Saved from the Sea Part 21

The sheikh had called a halt; and those in the rear came crowding up, almost riding over the front ranks before they were aware that they had reached them. Men and animals stood huddled together in a vast ma.s.s.

To lie down would have been death; had any attempted to do so, they would either have been trampled under foot or have been buried beneath the sand. The fierce wind rendered it useless to pitch the tents, seeing they would have been blown down as soon as erected, or carried away before the blast. Occasionally those nearest each other would ask whether the storm was at the worst; but no one dared reply.

The clouds of sand became thicker and thicker; we seemed to have death alone to expect. Complete silence prevailed; the horses hung their tongues out of their mouths, the camels drooped their heads, while the sheep and goats struggled to free themselves from the sand collecting around them.

Thus hour after hour went by, and many of the Arabs, though accustomed to such storms, gave themselves up for lost. But suddenly the wind changed, and seemed to drive back the clouds which surrounded us; objects. .h.i.therto obscured came into view; and once more the voices of the leaders could be heard. The order to advance was given, and again we dashed forward, though so exhausted with thirst that we could scarcely keep our seats, while those on foot with difficulty dragged on their weary limbs.

At nightfall we encamped, and small measures of water, or of such milk as the camels and goats could yield, were served out to the people; but the portion we obtained was scarcely sufficient to cool our parched tongues. Our very skin felt like leather, and was cracked and scorched all over. A short time only could be given for rest, however; another blast might sweep up clouds of sand and overwhelm us; another fatiguing march during a day and night over the Desert had to be pa.s.sed. Besides, every drop of water was expended; and though the camels might go on with comparative ease, we must all of us expect to suffer dreadfully,--but more especially the women and children.

Again we advanced; but another day might witness the destruction of many who had hitherto held out bravely. We went on as fast as the camels could move their limbs. The expectation that water would be found ahead incited us to exertion, I suppose, otherwise many would have sunk down and resigned themselves to their fate. At length the faint outline of palm-trees was seen in the far distance. Shouts of joy were uttered by those in advance, and taken up by the mult.i.tude in the rear. Soon the palm-trees became more and more distinct; and even the animals seemed to know that relief would soon be obtained.

In a short time the whole caravan was collected round a large well, from which eager hands were employed in drawing water. Some time pa.s.sed, however, before we could obtain a draught, as even the animals were considered more worthy to enjoy the water than we Nazarenes were.

We here encamped, that both human beings and animals might recruit their strength. It was curious to remark the contrast between the flocks which came up to receive water at the well and those which had already slaked their thirst; the latter bounded and leaped about, showing how quickly the refreshing liquid had restored their strength.

I have elsewhere described the appearance of our camp, and the mode of proceeding never varied. Before we started in the morning, the male part of the population were called out to prayer; the herdsmen then departed in all directions to tend the camels, horses, sheep, and goats while grazing. As the day advanced, the extreme heat, and the absence of most of the men, deprived the camp of all its bustle: a few women were alone to be seen, occupied in grinding between two stones the barley which was to serve for the evening repast; others were employed at their looms, weaving camel-hair cloth, within the shade of the tents.

In the evening the whole scene became one of the greatest animation.

Various travellers were arriving, and seeking the hospitality of the sheikh and his people: some came in troops, lightly mounted; others with camels loaded with articles to dispose of in the Desert. The sheikh sat on his carpet in front of his tent, calmly smoking his long hookah, and habited in a white haique of extreme fineness, which hung over another garment of sky-blue, ornamented on each side of the breast with silk embroidery of various colours. On his feet were red morocco boots, tastefully figured; while, instead of a turban, he wore round his head-- which was entirely shaved--a band of blue silk, a sign of his rank.

Each Arab as he arrived made his camel kneel before the tent, and then, holding his musket in one hand, he touched the sheikh's head with the other in token of respect. The sheikh congratulated each one on his arrival, and returned the numerous salutations, without even inquiring from whence the traveller came, or whither he was going.

Before dark, all were a.s.sembled for evening prayer; after which the travellers formed themselves into groups, partaking out of one common bowl the couscoussu prepared for them by their hosts. As night approached the camels and flocks came trotting in; and by a peculiar instinct each herd arranged itself before the tent to which it belonged, the women hurrying out to milk the she-camels and goats. The hubbub which ensued, caused by the numerous animals a.s.sembled, may be imagined.

