Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51 Volume I Part 2

One of our blacks this day killed a lefa, the most dangerous species of snake; and several thobs or lizards were caught. The greyhound of the Fezzanee also ran down a hare. Next day it procured us a gazelle; but with these exceptions were seen only ground-larks, and what we call in Lincolns.h.i.+re water-wagtails.

It is worth mentioning that at this place our chaouch sprained his ankle, and Dr. Overweg applied spirits of camphor as lotion. This terrible fellow, this huge swaggerer, this eater-up of ordinary timid mortals, was reduced to the meekness of a lamb by his slight accident; and for the first time since the caravan was blessed with his presence did he remain tranquil, breathing out from time to time a soft complaint. In the course of the day he had contrived to make himself particularly disagreeable. First he fell out with the servant of the Germans, Mahommed of Tunis. Then he quarrelled with us all, because he picked up a blanket for somebody and was refused his modest demand of three piastres as a reward. We are heartily glad that he is tamed for awhile.

On the 12th, shortly after we started, I happened to look behind and saw, coming from the west, some clouds that seemed to give promise of rain. Already I felt the air cooled by antic.i.p.ation, but was soon undeceived. In the course of an hour a gheblee began to blow, and continued to increase in violence until it enervated the whole caravan.

Our poor black women began to drop with fatigue, and we were compelled to place them on the camels. Here was a foretaste of the desert, its hards.h.i.+ps and its terrors! The air was full of haze, through which we could scarcely see the flagging camels, with their huge burdens; and the men, as they crawled along, were apparently ready to sink on the ground in despair. We breathed the hot atmosphere with difficulty and displeasure.

Right glad were we then, at length, to reach the Wady Taghijah, where I at once recognised my old desert friend, under whose spreading and heavy boughs I once had pa.s.sed a night alone in the Sahara,--the ethel-tree!

It is a species of _Pinus_, growing chiefly in valleys of red clay on the top of mounds, which are sometimes overshadowed by a gigantic tree, with arms measuring four feet in circ.u.mference. Of its wood are made the roofs of houses, the frames of camel-saddles, and bowls for holding milk and other food. With the berries and a mixture of oil the people prepare their water-skins, as well as tan leather. The valley is strewed with huge branches, cut down for the purpose of extracting resin. The ethel and the batoum are the most interesting of desert-trees, and I shall regret to exchange them for the tholukh. I wrote down the names of fourteen shrubs found in the valley of Taghijah: two of them, the sidr and the katuf, are edible by man; the rest, with the exception of the _hijatajel_, afford food for the camels.

In this valley, amongst the trees, we found the flocks and horses of the Waled Bou Seif feeding. This tribe--the children of the Father of the Sword--are wandering Arabs, who have never acknowledged the authority of the Tripoli Government. They possess flocks, camels, and horses,--every element, in fact, of desert wealth. All the mountains near and round about Mizdah are claimed by them as their country, which has never, perhaps, been reduced by any power but the Roman. A young man of the tribe, who was tending some sheep in the valley, came to visit us. He was a fine, cheerful fellow, with an open countenance, well dressed, having, besides his barracan, red leather boots, trousers, and a s.h.i.+rt.

All his tribe, according to his account, are so dressed. He boasted of the independence of his people, who number three thousand strong, and extend their influence as far south as Ghareeah. The name of the tribe is derived, he tells us, from a great warrior who once lived, and was named by the people Bou Seif, because he always carried a sword.

Our chaouch gave us an account of this young man in the following strain:--"He is in very deed a marabout! His wife never unveiled her face to any man; and his own mother kisses his hand. He is master of wealth, and never leaves this valley. He has a house and flocks of sheep, and a hundred camels, which always rest in the valley, bringing forth young, and are never allowed to go into the caravans," &c. &c.

We were detained during the whole of the 13th, because the water was at a distance and our people had to fetch it. There were marks of recent rain in the valley, but there is no well; only a few muddy puddles. Dr.

