The Oasis of Fezzan--Population--Ten Districts--Their Denomination and
Condition--Sockna--Honn--Worm of the Natron Lakes--Zoueelah--Mixed
Race--Improvements in Mourzuk--Heavy Ottoman Yoke--Results of the
Census--Amount of Revenue--Military Force--Arab Cavaliers--Barracks--Method
of Recruiting--Turkish System superior to French--Razzias--Population of
Mourzuk--Annual Market--Articles of Traffic--Acting-Governor and his
Coadjutors--Story of a faithless Woman--Transit Duties in Fezzan--Slave
Trade--Sulphur in the Syrtis--Proposed Colony from Malta.
The Pashalic of Fezzan, although it occupies a considerable space upon
the map--advancing like a peninsula from the line of Barbary countries
into the Sahara--is in reality a very insignificant province. From all
that I can learn, its entire population does not exceed twenty-six
thousand souls, scattered about in little oases over a vast extent of
country. It is, in fact, a portion of the Sahara, in which fertile
valleys occur a little more frequently than in the other portions.
Immense deserts, sometimes perfectly arid, but at others slightly
sprinkled with herbage, separate these valleys; and are periodically
traversed by caravans, great and small, which in the course of time have
covered the country with a perfect network of tracks.
Fezzan is divided into ten districts, of which the principal is
El-Hofrah, containing the capital, Mourzuk, and several smaller towns.
It is here and there besprinkled with beautiful gardens, in which are
cultivated, besides the date-palm, several of the choicest fruits that
grow on the coast--as figs, grapes, peaches, pomegranates, and melons.
In these gardens, as in most of the oases of the desert, the fruit trees
that require most protection from the sun are planted between the palms,
which make a kind of roof with their long leaves. Abd-el-Galeel
destroyed many of these groves to punish their owners, refractory to his
authority.
Two crops are obtained in the year: in the spring, barley and wheat are
reaped; and in the summer and autumn, Indian corn, ghaseb, and other
kinds of grain. All the culture is carried on by means of irrigation,
the water being thrown over the fields by means of runnels of various
dimensions twice in the day; that is, once early in the morning, and
once late in the afternoon until dark.
Wady Ghudwah is a single town with gardens, and the other features
common to all the Fezzan oases.
Sebha includes two towns, having a considerable population, with gardens
and date-palms.
Bouanees includes three towns, well peopled, and has immense numbers of
date-palms.
El-Jofrah contains the second capital or large town of the pashalic,
Sockna, built of stones and mud, with nine or ten smaller towns, all
tolerably populous.
Sockna is situated midway between Mourzuk and Tripoli, and is about
fourteen days from the former. The inhabitants are Moors, and, besides
Arabic, speak a Berber dialect. Sockna is celebrated for its fine sweet
dates, called kothraee; and there is abundance of every kind of this
fruit. A considerable quantity of grain is sown--wheat and barley--and
the gardens abound with peaches. The town of Honn, distant about two
hours from this place, is nearly as large, and also surrounded with
gardens.
Wady Gharby, and Es-Shaty, have already been described. In the sands
between these two places are situated the celebrated natron lakes, in
which that miraculous dud ("worm") spontaneously appears at certain
seasons of the year, and is eaten as people in Europe eat sardines--to
sharpen the appetite. The natron is also a source of profitable
exportation. Wady Sharky almost exactly resembles Wady Gharby, in
population and natural features.
Sharkeeah, besides some insignificant places, includes the interesting
ancient capital called Zoueelah, whence the name of Zoilah is given by
the Tibboos to all Fezzan. Half the population of this place consists of
Shereefs, and there are indeed great and increasing numbers of this
class of persons throughout the whole country.
Ghatroun includes, with Tajerby the most southern place of Fezzan, three
small towns. The inhabitants are all black, speaking the Tibbooese and
Bornouese languages, and very little Arabic. The other nine districts
above enumerated contain a mixed race, like the population of Mourzuk;
but some of the northern towns are inhabited by people of purer blood,
with comparatively fair complexions.
Mourzuk itself, the seat of the Pashalic,--distant about four hundred
and twenty miles from Tripoli, in a straight line, and five hundred,
counting the sinuosities of the road, _viâ_ Benioleed, Bonjem, and
Sockna,--is a rising town, becoming daily more salubrious by the
improvements made since the residence of the Turks here, and the
subjection of the inhabitants to a more orderly and powerful government
than they had been accustomed to. The British Consul, Mr. Gagliuffi, has
rendered important aid to the administration, in embellishing the
appearance of Mourzuk, and giving it the air and character of a Turkish
city of the coast. Our camel-drivers pretend that it is already superior
to Tripoli. At the Consul's suggestion a colonnade has been built in the
main street, in front of the shops, affording shelter from the fiery
rays of the summer sun, as well as being an agreeable place for the
natives to lounge under and make their purchases. He was also the
principal promoter of the erection of new barracks for the troops, and
the appropriation of a large house as a hospital for the poor. His last
improvement is the plantation of a garden of the choice fruit-trees and
vegetables of the coast; and his example has been imitated by the Bim
Bashaw, commandant of the troops, who is now laying out a garden in a
conspicuous part of the city.