A perfect calm then succeeded the bustle: the inhabitants retired to their tents--the travellers, enveloped in their cloaks, lying down with their camels by the side of the waning fires; the cattle, closely packed together, remained immovable till morning,--and, notwithstanding the number collected, not a sound was heard during the night.

The routine of every ordinary day, when we were not travelling, was similar to that I have described.

Our position in the camp had not improved of late. By some means or other I had offended my hasty mistress and her young daughters, and this prejudicing the mind of the sheikh against me, I was ordered to perform the same sort of service as that to which Halliday and Ben had been condemned; while we were told that from henceforth we must march, like the other slaves, on foot. This encouraged a marabout, who hitherto had not interfered with us, to insist that we should turn Mohammedans; and every day we were summoned to hear him abuse the Christians, and to listen to his arguments in favour of the faith of the Prophet. Boxall, too, had not been so successful in his cures as at first. One of his patients, suffering from some internal disease, and who had broken his arm by a fall from a camel, died, and Boxall was accused of killing him--though he protested his innocence, and even the sheikh said that the man might have died from other causes. But from that day the people lost faith in him; and he was finally reduced from his post as surgeon-general of the tribe to serve with us as a camel-driver.

Though the life he had now to bear, however, was one of daily toil, he accepted his position without complaining. "I confess, my dear Charlie," he said to me soon afterwards, "that I often felt ashamed of myself, while I was enjoying the favour of the sheikh and the abundant food he provided for me,--simply because I happened to know a little about medicine and surgery,--to see you and Halliday ill-treated and badly fed, and to be unable to help you. However, now that we are together, perhaps we may be better able to manage some means of escape.

I have been endeavouring to calculate our present position, and I believe that we are not more than four hundred miles south of the borders of Morocco or Algiers. Should we reach Morocco, we might not be much better off in some respects than we are at present, as the Moors are even more fanatical than these wandering Arabs; but we might find the means of communicating with one of the English consuls on the coast, and probably obtain our release: whereas, if we could get into the neighbourhood of the frontier of Algiers, we might, on escaping, place ourselves under the protection of the French. To reach one of their outposts would, of course, be a difficulty; for, even supposing that we could escape from the camp, a journey by ourselves of three or four hundred miles across the Desert would be dangerous in the extreme, with the probability of being pursued by the Arabs. Notwithstanding this, I am inclined to the latter plan, provided my calculations of our position should prove correct."

"So am I," I answered. "As for the dangers we may have to encounter, I am perfectly ready to face them; so I am sure will Halliday, Ben, and Selim--for we must not on any account leave the black lad behind."

The plans for escape formed the subject of our conversation whenever we met. We were all of one mind about it, and we resolved not to desert each other, but to remain or escape together.

Seeing I could converse with the Arabs with greater ease than the others, Boxall charged me to try and ascertain exactly whereabout we were, adding--"But be cautious about exhibiting any special interest in the matter."

Whenever strangers came into the camp, therefore, I got into conversation with them, and tried to learn whence they had come, and how long they had been on their journey, hoping to find some one who had visited either the Atlantic or Mediterranean sh.o.r.es of the continent; but no one I had met with had performed less than a journey of thirty days in coming from the city of Morocco, or forty or more from Fez-- which of course placed us still a long way to the south of Algiers. We had therefore to wait patiently till the sheikh should move his camp further northward. We heard, however, of several large cities in different parts of the Desert: Timbuctoo, a long way to the south; Tintell.u.s.t and Agadly, to the east; Tafleet and the beautiful oasis of Draha, to the north-west of us,--to all of which places travellers were proceeding.

Ben was at this time in a better position than we were. Being a handy fellow, and understanding something of smith-work, he had mended the locks of some of the Arabs' firearms; and the whole of his time, when not occupied in tending his camel, was employed in repairing the damaged weapons of our masters. He held his position, however, among those capricious people, by a very uncertain tenure. The marabouts fancied, from his easy, good-natured manner, that they could without difficulty induce him to turn Mohammedan, and set to work with him, as they had done with us, to show the excellence of their religion.

