Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51 Volume I Part 5

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, _via_ 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 embellis.h.i.+ng 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 princ.i.p.al 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 s.e.xes 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 cla.s.s 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 ma.s.ses, 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 s.e.x, more especially ladies.

From October to January, as at Ghat, 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, Ghat, 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 princ.i.p.al 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 _via_ 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 quant.i.ty 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 princ.i.p.al 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 ill.u.s.tration 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 pa.s.sion, 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 pa.s.s on the day of the celebration of your nuptials with the other man."

Now it is, the custom for women, under such circ.u.mstances, to looloo (that is, salute with a peculiar cry) any handsome male pa.s.ser-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 pa.s.sed 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 compa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sing 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 quant.i.ty 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 ma.s.ses 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 sh.o.r.e of the Syrtis. If this idea were carried out, the sulphur mines might by this means be brought into play.

CHAPTER VII.

DIARY OF RESIDENCE AT MOURZUK.

Sickness of Gagliuffi--Baggage left at Mizdah--Runthar Aga--The Hospital--Various Visits--Arrival of the New Governor--Animated Scene--Correspondence--Visit Mustapha Agha--Bragging Sheikh Boro--Tibboos of Tibesty--Curious Country--Presents to Turkish Functionaries--A Woman divorced--Haj Lameen--Presents expected--Brilliant Atmosphere--Water-Melons--The Gardens--Winnowing Grain--Houses of Salt Mud--Nymphs of the Gardens--Wells--Presents to Functionaries--Phrenology--Queen's Birthday--Walks in the Orchards and Gardens--Corn-thres.h.i.+ng--Kingdom of Aheer--a.s.s's Head--A Wedding--A Funeral--Great Dinner--Tibboos--Prepare to depart--The Pilgrim Caravan; its Privileges--Tuat and the French--Departure of Germans--Wife of Es-Sfaxee--An Arab Saying--Letters--Disease--Arrival of Escort--Eastern Consulates--Business--Hateetah--The Son of Shafou--Poor Sheikhs--Hard Bargain.

_May 7th._--We are already busy with preparations for our start to the interior. Mr. Gagliuffi has written to Ghat to-day for Hateetah and his escort of Tuaricks. Excitement protects us, perhaps, from the deadly influence of the climate of Mourzuk. Mr. Gagliuffi is recovering from a severe attack, and antic.i.p.ates being obliged to leave for the coast. We trust he will not be driven from his post whilst we are in Soudan.

However, we must trust to the same Providence that has. .h.i.therto watched over us.

I am having all our letters of recommendation for the interior copied, to be sent home to Government, so that if anything happen to us they may know what kind of support we have received. If anything happen! The presence of that doubt gives a solemnity and an importance to the most trifling thing we do. A soldier is allowed to indulge in serious thought before going into battle, and the chances in his favour are greater than those in ours. We, too, may have to do battle with men; but the dangers of the desert are also arrayed against us, and when they are pa.s.sed, the miasmas of Central Africa fill the air beyond.

The marabout, with his camel and burden, has not yet come up; he left us to visit his country. We are likewise still without news of three camel-loads left behind at Mizdah. There is always a train of stragglers behind every caravan that is not huddled together by fear. We should never have procured beasts enough on the road, and did well to take them direct from Tripoli. The Pasha's circular letter was of little or no use in this respect; and, indeed, we could not expect it to cause camels to start out of the ground.

_8th._--I paid a visit to the commandant of the troops, Runthar Aga, Bim Bashaw, quite a Christian Moor; and got information on military affairs whilst tasting the soup in the kitchen. Also called upon our old friend the Doctor, and inspected the hospital, which certainly holds out no temptation to a man to be ill. The patients are few: two have strong fevers; five or six are convalescent; the sick-list contains no other cases; but it will be different when summer comes on.

_9th._--Received a visit from the acting Governor, and presented him with a bottle of snuff. Like other great men, this Pasha makes a great consumption of rappee, and empties nearly a box a-day.

_10th._--The military seem to have taken a fancy to us. Here comes the Commandant, to return our call, with all the officers of the garrison.

Smiles and courtesy are the order of the day. Dr. Overweg brings out some of his scientific instruments, and the knowing ones have an opportunity of showing their ignorance. All pa.s.ses off well. Mr.

Gagliuffi observes: "You would not have had so much attention paid to you in Tripoli." Possibly; but this may partly be accounted for by the rarity of Europeans at Mourzuk. Familiarity has not had time to breed contempt.

_11th._--There is excitement in the town. What news? The new acting Governor, my old acquaintance of Ghadamez, Rais Mustapha, is in sight, hull above the horizon. We all go out to meet him, and soon see his _cortege_ breaking between the groves. This is the gayest and most spirited scene I have witnessed since leaving Tripoli. Mustapha brings his staff and 200 Arab cavaliers with him, to relieve the Fezzan irregulars. They make a gallant-looking body of men as they come swiftly on. All the authorities of the town, with whatever cavalry is already collected here, pour out of the gates to pay their compliments; and then come crowds of the lower cla.s.ses of citizens, with their rude bagpipes, which scream discordantly. The hors.e.m.e.n galloped hither and thither in the plain whilst the interview between the great men took place, and effectually drowned all the polite things that were said by their trampling and hurrahing. We rode up likewise to welcome the new great man. Mustapha looked well, was excellently mounted, and dressed almost like an European officer. He smiled graciously on seeing his old friend of Ghadamez, and shook me by the hand; he also recognised the Germans, having seen them at Zaweeah, near Tripoli. Satisfied with this little interview, we drew aside, and the procession moved towards the gate.

