back a glance upon the valley, with its expanse
of corn-fields and thousands of palm-trees, expected to find an elevated
plateau beyond; but the hills gradually softened down into a plain on
their eastern side. Our route may be said to have led through a
wilderness, not a desert. On all sides were clusters of the tholukh,
which grows prettily up, and has a poetical appearance. The ground at
some places was strewed with branches, cut down for the goats to feed
on. Then we came to a small wady full of _resou_, which our marabout
calls the "meat of the camel;" and all the camels at once stopped, and
for a long time obstinately refused to proceed. This appeared strange to
us, but on inquiry we found that the sagacious brutes remembered
perfectly well that until the evening there would be no herbage so good,
and were determined to have their fill whilst there was an opportunity.
The drivers, after indulging them a few moments, took them in flank, and
their shouts of "_Isa! Isa!_" and some blows, at length got the caravan
out of this elysium of grass into the hungry plain beyond. As we
proceeded, a cold bracing wind began to blow from the east, and
considerably chilled our frames. I had met the same weather four years
previously. Towards evening, however, it became warmer, as it usually
does. The country was bare and level, like an expanse of dull-coloured
water; and the palm-trees that cluster near the village rose slowly
above the horizon as we drew nigh. The sun had gone down, and the plain
stretched dim and shadowy around before we came in sight of the group of
hovels which form the village. As I looked back, the scattered camels
slowly toiling along could be faintly traced against the horizon.
The Sheikh of Agar received us well this time, sending us two fowls and
supper for our people. This place consists of huts made of palm-branches
and of mud hovels, several of which are in ruins. The same remark
constantly recurs in reference to almost all the towns of Barbary, both
towards the coast and far in the interior. The vital principle of
civilisation seems to have exhausted itself in those parts.
I was now in a country comparatively familiar to me, and knew that I had
but one more ride to reach the capital of Fezzan. Rising early on the
6th, therefore, I determined to press on in advance of the caravan; and
starting with warm weather, puffs of wind coming now from the
south-east, now from the north-west, very unsteadily--the atmosphere was
slightly murky, with sand flying about--I soon came in sight of the
palm-groves of Mourzuk, without making any other rencontre than a
Tuarick coursing over the desert in full costume. The old castle peeped
picturesquely through the trees, but I had still a good way to go before
reaching shelter. The sand and white earth that form the surface of the
oasis near the town were painfully dazzling to my eyes.
At length I reached the suburbs, where a few people stared curiously at
me. My arrival had been announced by the chaouches, who had gone on
about a quarter of an hour before; and at the eastern gate the soldiers
allowed me to pass without notice, or any allusion to _gumruk_. Mr.
Gagliuffi had come out to meet me; but having taken a different gate we
crossed, and I arrived on my camel at his house, and found it empty. My
veil being down in the streets I was recognised by no one. The acting
Governor had arranged to meet me with twenty horsemen, but I had taken
them all quite unawares. The letters forwarded requesting us to make a
halt in the suburbs, and then advance slowly in "holiday costume," for
the sake of effect, had not reached me. However, they had hoisted the
Ottoman flag on the castle, in honour of our expected arrival,--a
compliment that had not before been paid to strangers, and one never
offered at Tripoli.
Our German friends arrived shortly afterwards, and we all had a very
hospitable reception from Mr. Gagliuffi, with whom we lodged. A few
calls were made upon us in the evening, but we were glad enough to seek
our beds. Next day the chief people of the city, the Kady and other
dignitaries, began early to visit us. When we had exchanged compliments
with them, we went in full European dress to wait on the acting Pasha.
We found him to be a very quiet, unassuming man, who gave us a most kind
and gentlemanlike reception, equal to anything of the kind of Tripoli.
He is a Turk, and recognised me as having been before at Mourzuk. We had
coffee, pipes, and sherbet made of oranges. Afterwards we visited the
Treasurer, who also gave us coffee, and was very civil; and finally
called upon the brother of the Governor of Ghât, who was writing letters
for us to-day.
I feel in better health than when I left Tripoli. Yet we are all a
little nervous about the climate of Mourzuk, which is situated in a
slight depression of the plain, in a place inclined to be marshy. The
Consul has just recovered from a severe illness.
We had been, in all, thirty-nine days from Tripoli, a considerable
portion of which time was spent in travelling. This makes a long
journey; but I am told that our camel-drivers should have brought us by
way of Sebha, and thus effected a saving of three or four days. The
greater portion of our sandy journey was unnecessary, and merely
undertaken that these gentlemen might have an opportunity of visiting
their wives and families.
On a retrospective view of the route from Tripoli to Mourzuk, _viâ_
Mizdah, I am inclined to divide the country, for convenience sake, into
a series of zones, or regions.
1st zone. This includes the sandy flat of the suburbs of the town of
Tripoli, with the date-palm plantations and the sand-hills contiguous.
2d zone. The mountains, or Tripoline Atlas, embracing the rising ground
with their influence on the northern side, and the olive and fig
plantations, covering the undulating ground on the southern side, where
the Barbary vegetation is seen in all its vigour and variety. This may
also be emphatically called the region of rain.
3d zone. The limestone hills and broad valleys, gradually assuming the
aridity of the Sahara as you proceed southward, between the town of
Kaleebah and Ghareeah; the olive plantations and corn-fields disappear,
entirely in this tract.
4th zone. The Hamadah, an immense desert plateau, separating Tripoli
from Fezzan.
5th zone. The sandy valleys and limestone rocks between El-Hasee and
Es-Shaty, where herbage and trees are found, affording food to numerous
gazelles, hares, and the wadan.
6th. The sand between Shaty and El-Wady, piled in masses, or heaps,
extending in undulating plains, and occasionally opening in small
valleys with herbage and trees.
7th. The sandy valleys of El-Wady, covered with forests of date-palms,
through which peep a number of small villages.
8th. The plateau of Mourzuk, consisting of shallow valleys, ridges of
low sandstone hills, and naked flats, or plains, sometimes of sand, at
others covered with pebbles and small stones.
All these zones beyond the Atlas are visited by only occasional showers,
or are entirely without rain, the vegetation depending upon irrigation
from wells. I do not go into further detail on this subject, because,
although our line of route was new, this stretch of country is tolerably
well known to the geographical reader.
I have omitted to mention, or to lay much stress on the fact, that we
were unable to procure sufficient camels at Tripoli to convey our goods
all the way to Mourzuk. We were compelled to leave three camel-loads
behind, in the first place, at Gharian; these were subsequently got on
to Kaleebah, and thence to Mizdah: but there the influence of Izhet
Pasha's circular letter entirely failed to procure for us three extra
camels, and we were compelled to push on to Mourzuk, leaving part of our
goods in the oasis. This circumstance caused me a great deal of
annoyance, both on the route and after our arrival, for it was a long
time before we got in all our baggage. However, it at last arrived, and
the delay only served to illustrate the difficulty of procuring
conveyance in these dismal countries, and to lead us into considerable
expense.