Since the departure of Abd-el-Galeel with his Arab followers, the Walad
Suleiman, for the neighbourhood of Bornou, the province of Fezzan has
certainly enjoyed profound tranquillity. But on account of heavy
taxation, high customs' dues, and other clogs to free commerce, the
people are sinking deeper and deeper into poverty and wretchedness, and,
except in the capital, there is a general retrograde movement. The
Ottoman yoke is a peculiarly heavy one; it keeps the people in order,
but it crushes them; and perhaps the Fezzanees may now regret somewhat
the wholesome anarchy that distinguished the Arab chieftain's reign.
As I have said, the entire population of the ten districts of Fezzan is,
according to the last Turkish census, only about twenty-six thousand
souls, of whom about eleven thousand are males, including the children.
The disproportion of the sexes arises in part from the number of female
slaves, in part from the emigration of the men to the commercial
countries of the interior, either for temporary gain, or permanently to
escape from the grinding weight of taxation.
The whole amount of revenue collected by the Government is estimated at
fifty thousand mahboubs per annum. Twenty-three thousand of these are
raised by direct taxation, whilst the remainder is produced by customs'
dues and the date-palm groves, which are the property of Government.
The military force by which the Turks hold possession of this vast but
thinly-peopled territory--stretching north and south twenty-one days'
journey, or about three hundred miles--is the very inconsiderable number
of six hundred and thirty men. The garrison of Mourzuk itself consists
of four hundred and thirty men, of whom about one-half are Fezzanees,
twenty or thirty Turks, and the residue Arabs or Moors. The remaining
three hundred are Arab cavaliers, living chiefly on their own means, and
changed every year, who serve as a flying corps, or mounted police, for
all the districts of Fezzan. The rate of pay for this latter class is
one kail of wheat and half a mahboub per month for those who have no
horses, and one kail of dates additional for those who are mounted. This
division, however, is fastidious at present, as all those on service in
Fezzan are now possessed of horses. In the whole regency of Tripoli
there are but six hundred and sixty of these Arab soldiers; but in
Bonjem and the Syrtis they are not cavalry, and the detachment at
Ghadamez is mixed.[3] I am afraid these janissaries are obliged to
commit spoliations in the towns and districts where they are stationed
to avoid starvation.
[3] The distribution of the corps is as follows:--
In Gibel 150
Fezzan 200
The Syrtis 150
Bonjem 60
Ghadamez 100
I visited the barracks of Mourzuk, and found them to be commodious, and
apparently salubrious. The good living of these stationary troops
surprised me. They have meat and excellent soup everyday, with rice and
biscuit. The Fezzanee is never so well fed and well clothed and lodged
as when he is a soldier. Indeed the men seem too well off, in comparison
with their former state and with the rest of the population.
Nevertheless, they are glad to escape when the time of their service
expires. The people all dread being made soldiers: so that Government is
compelled to resort to the most paltry tricks to get recruits. Men are
often unjustly charged with theft or debt, and put in prison, and then
let out as a favour to be enlisted, or sometimes are clapped into the
ranks at once. Youths have been seized as soldiers for kicking up the
dust in front of a sentinel and dirtying his clothes. I remarked the
number of soldiers that were black, and the Bim Bashaw observed that he
hoped the time would come when there would not be a white private left
in Mourzuk. The Turks manage to do with twenty or thirty of their own
people, mostly officers, in this garrison; but, by one method or
another, get as many Fezzanee recruits as they want.
The Turkish system is vastly superior to the French in this important
matter of garrisoning their possessions in Northern Africa. The latter
require one hundred men where the Turks are content with one to hold the
country. Perhaps one of the chief reasons may be the difference of
religion. The Arabs and other natives of North Africa cannot endure the
sight of a ruler of another faith. Something, however, may be attributed
to the immense and sacred authority of the Ottoman Sultan, the great
chief of the Mussulmans of the East, as the Shereefan Emperor of Morocco
is the chief of the Mussulmans of the West. We may add, also, the
tremendous severity of the Turkish criminal law, or, rather, the
inexorable justice with which a crime committed against a Turkish
functionary is visited. The French make their razzias and strike off
heads enough; but their criminal code in Algeria is perhaps not so
summary and sanguinary as that of the Turks. Possibly one of the chief
reasons of this curious contrast may be the fact that the French soldier
is scarcely to be depended on when isolated. He acts well in masses, but
considers himself deserted and betrayed when left comparatively alone.
At any rate, the fact is that the Turks hold Tripoli with a handful of
men, whilst the French, with a military force nearly as large as the
whole British army, can scarcely maintain a feverish and uncertain
possession of Algeria.
The population of Mourzuk numbers two thousand souls. It is very much
mixed, and the people vary greatly in colour, so that there is no
general character. There are more women than children, the greater
portion of the females belonging to the members of the great winter
caravans. Contrary to what I had been told, these women seem to be
rather remarkable for modesty and virtue than otherwise. It is worth
observing, that Fatamah, the proper name of Mahomet's daughter, is here
used, by excess of delicacy, to describe the softer sex, more especially
ladies.