Barth, in wandering about, discovered here a splendid mausoleum, of which he brought back a sketch. It was fifty feet high, of Roman-Christian architecture,--say of the fourth or fifth century. No doubt, remains of cities and forts will be discovered in these districts. Such tombs as these indicate the presence in old time of a large and opulent population.

One of the nagahs foaled this day, which partly accounts for our detention. For some time afterwards the cries of the little camel for its mother, gone to feed, distressed us, and called to our mind the life of toil and pain that was before the little delicate, ungainly thing. It is worth noticing, that the foal of the camel is frolicsome only for a few days after its birth--soon becoming sombre in aspect and solemn in gait. As if to prepare it betimes for the rough buffeting of the world, the nagah never licks or caresses its young, but spreads its legs to lower the teat to the eager lips, and stares at the horizon, or continues to browse.

Our people clubbed together and bought a goat for a mahboub. They then divided it into five lots, and an equal number of thongs was selected by the five part-owners of the meat; these were given to a stranger not concerned in the division, and he arbitrarily placed one upon each piece, from which decision there was no appeal.

On the 14th we rose before daybreak, and were soon in motion. No change was noticed in the country, limestone rocks and broad valleys running in all directions. The ground is sometimes scattered with fossil sh.e.l.ls, some of the _exogyra_, others of the oyster species; all flints. There were apparent traces of the hyaena, but of no other wild animals. Some sheep were at graze; and the long stubble of last year's crop of barley, in irregular patches, told us that when there is copious rain the Arabs come to these parts for agricultural purposes. We noticed the English hedge-thorn here and there, and thought of the green lanes of our native land.

Nine hours' journey brought us to the valley of Amjam, where there was a khafilah of senna encamped among the trees. Water--rather bitter, however--may be found here in shallow excavations; and the whole place, with its patches of herbage, is highly refres.h.i.+ng to the eye.

There are two new trees in this wady, both interesting; the _Ghurdok_ and the _Ajdaree_. The _ghurdok_, on which the camels browse, is a large bush with great thorns, and bears a red berry about the size of our hip, or, as the marabout says, of sheep's dung. People eat these berries and find them good, with a saltish, bitter taste, and yet a dash of sweetness. The _ajdaree_ is also a th.o.r.n.y bush, and at a distance something reminds one of the English hedge-thorn. On a nearer approach the leaves are found to be oval and filbert-shaped. The berry, called _thomakh_, is nearly as large as haws, but flatted at the sides: it is used medicinally, being a powerful astringent in diarrhoea.

When the moon was two days old our people practised a little of the ancient Sabaeanism of the Arabs--saluting it by kissing their hands, and offering a short prayer.

On the 15th we at length sighted the edge of the plateau of the Hamadah; and pus.h.i.+ng on still through desert hills and valleys, arrived at Wady Tabooneeah, having been _en route_ four days from Mizdah. This valley is not so fertile as Amjam; and the water is more bitter. Common salt, the companion of gypsum, was observed to-day; and wherever this is found there are bitter salts. Swallows were skimming over the shrubs, and birds of prey hovered about, now lying-to, as it were, overhead, with beak and talons visible, now circling upwards until they became mere specks. Lizards and beetles abounded as usual; but the only plagues of the place were the flies, which had followed the camels from Gharian, and even from Tripoli. Men usually carry their "black cares" along with them in this way.