"Look you here, my friends," answered Ben, after listening with perfect gravity for some time, when one evening he and I, with the rest of our party, were seated on the ground at our supper, and two of these so-called holy men came up to us. "If it's a good thing for a man to have a dozen--or even fifty--wives, to cut throats, to steal, and commit all sorts of rogueries, then your religion may be a good one; but if not, why, do ye see--begging your pardons, no offence being intended--to my mind it was invented by the devil, and your Prophet, as you call him, was as big a rogue as ever lived.--Just tell them, Mr Blore, what I say; for I never can make these marabout chaps understand my lingo."

Knowing that Ben's remarks would not be favourably received, I confess that I did not translate them literally, but replied: "My brother listens with all respect to the wisdom which has proceeded from your mouths. We all acknowledge Allah, and look to him for everything we possess; but we have been taught to put faith in another Prophet, whom we believe to be greater than any human being, and therefore we cannot deny Him by acknowledging any other."

"Mohammed was superior to all other prophets!" exclaimed the marabouts.

"Those who do not believe this are worthy of death and eternal d.a.m.nation."

"It is just on that point we differ, my friends," I answered with perfect calmness. "You believe one thing, we believe another. In the end we shall know which is right. In the meantime, why should we wrangle and dispute? or why should you grow angry with us because we do not agree with you?"

"The more we love you, the more anxious we are for your conversion,"

answered the marabouts.

"You take a curious way of showing it," I could not help observing, causing thereby something like a smile on the grave countenances of the priests--who did not, however, again attempt a theological discussion with us. Ben managed to make his opinions known, though, and received very severe treatment in consequence. The sheikh no longer continued to protect him any more than he did us; and when the tribe moved forward, he was compelled to trudge on foot, separated from his camel--which on such occasions was bestrode by his master.

Many a weary day's march we had to make. Sometimes, however, we remained for several weeks together at an oasis, where wells would be found, and herbage for the beasts, with groves of date-trees. Here we had time to regain our strength; and our masters being generally in better humour, we were in consequence less harshly dealt with.

Still, our existence was daily becoming more and more unendurable, and only the hope of ultimately escaping kept up our spirits, and prevented us sinking altogether into despair. Had we consented to abandon our religion, our homes, and civilisation, we might have been raised to a high position among these barbarians; and I believe that Boxall and I might have become sheikhs ourselves. The beautiful Coria, the youngest of the sheikh's daughters, showed me at first many marks of her esteem; but my refusal to embrace their religion, even for her sake, changed her love into hatred, and she became my most bitter persecutor.

At length we heard that we were approaching a town, which we hoped might prove to be at no great distance from the borders of Algiers. Our knowledge of the interior of Africa, however, was very imperfect; or, I may say, we knew nothing at all about it--our only recollection of the Desert being a vast blank s.p.a.ce, with a few spots upon it marked "oases," with Lake Tchad and Timbuctoo on its southern border, and a very indefinite line marked Algiers and Morocco. The place we were approaching was, we heard, the permanent abode of the sheikh; and the country, though arid according to European notions, was more fertile than any we had yet seen--palms and other trees being scattered about, with ranges of hills in the distance.

The Arabs manifested their joy by singing and uttering shouts of delight, praising the country to us as if it were a perfect paradise.

Here and there were fields of barley, with some low tents in their midst; and a grove of date-trees circling a well, near which was an open s.p.a.ce. The sheikh advanced into the centre, and the camels immediately halting, they were unloaded, and all hands set to work to erect the tents. The tribe had reached their home, after their long pilgrimage.

There seemed, however, no prospect of our lot being improved. We had not been long settled when a cavalcade arrived, the persons composing which differed greatly in appearance from those among whom we had so long lived. Their leader was a handsomely dressed, fine-looking Arab.

He wore a haique, over which was a cloak of blue cloth, with a well-arranged turban on his head. The costume of his followers was nearly as becoming; their horses were large and well-caparisoned, their saddles being covered with scarlet cloth, to which hung enormous silver stirrups; while they were profusely covered with ornaments of the same material. Each horseman was armed with a poignard and sabre, and pistols in his sash; while he carried before him--the but resting on the saddle--a fine silver-mounted Moorish gun.

The same ceremonies as I have before described were gone through; an entertainment also being prepared for the new-comers.

