Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51 Volume I Part 3

We pa.s.sed through Wady El-Hasee on the 24th, and after mid-day began to ascend, and continued to do so until we pitched tent at half-past four, at a place called Esfar. This is also a species of plateau, but consists of sand-hills, sandstone rocks, and shallow valleys filled with herbage and shrubs. I was glad to get rid of the eternal limestone and have a change of the sandstone.

On the 25th we started early, and had a cool temperature all day. Our chaouch went out, and by the a.s.sistance of the greyhound b.i.t.c.h brought in a young gazelle. For about three hours the camels had herbage; but afterwards came a desert more horrible even than the Hamadah. It consists of sandstone rocks, and valleys covered with pebbles and loose blocks. Some of the rocks are perfectly black, and would be considered by an European geologist, on a distant view, as basalt. Until half-past four in the afternoon we did not see a blade of gra.s.s, a sprig of vegetation, or living thing of any description; but at the camping-ground was a thin scattering of herbage, near the foot of the black mountain called Solaou Marrafa.

We have sometimes moral disquisitions among our people. This day we had a dispute on religion. The Zintanah, a real orthodox Musulman, maintained a strict distinction between the believers and unbelievers, giving heaven to the former and h.e.l.l to the latter. Yusuf and several more tolerant gentlemen held out hope of mercy to us all, as G.o.d was "the Compa.s.sionate and the Merciful." The chaouch also lectured the people on courage, and publicly maintained that the Fezzanees were all cowards. This fellow is a second Sir John Falstaff, without the corpulence. The tone of all members of the caravan, as I have mentioned, is now much humanised. Every one is more civil to us, and, by habit, to one another. However, the chaouches must, of course, get up a quarrel now and then: they do it between themselves; but, as a sign that they likewise are a little civilised, have only had two regular explosions to-day. Probably these worthies, who remind me of a bull-dog and a terrier, find particular pleasure in this form of social intercourse; for I always observe, that they are on more friendly terms than ever after they have almost come to beard-pulling.

I interfere as little as possible in all these quarrels, but now and then it is difficult to hold aloof. This morning, for example, the black who has two wives, took it into his head to beat one of them in public.

I called upon him to desist, upon which he went to work harder than ever; so that I was compelled to break a stick over his shoulders to reduce him to quietness. These little caravan incidents were often the only ones that diversified our day.

On the 26th, after a march of ten hours, with cool weather at first, but suffocating heat afterwards, we reached Edree, a town of El-Shaty, in a state of great exhaustion. During the latter part of the march, however, we had been cheered by the sight of the town, which stands on a small mound of yellow clay and rock. The whitewashed marabout of Bou Darbalah gleamed a little distance in front of the place, which in itself is now a heap of ruins, having been destroyed by Abd-el-Galeel, on account of the resistance of the inhabitants to his usurped authority. He also, with a cruelty rarely practised in Saharan warfare, cut down above a thousand palms; thus rendering it impossible for the place to recover rapidly from its disasters. Previously there had been a hundred and twenty heads of families; now there are only twenty-five, and these are still diminishing it is said. However, many little children are now in the streets, naked, and covered with filth.

These few inhabitants are a mixed race, some being as fair as those on the coast, whilst others are as black as the darkest negroes of Central Africa. The Sheikh and two or three patriarchs of the village were polite and hospitable, and showed every disposition to comply with the orders sent by the Pasha of Mourzuk to supply us with fresh provisions without payment. I accepted a sheep and two fowls; but the dates for our blacks I paid for, and added a few presents.

The valley of Edree is very shallow, and this portion of it is mostly covered with bushes of wild palm and with coa.r.s.e herbage; it looks green and grateful amidst the surrounding aridity. There are still remaining many fruit-bearing date-trees--about seven thousand, scattered at great distances. The water is good, although the surface of the valley is in parts covered with a whitish crust of salt. Some large springs are continually overflowing with bubbles of gas, like the great well of Ghadamez.

In the garden-fields of Edree are cultivated wheat and barley, the former white and of the finest quality. A good deal of grain has already been got in this year. With industry, and a few more animals to draw the water for irrigation, a great quant.i.ty of wheat might be grown in this oasis. The gardens contain also a few figs and grapes. Doves were fluttering in the branches of the palms, and swallows darting through their waving foliage. There were thousands of native flies here, besides those that had come with us. When we complained, we were answered, "This is a country of dates!"