As we could not expect to commence the traject of the dreaded plateau immediately, I resolved to go upon a visit to the village of Western Ghareeah. The camel-drivers of the caravan, of course, told us that it was at the distance of one hour--_Saha bas!_ but we found it to be three hours in a north-east direction. Time is of little consequence in the desert, and no means are possessed or desired of measuring it with exact.i.tude. It has already been observed by a traveller, that the Bedawin will describe as _near_ an object a hundred yards off, or a well two days' journey from you. Western Ghareeah was likewise described as _grayeb_, but we thought for some time that we had ventured upon an interminable desert. However, the ground at length dipped, and a green wady disclosed itself. We could scarcely, at first, find anybody to receive us. But after waiting some time, the people came unwillingly crawling out one after the other. We told them our errand--"To look at the country and buy barley." They swore they had none--not a grain; but when we swore in our turn that we would pay them for what we wanted, they admitted having a little that belonged to some people in Fezzan. I was amused with the eloquent indignation of our burly chaouch when they professed complete dest.i.tution at first. "You dogs! do you live on stones?" cried he. This was a settler; and showed them that they had knowing ones to deal with. Of course their original shyness arose from fear lest we might rob them. When a bargain was struck they became quite friendly, and brought us out some oil, barley-cakes, and boiled eggs--all the luxuries of the oasis!

Ghareeah Gharbeeah stands on the brow of a limestone rock, on the western side of a valley, which we had to cross in approaching between date plantations and a few fields of barley. It was an ancient Roman city; and there remains still an almost perfect bas-relief of a Victoria on one side of the eastern gateway, which is composed of limestone blocks a foot and a half square. We could trace also the imperfect letters of a Latin inscription, together with some Berber characters.

The houses of the present inhabitants are formed of rough blocks of limestone mixed with mud, and roofed with palm-trunks and palm-trees.

The water resembles that of the well of Tabooneeah, coming "from the same rock," as the people say: it is slightly bitter and saltish.

With the exception of the little valley we had crossed, nothing could be seen from Ghareeah but a dreary waste, especially to the south and east.

A tower of modern date rises to the east, on a solitary rock; and we knew that Eastern Ghareeah was concealed among the hills at a distance of six hours. The inhabitants of these secluded towns are called Waringab, and promise shortly to become extinct. In this Western Ghareeah there are twenty heads of families, but very few children,--scarce sixty souls altogether; and the population of the other place, which gives itself airs of metropolitan importance, is not more than double. How they have not abandoned the place long ago to jackals and hawks is a mystery. They do not possess a single camel; only two or three a.s.ses and some flocks of sheep; and depend, in a great measure, on chance profits from caravans, for their valley often only affords provision for a couple of months or so. At intervals, it is true, when there has been much rain, they sell barley in the neighbouring valleys; but this season has been a dry one, and the crop has consequently fallen short. When they have no barley, they say, they eat dates; and when the dates are out, they fast--a long, continual fast--and famine takes them off one by one. The melancholy remnant preserve traditions of prosperity in comparatively recent times.

Notwithstanding their miserable condition, however, these wretched people are drained by taxation of thirty mahboubs per annum--so many drops of blood! The eastern village pays in proportion. Possibly in a few years this cl.u.s.ter of wadys may be abandoned to chance Arab visitors, so that the starting-point for the traverse of the Hamadah will be removed farther back, perhaps to Mizdah. There is no life in the civilisation which claims lords.h.i.+p over these countries unfriended by nature. The only object of those who wield paramount authority over them seems to be to extract money in the most vexatious and expeditious manner.

I purchased of the people of Ghareeah a greyhound b.i.t.c.h for four Tunisian piastres, so that we may now expect some hares and gazelles. In returning to the encampment I observed the phenomenon of a column of dust carried into the heavens in a spiral form by the wind, whilst all around was perfectly calm. Such columns are not of so frequent occurrence in the desert as is imagined, but from time to time, as in this instance, are seen.

The evening was spent in making arrangements with Dr. Barth and Dr.

Overweg, who had agreed to traverse the Hamadah by day, whilst I was to follow by night, with the blacks. Next morning, accordingly, the caravan separated into two portions, and my companions rode slowly away over the burning desert.

This important day could not be allowed to pa.s.s by my people without a tremendous quarrel. Our blacks seemed to be in a peculiarly excitable state. Ali, especially, who has distinguished himself for several days in the obstreperous line, has had a regular turn-to with his father-in-law; and not satisfied with this, nearly strangled Moknee's son. The Mandara black threw himself on the ground and called out,--"Load my pistol, O Chaouch; I must shoot this reprobate Ali!"