After some time we were summoned to attend the sheikh, when we found that he was offering to sell us to his visitors. The price to be paid we could not ascertain, nor the object of our proposed purchasers; our only consolation was that we were to be sold together, and should not thus be separated.

What other object the visitors had in coming to the camp we could not learn. I had my suspicions, however, when I heard the young sheikh-- whose name was Siddy Ischem--invite our master to accompany him.

"No! Allah be praised, I have never been accustomed to towns and their ways; and within stone and brick walls I hope not to enter, unless I go at the head of my people, sword in hand, to plunder and destroy the cursed infidels,--when, with the blessing of Mohammed, I will get out again as soon as the work is accomplished."

"Each man to his taste," answered Siddy Ischem. "A city affords its pleasures as well as the Desert."

The greater part of the next morning was spent at the camp. We were then ordered to be ready to march. Siddy Boo Ca.s.sem, owner of the famous Bu Saef camel, with several of his tribe, accompanied our party.

No camels or horses were allowed us, however, and having to march on foot, a dreary, fatiguing journey we found it. Some of our masters rode on either side of us, to prevent the possibility of our running away; though where we could have run to it was hard to say. We travelled on all day, the night overtaking us while we were still on the road. In about an hour, however, the moon rose, and enabled us better to see the path.

Not long afterwards, we caught sight of a lofty tower rising out of the plain, and the dark frowning walls of a fortified town; and from the remarks of the Arabs we learned that this was our destination. We soon came under the walls, when the leaders of our band began to defile through a narrow archway. My heart sank within me, for I felt that the difficulties of escape would be increased. I expressed my feelings to Boxall; but he rejoined,--"Such walls as these can be easily scaled; and if we once get on the outside, we are not so likely to be observed and followed as from an open camp. Cheer up, Charlie; 'it's a long lane that has no turning.'"

Even he, however, felt somewhat dispirited when we were conducted to a long, low building, into which we were thrust, and the door closed upon us. All we could discover in the gloom was that the walls were of bare stone, with rings and chains secured to them, and that the floor was excessively dirty. We were so tired from our journey that we longed to lie down; but we were unable to do so until we could sc.r.a.pe from the floor the offal which thickly covered it.

"I hope they are not going to send us supperless to bed," exclaimed Ben.

"Can't you sing out that we are in want of food, Mr Blore, and that we shall be much obliged to them if they will send us something to drink at the same time?"

There was a single, strongly-barred window in the room, looking into the street. I went to it, and cried at the top of my voice, "Oh, pity! oh, pity! oh, pity! Will any one have compa.s.sion on us, and bring us some food to supply our wants?"

My appeal was not in vain, for before long the door opened and a veiled female appeared, bringing a basket with the universal couscoussu, some dates, and a bottle of water. Without uttering a word she placed the basket on the ground, and retired as silently as she had entered; not even allowing us time to thank her for her kindness. All we could do was to bless her after she had gone, and wonder who she could be; and then we set to with hearty appet.i.tes to devour the viands she had brought us. Finding some pieces of wood, we next sc.r.a.ped a spot in the corner of our prison clear of dirt; and then throwing ourselves on the ground, forgot our cares in sleep.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

BEN DISPLAYS HIS ABILITY AS A GUNSMITH--I ACT THE PART OF EAVESDROPPER-- HOW SIDDY BOO Ca.s.sEM OBTAINED BU SAEF--SELIM GOES ON A DANGEROUS EXPEDITION--ITS RESULT--BOXALL DOCTORS SIDDY BOO Ca.s.sEM--WE TAKE FRENCH LEAVE OF OUR MASTERS.

Scarcely had daylight appeared when the door opened, and a number of inquisitive faces--belonging to people of all descriptions who had come to see us--appeared at the entrance. Some gazed in silence, but many amused themselves by abusing us, and bestowing on us all sorts of uncomplimentary names. We endured the abuse for some time without replying; but at last I got up and said--

"What is it that excites your curiosity, O followers of the prophet Mohammed? Are we not formed like yourselves? In what do we differ, except that your skins are dark and ours light; that you are at home, and we come from a far-distant land; that you speak one language, and we speak another--although Allah has given us the power of acquiring yours?