From October to January, as at Ghât, there is a large annual souk, or
market, at Mourzuk. One general caravan comes from Bornou and Soudan,
every year during the winter season, and small bodies of merchants also
go up and down to Soudan in the summer; whilst to Bornou there is no
intermediate trade. Caravans also congregate here from Egypt, Bengazi,
Tripoli, Ghadamez, Ghât, and Tuat. From forty thousand to sixty thousand
Spanish dollars is the value of the merchandise that usually changes
hands during the great mart. The principal articles of traffic from the
interior are slaves, senna, and ivory. This is the first year that a
hundred and fifty cantars of elephants' teeth have been brought from
Bornou; sixty or seventy of these were consigned to one merchant, forty
were on account of the Vizier of Bornou, and the remainder belonged to
Arab traders. This export of elephants' teeth direct _viâ_ Fezzan has
only lately been opened. Some manufactured cottons are likewise brought
from Soudan, and sell easily in this part of the Sahara, especially
amongst the Tuaricks. Besides, there are exported bullocks' and goats'
skins, and a small quantity of ostrich feathers. The gum trade has
lately been introduced into Fezzan by the British Consul, and one
hundred cantars per annum are already collected from the tholukh-trees.
The acting Governor of Fezzan always resides at Mourzuk. His principal
coadjutors in the despatch of affairs are a Kady with two secretaries, a
Sheikh or mayor of the city, some respectable men who act as privy
councillors, the Wakeels of Bengazi, Augila, Sokna, &c.
A little story may find its place here, as an apt illustration of the
state of society and manners in this out-of-the-way capital. A married
woman preferred another man to her husband, and frankly confessed that
her affections had strayed. Her lord, instead of flying into a passion,
and killing her on the spot, thought a moment, and said,--
"I will consent to divorce you, if you will promise one thing."
"What is that?" inquired the delighted wife.
"You must looloo to me only when I pass on the day of the celebration of
your nuptials with the other man."
Now it is, the custom for women, under such circumstances, to looloo
(that is, salute with a peculiar cry) any handsome male passer-by.
However, the woman promised, the divorce took place, and the lover was
soon promoted into a second husband. On the day of the wedding, however,
the man who had exacted the promise passed by the camel on which the
bride was riding, and saluted her, as is the custom, with the discharge
of his firelock. Upon this she remembered, and looloed to him. The new
bridegroom, enraged at this marked preference, noticing that she had not
greeted any one else, and thinking possibly that he was playing the part
of a dupe, instantly fell upon his bride and slew her. He had scarcely
done so when the brothers of the woman came up and shot him down; so
that the first husband compassed ample vengeance without endangering
himself in the slightest degree. This is an instance of Arab cunning.
A subject of considerable importance was brought under my attention at
Mourzuk. It appears that whilst the objects of legitimate commerce, in
being exported from the interior to Fezzan and Tripoli, pay double
duties--that is, twelve and a-half per cent in each place--slaves pay no
transit duty whatever in this regency of Barbary if they are destined
for the Constantinople market, and even if sold in Tripoli or Fezzan
only pay once a duty of ten mahboubs per head. It frequently happens
besides that the Turkish merchants, who embark with their slaves for
Constantinople, sell a considerable number on the way. On arriving at
their destination, they pretend that such as are missing from their
register have died; and in this manner they contrive to evade the
payment of all duty whatever. It has been attempted to get the impost of
ten mahboubs paid in Mourzuk, and likewise to force all the caravans to
take that route. This would have acted as a check upon the slave-trade;
but the influence of the Gadamsee merchants was too great to allow the
measure to be carried out. It is most important that the legitimate
trade should not be burdened with double custom-dues, and it is to be
hoped that the influence of the British Government will be used to bring
about some reform in this matter. We should bear in mind, that as most
of the goods and merchandise passing through Fezzan are only in transit,
they are therefore legally subject to a duty of no more than three per
cent.
I have paid as much attention to this subject of the encouragement of
the legitimate trade as my time and other occupations would allow me. It
will be as well to make a note here on another point, though it may seem
out of place,--the existence of sulphur in the Syrtis. There appears no
doubt that this substance can be procured at the foot of a mountain
called Gebel Sinoube, about six miles from the sea at the innermost
point of the Syrtis. A considerable quantity is obtained by the Arabs
near this mountain, about eighteen camel-hours south-west from a place
on the coast called Maktar, the eastern limits of the district Syrt.
There is also good sulphur found in the Gebel-Harouj, five or six days
east from Sokna. But what is really the per-centage of pure sulphur on
the rough masses of the mines is not ascertained; nor is the quality
precisely known, except that of the Harouj mountain. Accurate
information could only be procured by despatching a trustworthy Sicilian
miner to make a report. Perhaps these mines could only be brought into
profitable working in the event of the stoppage of a supply from Sicily.
It has been proposed to establish a colony of Maltese at Zafran, on the
shore of the Syrtis. If this idea were carried out, the sulphur mines
might by this means be brought into play.