This fellow is a pest in the caravan, and I have been obliged to send him off and insist on his return to Tripoli. He may be brought to his senses in this way.

CHAPTER IV.

Commence crossing the Hamadah--Last Pillar of the Romans--Travelling in the Desert--Rapid March--Merry Blacks--Dawn--Temperature--Ali returns--Day-travelling--Night-feelings--Animals--Graves of Children--Mirage--Extent of the Plateau--It breaks up--Valley of El-Hasee--Farewell to the Hamadah--Arduous Journey--The Camel-drivers--New Country--Moral and religious Disquisitions--The Chaouches--Reach Edree--Abd-el-Galeel--Description of Edree--Subterranean Dwellings--Playing at Powder--The Kad--Arabic Literature--Desertion of the Zintanah--Leave Edree--Sandy Desert--Bou Keta the Camel-driver--Wady El-Makmak--The Lizard--Reach Wady Takadafah--Sand--Another _Embroglio_.

The sun was setting as our caravan, which we had collected in as compact a body as possible, got under way, and rising out of the valley of Tabooneeah, began to enter upon the plateau. It is difficult to convey an idea of the solemn impressions with which one enters upon such a journey. Everything ahead is unknown and invested with perhaps exaggerated terrors by imagination and report. The name of Desert--the waterless Desert--hangs over the horizon, and suggests the most gloomy apprehensions. Behind, in the fading light, the trees of the valley still show their dim groups; before, the lofty level, slightly broken by undulations, stretches away. There was one cheering thought, however. My companions had by this time set up their tent for the night; and although, creeping along at the camel's slow pace, we could not expect to come up to that temporary home until it was about to be deserted, still the knowledge of its existence took away much of the mysterious terror with which I entered upon this desolate region in the hour of coming shadows. An additional solemnity was imparted to the commencement of this arduous journey by the fact that we now pa.s.sed the last pillar erected by the Romans. Their mighty power seems to have recoiled, as well it might, before the horrid aspect of the Hamadah.

We pushed on at a steady pace over the rough ground; and as I surveyed the scene from my elevated position on the camel's back, I could not help contrasting this primitive style of travelling with that with which I had been conversant a few months before. Instead of whirling along the summit of an embankment, or through a horizontal well miles deep, in a machine that always reminded me of a disjointed dragon, at the rate of some fifty miles an hour, here I was leisurely swaying to and fro on the back of the slowest beast that man has ever tamed, in the midst of a crowd loosely scattered over the country, some on foot, some in the saddle--not seeking to keep any determinate track, but following a general direction by the light of the stars, which s.h.i.+ne with warm beneficence overhead. There is no sound to attract the ear, save the measured tread of the caravan, the occasional "_Isa! Isa!_" of the drivers, the hasty wrench with which our camels s.n.a.t.c.h a mouthful of some ligneous plant that clings to the stony soil, the creaking of the baggage, or the whistling of the wind that comes moaning over the desert. These are truly moments in a man's life to remember; and I shall ever look back to that solemn night-march over the desert, which my pen fails to describe, with sentiments of pleasurable awe.

This night we moved at comparatively a rapid pace--nearly three miles an hour; for there was scarcely any temptation to the camels to linger for browsing purposes, and the drivers seemed desperately anxious to get over as much ground as possible at once. At first all went well enough; and now and then even, the blacks, who were on foot, braved the Hamadah with a lively ditty--celebrating some Lucy Long of Central Africa. But by degrees these merry sounds ceased to be heard; and the hastily-moving crowd of the caravan insensibly stretched out into a longer line. The poor women were beginning to knock up, and several fell at times from mere exhaustion. We proceeded, however, without stopping, for eleven hours, and after a long, dreary night indeed, halted at five in the morning, having reached the encampment of our German friends.

The dawn soon lighted up the waste, and enabled us to see that it was a level plain of hard red earth, scattered over with pebbles and loose pieces of limestone mixed with flint.