There was instantly a rush of the Arab hors.e.m.e.n, every one trying to get in front; and as the entry was narrow an obstruction soon took place. We drew aside, and called out to those who were pressing on to make way for the Governor. One fellow would not hear; and Mustapha himself riding up, lashed him with a small whip across the shoulders. Bad taste; but perhaps excusable in this case, if ever. These lawless soldiery can never be taught good manners, without which true discipline is impossible. However, we at length got within the gate, and the procession poured along the streets, the women _loo-looing_ as we pa.s.sed, the bagpipes shrieking louder than ever, the crowd buzzing, the horses thundering, the cavaliers shouting. In fine, this hubbub carried us quite back into the regions of civilisation, where men collect on public occasions often without any real joy, and by mere process of action and reaction succeed in working themselves up into a state of boisterous enthusiasm.

Several days were now chiefly occupied in writing reports on the progress made by the expedition hitherto; and in voluminous correspondence on petty, matters--petty, I mean, in themselves, but very important to us--all connected with our future proceedings. I forwarded to the Foreign Office a letter addressed by the Sultan Laoul, of the Tibboos of Bilma, to Mr. Gagliuffi. It appears these people are now nominally subject to the Ottoman Porte.

_12th._--We went to pay a visit to Mustapha Agha, my old friend of Ghadamez. He received us with all the honours--a guard of officers, pipes, coffee, and sherbet. That important subject of health was a good deal talked of. Mustapha fears the climate of Fezzan, and finds little consolation in the doctrines of fatalism. He seemed surprised at the bulk of the despatches last forwarded from the Consulate, and asked if we all knew how to write. He cannot understand the necessity of minute directions. We explained as well as we could; and then talked of the journeys we had respectively performed. This gave Mustapha an opportunity of astonis.h.i.+ng us in his Turkish way. He said that he had come with 200 men and 300 camels from Tripoli in sixteen days, having stopped only one day, and travelled regularly from three in the afternoon to nine next morning. We marvelled, as in duty bound; but refrained not from making inquiries; the result of which was, that the real time was thirty-one days, only eight days less than we had occupied. We did not scold Mustapha for his exaggeration, but might perhaps have done so without offence. When a Turk does tell a lie, he submits to be accused of it with good-humour.

After leaving the hyperbolical Governor, we went to see Sheikh Mohammed Boro, Sakontaroua of Aghadez, who has arrived here _en route_ from Mekka. He was recommended to us by Ha.s.san Pasha of Tripoli; but Mr.

Gagliuffi does not think much of him. We shall see.

_14th._--Walked in the gardens, and were pleased with their aspect. On returning, I wrote out the different kinds of dates in this country. We saw some Egyptian camels with a pilgrim caravan, of a dark and almost black colour.

My Fezzanee marabout, by the way, has left Mourzuk, after making me a present of some cakes and dates of dainty quality. He has been of great use to me, and I shall remember him with pleasure.

I had to-day a conversation with a Tibboo of Tibesty. How interesting it is to talk with the natives of those untrodden countries, to which chance may some day lead us! He says Tibesty is ten days from Gatroun, and fourteen from Mourzuk. It is all mountainous, except one long wady where the population is located. There is no regular town; but all along the valley the population, which is said to be about 5000, though desert statistics are little to be credited, is scattered in groups of three or four, cultivating the ground and tending on the flocks which feed on the rich herbage, whilst goats scramble for food along the slopes of the boundary mountains. The people dwell either in huts or in caverns scooped out of the sides of hills, some of them very extensive. What a picture of primitive life! Families living separate, not yet driven to hide behind walls, or congregate in ma.s.ses for safety. The desert is their bulwark. This place lies, indeed, far east of the caravan route from Bornou. There is no road direct eastward from Tibesty, but caravans can go south-east to Wada. The valley produces, besides other grain, a good quant.i.ty of ghaseb, which is the princ.i.p.al food of the inhabitants.

Some palms rise here and there in clumps, but are not very productive; and dates are imported from Fezzan. The tree most frequent is the tholukh; but there is also another common tree, called the arak. In the open country, the wadan, the gazelle, and the ostrich are found, and the people hunt them with dogs. Good water is supplied by wells and streams, in sufficient quant.i.ties to irrigate the fields of ghaseb, wheat, and barley. Rain is abundant some years, but fails in others; torrents are continually descending from the mountains: one stream flows through a s.p.a.ce of two days' journey. If these accounts be correct, the country must be one of the most interesting in Africa. They say, that on account the height of the mountains some of the inhabitants do not see the moon for fifteen days together. A Sultan rules paternally in this out-of-the-way country, where the Mohammedan religion reigns paramount.

My informant made me pay three Tunisian piastres and two common handkerchiefs for a vocabulary of the language of the Tibboos of Tibesty. A visit to this singular oasis might repay a hardy traveller; but the people of the country have a faithless character, and it would be dangerous to trust to their promises of protection.

The Tibesty Tibboos must not be confounded with the Tibboos of the salt-mines of Bilma, who have recently made their submission to the Porte. There is little connexion between the people, although they speak a similar language. The Bilma Tibboos lie in the direct route to Bornou, and were fully studied by the Denham and Clapperton expedition.

_15th._--Continue to prepare papers to send home. Report the fact, that the functionaries of Mourzuk trade in slaves.

_16th._--I had lent Mustapha a sword; but, after keeping it a night, he was obliged to return it, sending word that a firman had been written to all the functionaries of the Porte, forbidding them to receive any presents,--an excellent measure, doing credit to the Sultan's administration. The great plague of the East is the system of bribery carried on under the form of presents. The pay of the Pasha is six hundred and fifty mahboubs per month, nearly all spent in the town.

_17th._--The weather is extremely hot and sultry. The sun burns the umbrella if you pa.s.s for a few minutes under it. Even the natives complain of the extreme heat of the weather.