Shaty has eighteen districts, some very limited, but having date-palms, and paying contributions to Mourzuk. Edree, itself, is drained of four hundred mahboubs per annum.

_27th._--I rose at sunrise and went to see the ancient dwellings of Edree, where the people lived underground: they are excavations out of the rock, some fifty yards from the surface beneath the modern town. The entrances are choked with sand, and they are not entered by the people, who say "They are the abodes of serpents." At present, there is nothing remarkable about them. Probably they were originally natural caves, which were enlarged and arranged as dwellings.

On returning to the encampment, I found that the Kad, or commander of the troops of the Shaty district, had arrived with some Arab cavaliers: he has in all thirty hors.e.m.e.n. Our visitors offered to "play powder" in order to do us honour; but were compelled to beg us to supply the ammunition. It was a very animating scene, after the dreary journey over the Fezzanee deserts. A dozen mounted cavaliers dashed to and fro, shaking the earth, scouting and firing from time to time. Everybody enjoyed it; even the half-naked, dirty, brown-black ladies of the town, stopped with their water-jugs, and looked on with satisfaction. The Kad was the best man of his men; but Yusuf afterwards dressed and beat the victor, riding with great dexterity, and attracting the spontaneous applause of all the spectators. The Kad trembled whilst contending with Yusuf, who was set down as a marabout in consequence by our chaouch.

I gave the Kad, who was a mild and respectful man, a handkerchief, a little bit of writing-paper, and some soap, and sent him off to his station, whence he had come on purpose to visit us. Three handkerchiefs formed also an appropriate present to the Sheikhs of Edree.

Yusuf has been reading an Arabic book, which I at first thought was some commentary on the Koran; but to-day I was undeceived. He related what he read; it reminded me of Gulliver's Travels. A tall man walks through the sea, cooks fish in the sun, and destroys a whole town, whose inhabitants had insulted him, by the same means that our comparative giant saved the palace of Lilliput from conflagration.

This evening it was announced as an event that the Zintanah, a servant of the Germans, was going to Tripoli, having resolved to return home.

Some said one thing about him, some another; but most, "He's afraid of the fever of Mourzuk." The fellow came afterwards to me, asking for letters to Tripoli. I told him to go about his business; that he was a man of words and had no heart, otherwise he would continue with us to Mourzuk. I wished to discourage such acts of desertion, for they produce always a bad effect. My German companions seemed glad to get rid of him.

We started again on Sunday morning (the 28th). This was our first day of sand. We had almost forgotten that there was such a thing as sand in the desert; but we shall have two days more of the same kind of travelling, to keep us in mind of this unpleasant truth. However, we were glad enough to leave Edree. Our marabout, comparing this place with El-Wady, for which we are now journeying, says, "Edree is like a jacka.s.s; El-Wady is like a camel!" Yusuf calls Edree "the city of camel-bugs." These vermin are the leeches of the camels. During the morning we pa.s.sed two or three forests of palms, and afterwards traversed a flat valley, where was a little herbage. The people said; "There is no tareek (track): the tareek is in our heads." Bou Keta noted the route in many parts by the presence of camels' dung; but the shape of the sand-hills in these parts seems to be perfectly familiar to these men. We saw one or two lizards, but no birds or other signs of life, except two brown-black Fezzanees, trudging over the desert.

At four in the afternoon, after a day of hot wind, we encamped in Wady Guber, where there is water two or three feet below the surface; and a small forest of palms belonging to our camel-drivers, having descended to them in small groups from their grandfathers.

Next day (29th) we again went on over the sand, which extends beyond Ghadamez and Souf, to the west, and even to Egypt on the east. It is met at different points by the khafilahs, and crossed in different numbers of days. We found it very hard work to cross it, and understood why, in these parts, the words _raml_, sand, and _war_, difficult, have become convertible terms. Bou Keta had considerable trouble in keeping to the route, being reduced to depend chiefly on the camels' dung, which rolls about the surface of the sand. Here and there was a patch of coa.r.s.e herbage, scattered like black spots on the bright, white surface. Every object was very much magnified at a little distance; I saw what seemed to me to be a horse on the top of one of the hills, but on drawing near it proved to be our own greyhound b.i.t.c.h smelling the hot air.