The Hamadah was very cold in the night, the wind being from the north.

Dr. Overweg does not think that the plateau is more than fifteen hundred feet above the level of the sea; but it may be two thousand, and a little more in some places. By day it is hot enough; and as there is little to be observed on these vast, elevated stretches of stony desert, I thought it best to continue my original plan for three whole nights.

To spare one's self is the great secret of Saharan travelling; and there is, after all, not much to observe in this desolate region.

I should mention, that the second night Ali came up in a penitent state along with a khafilah from Ghareeah, and so our poor black women had an opportunity of getting a lift on the spare camels. We could, therefore, go on until morning without fear of losing any of our party in the night. The position of a person who falls behind a caravan in the desert very much resembles that of a man overboard. This khafilah preceded us to Shaty.

After the third night I found the weather so cool and temperate, that I continued on the whole of the day; and the Germans joining me in the evening, we did not again separate. It was towards the close of the third night that we were a.s.sailed by an awful tempest of wind, rain, and lightning, which flashed upon us occasionally through the thick darkness. The Germans, who were encamped, had their tents carried away, whilst we who were in motion found ourselves compelled to stop and crouch under the bellies of our camels until the morning broke, and the hurricane had spent its force. The cold was intense, and our people complained bitterly. More than once, indeed, the thermometer was down to freezing-point whilst we were traversing the plateau; and one morning the desert was covered with a s.h.i.+ning frost.

Although we became accustomed to the desolate appearance of this district by degrees, we counted eagerly the days and hours that brought us nearer the confines of Fezzan. Every night's incidents were the same.

On we went, nodding drowsily on our camels, sometimes dropping off into a sound sleep, variegated by a s.n.a.t.c.h of pleasant dreams. But these indulgences are dangerous. I was more than once on the point of falling off. By day, few objects of interest presented themselves: linnets and finches fluttered here and there upon the rare bushes, whilst swallows joined the caravan, and skimmed round and round for hours among the camels, almost brus.h.i.+ng the faces of the drivers. Lizards glanced and snakes writhed across the path. We started three wadan or mouflon, churlish animals, fond of such solitudes. As to the birds, our people say they do not drink in winter, and in summer leave the Hamadah altogether. Four-fifths of the surface were utterly barren. Little mounds marked the graves of children, slaves who had perished on the way from inner Africa. The mirage was common, but rarely pretty. Sometimes ridges of low mountains seemed raised on the level plain, probably reflected from the cliffs that edge the plateau. The scattered herbage also a.s.sumed regular forms--squares, ovals, circles. Now and then it seemed as if vast ruins were ahead, but as we drew nigh these dwindled into little desert-mosques, formed of half-circles of stones, now turned to the east, now to the west. Here the faithful who may be obliged to traverse these dreary regions stop to offer up their simple prayer to the Almighty Allah, to whom, they say, the dreadful Hamadah belongs.

The extent of this plateau from north to south, varying in our route from S.E. to S.W., is about 156 miles, or six long and seven short days'

journey. Sometimes our camels went at the pace of three miles, but nearly always of two and a-half miles in the hour. It is almost impossible to make the traverse in less than fifty-six or sixty hours.

The camels may continue on night and day, but it will always require so much time to make the weary journey, which is considered the greatest exploit of Saharan travelling in this portion of Northern Africa.

On the road to Tuat from Algeria, or to Ghadamez from Tunis and Tripoli, or to Fezzan from Bonjem or Benioleed, there is no traverse of six days comparable in difficulty to that which we have just accomplished. There is said to be none other like it on the road to Soudan, except a tremendous desert between Ghat and Aheer. However, we must not trouble ourselves about this as yet.

