Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51 Volume I Part 6

_18th._--Not quite so oppressive; but, as Dr. Barth says, the south wind blows throughout Northern Africa in May.

_20th._--This morning, the black who came with us, and had two wives, divorced one of them, returning the woman's dowry of thirty-seven Tunisian piastres. The divorce took place before the Kady in the open streets.

_21st._--Haj Lameen came to see me. He does not forget to remind us that the Tuaricks expect many presents. I have no doubt they do. He says we must be generous at all the following places:--Ghat, Aheer, Aghadez, Damerghou, Zinder, Minyou, Tesaouah, Kashna, Kanou, Sakkatou, Bornou, Begharmi, Mandara, and to the Tibboos of Bilma; not to mention the intermediate towns and villages. However, if the presents be valuable, we may expect in some places rations of food in return. It is worthy of remark, that this said Haj Lameen, brother of the governor of Ghat, took an oath during the past year that he would never again purchase slaves.

This is a remarkable instance of the progress of opinion. I afterwards gave Lameen a present, consisting of one pound of tea, five pounds of coffee, and four heads of loaf sugar. This was the first considerable present I made. In the evening we observed Mercury in conjunction with Venus. The heavens were unusually bright for Mourzuk. We saw also Jupiter's satellites at seven in the evening. The two upper ones were much nearer than the two lower ones to the great planet, but all in a line. Mars was very bright. The rings, or extinct volcanoes of the moon, were also truly transparent this evening. Usually the sky of Mourzuk is charged with a dirty red haze, and not at all favourable to astronomical observations.

_21st._--The culture of water-melons is progressing for the summer season. The melons are planted in the irrigation ducts that lead to the squares of clover, which is cultivated at this season for the horses of the cavalry stationed here, and also for the camels of the merchants.

Every fifteen or twenty days a fresh crop is ready, all produced by irrigation.

The fig-tree is found frequently in the gardens of Fezzan, and when planted near a well, produces as fine fruit as those on the coast. The rich green of its leaves is very refres.h.i.+ng to the eye. During the present season, however, the greater portion of the gardens is devoted to onion-raising. Whole fields are covered with this vegetable. Parsley is running to seed. The korna is also seen in the suburbs. Few birds visit the gardens of Fezzan, which are all planted with palms. One or two groves have been recently added, and are distinguished as the "new trees." The irrigated beds are covered with palm-shoots, the curving fan-like leaves bending prettily over the ground.

The winnowing of grain is conducted in the most slovenly manner. The ripe ears with the dry stalks are thrown on the sand, and then half-a-dozen donkeys are driven over them--an animated thres.h.i.+ng machine. The grain, of course, mixes with the sand, and is separated from it with considerable loss and waste of time.

The sandy soil of the gardens is sometimes mixed with a large quant.i.ty of salt, which gives it a firm consistence. Of this soil the houses of the city are built. Rain would melt them; but this blessing never cools the scorching atmosphere of Mourzuk.[4]

[4] Showers of rain are subsequently mentioned, however; and it is a mistake to suppose that the hard blocks of fossil-salt mixed with earth, of which the houses in the oases of Northern Africa are often built, can be so easily melted down.--ED.

In this day's agricultural and horticultural walk I fell in with the nymphs of the gardens; or, in other words, the washerwomen of Mourzuk.

They come out constantly to the wells, when the irrigation is going on, early in the morning or late in the evening, and thus take advantage of the supply of water raised. They are all dark women of the city, for the most part unlovely and very dirty in appearance, despite their occupation. Their system of was.h.i.+ng is the primitive one practised by the labouring cla.s.ses all over the north of Africa. They roll up the clothes into a round flat heap, and then with their heels keep up a continual round of treading, using for soap a peculiar sort of clay.

Some of the girls are very impudent and immodest when a stranger pa.s.ses by; but as a rule they are not so. The wells at Mourzuk are not all good; some are fresh, others salt. In many places will be found a well of very sweet, delicious water; and running nearly to the surface, at twenty paces distant from it, are found others really quite salt. The same phenomenon has been observed at Siwah, in the Libyan desert.

One of our party received a present this morning of some fresh and most delicious leghma. A good deal is drunk in Mourzuk, in an acrid state, for the purposes of intoxication.