Bou Keta gave some account of himself to-day. It seems that "Fezzanee"

is not a very respectable epithet in those countries.

"I am not a Fezzanee," said Bou Keta, abruptly.

"Then what are you?"

"My mother was a Tuarick woman, and my father one of the Walad Suleiman."

"Then the Walad Suleiman are gentlemen, whilst the Fezzanees are Turks and dogs?"

"That's the truth," quoth he.

To-day I found the veil of my sister-in-law of essential service.

Doubled, it shielded my eyes perfectly from the hot wind and sand. It serves also as an excellent protection for the eyes against the flies whilst I am writing. This is the second day of the hot wind. In the evening we heard crickets singing in the scorching sand. At mid-day the thermometer, when buried, rose to 122 Fahr. We encamped in Wady El-Makmak, where we had good water, far superior to that at Guber. As in nearly all sandy places, a hole is scooped in the sand and then covered over, or left to be filled by the action of the wind after the khafilah is supplied. Two pretty palms point, as with two fingers, to the buried wells of El-Makmak.

Some of our people noticed the lizard to-day. This seems to be the omnipresent animal of the Sahara, inhabiting its most desolate regions when no other living creature is seen. It changes in species with the nature of the country. To-day, those seen are large; very soon they will become small, meagre, and will change colour. In the valleys I have observed them nearly the same colour as the sandy soil. Perhaps the beetle is nearly as common as the lizard in the desert, being found in its most arid and naked wastes. It is generally a big, round, black-bottle beetle, which produces a trail in the sand that may be mistaken for that of the serpent.

Still the following day we had to cross the same kind of desert, under the enervating influence of the gheblee, or hot wind; the thermometer in the sand reached 130. Although the camels were eight hours on foot, little progress was made. I stopped an hour to rest in Wady El-Jumar, where were two or three palm-groves. One of the Fezzanees ferreted out a lot of dates, hidden in the sand, and taking some distributed them amongst us.

Thus refreshed we pushed on to encamp in Wady El-Takadafah, where there is a well of water, good to drink, but disagreeable in smell, like that of Bonjem. The odour resembles that of a sewer, and is produced by hydrogen of sulphur. We have had good water every day in this sandy tract, and I have no doubt that some may be found in every wady, a little below the surface. Birds begin now to reappear: a few swallows, a dove, and some small twitterers, were seen to give life to the otherwise melancholy wadys.

Dr. Overweg examined the sand, which rolled in great heaps on every side, and found it to consist of grains of four kinds,--white, yellow, red, and black; the latter colour caused by the presence of iron. These variegated sands form the basis of sandstone, and may be a decomposition of sandstone. The sand near Tripoli is of a finer sort, consisting mostly of a decomposition of limestone. There is a blue-black earth in the wadys, arising from the wood, a species of crumbling coal.

This evening we had a famous _embroglio_ between our chaouch and the marabout. The latter had caught a waran, or large species of lizard, and skinned it to dispose of the skin. The chaouch impudently swore he had been eating the flesh of the reptile--a direful accusation. A tremendous war of words ensued; and not of words only, for presently the holy man came in for a gratification of ropes' end. All the Fezzanees rushed forward to save the honour of the marabout; and the chaouch retreated to my tent in search of arms. A stupid joke was on the point of leading to murder. I interfered, and succeeded in appeasing the storm in some degree. I then rated the chaouch soundly for beating a man invested with a sacred character in the eyes of all Musulmans. This produced a good effect, and the culprit, hanging his head, seemed ashamed of the part he had played. Subsequently he kissed the hand of the holy man, and they were reconciled.

CHAPTER V.

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 Kad--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 subst.i.tuted. 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 a.s.sumes 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 pa.s.sed 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 Ghat, 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 Ghat; which fact connects them certainly with that country. Their proper name is Tanelk.u.m, a genuine Tuarick word, and decisive of their Targhee origin. Their trade is chiefly camel-driving between Ghat 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 pa.s.sed 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-Hammam, 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 pa.s.sing 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 Ghat, 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 b.u.t.tresses 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 quant.i.ties; and camels, a.s.ses, 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 kafa.s.ses of dates, thirty of wheat, and eight of barley; it feeds eleven a.s.ses. I observed that all domestic animals, the goats especially, attain a very diminutive size in these oases, the nourishment for them being but scanty.