As for the Hamadah, we know that near Sokna the plateau breaks up and forms what are called the Jebel-es-Soudy, or Black Mountains, a most picturesque group of cliffs; and again on the route to Egypt from Mourzuk, six days' journey south-east from Sokna, it also breaks into huge cliffs, and bears the name of El-Harouj. These mountain b.u.t.tresses are either the bounds of the Hamadah, or ma.s.ses of rock where it breaks into hills, forming ravines or valleys. But, in fact, how far the Hamadah extends between Ghadamez on the west and Augila on the east is not yet properly ascertained. It seems to be like a broad belt intercepting the progress of commerce, civilisation, and conquest, from the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean to Central Africa. The kingdom of Fezzan, however, advances like a promontory beyond it; and then on every side stretches the desert ocean with its innumerable oases or islands, which, from being once mere fluctuating names, as it were, on a guess map, are now by degrees dropping one by one into their right places.

On the breaking-up of the plateau we observed its geological structure to consist of three princ.i.p.al strata: first, a covering or upper crust, limestone with flints and red earth; then ma.s.ses of marl; and then sandstone, lumps and ma.s.ses of which were blackened by the contact of the air with the iron they contain. Under the sandstone was likewise a bed of yellow clay, with a mixture of gypsum.

The face of the cliffs of the plateau was blackened as with the smoke of a huge furnace, which gave a majestic and yet gloomy appearance to the scene as we descended the pa.s.s towards the valley of El-Hasee. We found the plain strewed with great ma.s.ses of dark sandstone, seeming to have been detached by some convulsion from the rocky walls, which now rose in apparently interminable grandeur behind us. We glanced back in awe, and yet in some triumph, towards the iron-bound desert we had thus safely traversed; but our eyes soon turned from so bleak a prospect, when we beheld, dotting the sandy wady, clumps of the wild palm, green copses, and the majestic ethel-tree.

It was about two in the afternoon when we reached the camping-ground, all our people shouting, "_Be-Selameh el Hamadah!_" Farewell to the Hamadah! I cried out the same words in a joyful voice; for, although now that the dangers of the plateau were overcome they seemed diminished in my eyes, yet I felt that we had escaped from a most trying march with wonderful good fortune. It is difficult to convey an idea of the horror and desolation of so vast a tract of waterless and uninhabited country.

They alone who have breathed the sharp air of its blank nakedness can appreciate it, or understand how any accidental delay, sickness, the bursting of the water-skins, the straying of the camels, might produce incalculable sufferings, and even death. "_Be-Selameh el Hamadah!_"

then, with all my heart. "_Be-Selameh! be-Selameh!_" again rings through the caravan, as we reach at length our camping-ground, and throw ourselves at full-length under the pleasing shade. Even the camel-drivers were so fatigued, that they stretched out as soon as the command to halt was given, and let their animals stray at will, without taking the trouble to unload them. I had observed the same supineness during our halts all through this trying district, which seems to oppress their imaginations as well as prostrate their bodies. Several times I had been obliged myself to collect wood and make a fire to rally our lagging servants. Indeed, on more than one occasion I was compelled to exert my personal authority. On the third night, particularly, I wished all the people to rest one hour. The camel-drivers resisted this reasonable request, and were backed by Yusuf. When it became a question between myself and my interpreter, I jumped off my camel and stopped the caravan. The chaouch supported me, and in this case at least behaved very well. If we had continued all night, we should have made a march of sixteen hours,--too much for the blacks, and indeed for any man on his feet.

On the whole, however, I have to observe, that as we approach Fezzan our camel-drivers are getting more civil and obliging. Is this the genial effect of native air, or expectation of a present? They have not mentioned the latter subject yet, but, on the contrary, promise me some dates.

The broad valley of El-Hasee is sandy, like all those of Fezzan. It is bounded on the north by the perpendicular b.u.t.tresses of the Hamadah, and on the south by sandy swells. The well is not copious, but affords a regular supply of slightly brackish water. The people descend to the bottom, thirty or forty feet, and fill their gerbahs. The blacks are very troublesome, and require a good deal of patience. This morning they would not fetch water from this well, although quite close by the tent.

I was obliged to threaten to leave them before I could get them to move.

They are, probably, a little broken down by the fatigue of the Hamadah.