In the evening I went to see the acting Pasha, with the Consul. He received us with his usual urbanity, and gave coffee and lemonade twice.

He mentioned the things which a functionary of government was permitted to receive as presents,--viz., two sheep, twelve pounds and a half of b.u.t.ter, fifty eggs, and two fowls. This to be received once only from a friend. But some of the functionaries say they can receive a cantar of b.u.t.ter, if divided into sufficiently small quant.i.ties, and spread over several days.

People all admire the clock I purchased for the Sultan of Sakkatou, to give him instead of the chronometer. When it strikes the hours, I tell them it speaks various languages, at which they are greatly astonished.

Yesterday evening, a shower of bats made their appearance at dusk.

_22d._--I went with Dr. Overweg to visit the Pilgrims. We had previously examined the head of one of them phrenologically. The news had been spread in the tents, and the whole troop came to have their craniums studied on our arrival amongst them. This science--if such it can be called--tickles the fancies of people hereabouts, being suited to their capacity. One fellow wished to know from his head whether he should gain much money this year. They looked upon the matter as a species of fortune-telling.

_23d._--The Pilgrims' heads must have itched all night. Here they are again to have them handled! All the polls in Mourzuk will probably pa.s.s under our hands if this goes on. It is singular that the pilgrimage to Mekka has not nourished sufficient fanaticism to prevent these good people from allowing an infidel doctor to make free with their crowns, and expatiate on their pa.s.sions and propensities. There is no calculating on the strength of the impulse of curiosity.

_24th._--The Queen's birthday. At eight o'clock Mr. Gagliuffi fired a musket, and hoisted the British jack and pennant over the Consulate. At noon, fifty-one discharges of muskets and matchlocks announced the auspicious event to the natives of this city, and to the Tibboos, Tuaricks, Soudanese, Bornouese, and all other strangers of the Sahara and Central Africa. In the evening, the Consul gave a dinner to us travellers and to the Pasha and his officers. The healths of her Majesty, the Sultan, and the King of Prussia, were drunk in champagne with enthusiasm. There were thirty or forty dishes on the table, and among them a turkey, the first ever killed in this city. Mr. Gagliuffi had recently brought a c.o.c.k and hen from Tripoli. A small saloon was decorated with banners and cotton-stuffs of Soudan, with various devices. Amongst these were a small portrait of her Majesty; an Ottoman blood-red flag, with its crescent and star; and a white flag with the Prussian black eagle. The effect was excellent, and quite astonished the natives. The Turks ate and drank famously, and for the most part got "elevated." When in this state it was curious to see them clawing at the viands, utterly forgetful of Eastern gravity and decorum. I must observe, however, that Mustapha Bey himself and one other officer declined to drink wine. The Turks seem very tolerant to one another in this respect. It is left as a matter for the decision of every man's individual conscience. These sensible people do not think that, because a man is inclined to be an ascetic himself, he is bound to force all other people to be so likewise.

_25th._--I took a walk in the gardens this evening, and came upon two or three small circular orchards, having within the circle simply room for holding water, like a shallow pond, with fruit-trees, vines, fig-trees, and pomegranates cl.u.s.tering around. These orchards, when thus formed close by the well-side, are very luxuriant. People now begin to sow ghaseb, ghafouly, dra, and such grains, which are reaped in the summer season. Barley and wheat are sown in autumn or winter, and reaped in spring. As I walked I noticed that the sky was darkly overcast, as if threatening rain; and presently, sure enough, a few precious drops fell on the thirsty sandy soil!

I observed a new plant, large, with broad and smooth thick velvety leaves, but omitted to write down the name. It produces a milky juice, with which the people dye the palms of their hands, instead of with henna. The plant has a disagreeable odour, and every appearance of being poisonous; but they say it is not so, being only bitter in taste.

_26th._--In my morning's walk I had the coolest weather experienced since our arrival at Mourzuk. The wind was from the north-east and the sky much overcast. It actually rained,--a slight shower of ten minutes'

duration. How gratefully the trees seemed to spread their leaves to catch the pleasing drops! The gardens and groves all wore a happy smile.

We hear, that lately a great deal of rain has fallen in the Ghat district, and on the route to Aheer.

The people are preparing to thresh their corn, and I was interested in observing all the details of their process. They had scattered yesterday evening the full ripe grain in its dry stalks over the ground, in the form of a large circle, to the depth of about two inches; and had then smoothed the sand all around in small ridges, so that if a thief came during the night they might observe his footmarks. They thresh out the grain by means of four or five a.s.ses or camels tied abreast, and driven round and round over this primitive floor. Great waste is occasioned by allowing the grain to mix with and sink in the sand; the task of winnowing is most difficult afterwards.

_27th._--This day I had some conversation with Boro, the Sheikh of Aghadez, about the country and localities of Aheer,--a Saharan kingdom never yet explored, and which we intend to traverse on our circuitous route across the desert. It appears that Aheer is the general name of the whole cl.u.s.ter of towns and districts; that Aghadez is the medineh, or city; and that Asouty is a town on the line of the caravan route to Soudan,--a regular halting-place. Asben and Asbenouah are other names given to this same territory, and do not denote other countries. The Tibboos and Bornouese describe the whole territory of Fezzan as Zoilah, a name derived from that of the ancient capital, Zoueelah. These double names have hitherto caused great confusion in laying down unvisited places in the desert. If we can penetrate and explore the kingdom of Aheer or Asben, it will be doing a great service to geography.

_28th._--I am studying rural life in the neighbourhood of Mourzuk, as if it were to be my occupation. Scarcely a day pa.s.ses that I do not escape from the crowded town and wander, either morning or evening, into the gardens, the groves, and the fields. The water raised by rude machinery from the wells is always dancing along in little runnels. The chattering of women crosses my path right and left. Groups of labourers or gardeners occur frequently. A man this day valued a date-palm at a mahboub, and I am told that the greater number are not worth more than a s.h.i.+lling of English money. To avert the evil eye from the gardens, the people put up the head of an a.s.s, or some portion of the bones of that animal. The same superst.i.tion prevails in all the oases that stud the north of Africa, from Egypt to the Atlantic, but the people are unwilling to explain what especial virtue there exists in an a.s.s's skull. We go sometimes to shoot doves in the gardens; but these birds are very shy, and after the first shot fly from tree to tree and keep out of range. So we stroll about making observations, to console ourselves for the loss of sport. We noticed several cotton-bushes, but this useful plant is not cultivated here except that it may ornament the gardens with its green. I have just eaten of the heart of the date-tree.

It is of a very delicious bitter, and is a choice dish at feasts.

I met with a number of the suburban inhabitants engaged in celebrating a wedding. First came a group of women, dancing and throwing themselves into a variety of slow, languid, and lascivious postures, to the sound of some very primitive string-instrument. Towards this group all the women of the neighbouring huts were gathering, some merely as spectators, others bringing dishes of meat. Beyond was a crowd of men, among whom was the bridegroom helping the musicians to make a noise.

These musicians were an old man and old woman, each above ninety years of age. The latter beat a calabash with a stick, whilst the former drew a bow over a single string tied to another calabash. The bridegroom had got hold of a bra.s.s kettle, with which he supplied his contribution to the din. Preparations for supper were going on; and, the harmony announcing this fact, idlers were coming in flocks from the distant hamlets and the fields. Two new huts had been built, one for the bride and the other for the bridegroom.

These marriages produce very few children, which may partly arise from licentiousness, but chiefly, no doubt, from misery. I afterwards saw the burial of an old lady, which ceremony set the whole town in motion. The women screamed in crowds, and a great number of men went outside the walls to see the body consigned to its last resting-place. Yusuf pretends that the burial took place two hours after decease, which is the ordinary practice here, although thirty-two hours are said to be the proper time.

To the 21st of May I was occupied in preparing a short report on Fezzan, with statements of the expedition and other necessary doc.u.ments.

We have had a grand dinner at the house of the Greek doctor Paniotti.

The Bey, Bim Bashaw, his adjutant, the treasurer, and others were invited. The French have boasted of the number of their dishes, but I think the Turks beat them hollow in this particular. Besides two whole lambs, fowls, pigeons, there were at least twenty made dishes, with every variety of rich sweetmeat. Amongst the early fruits of the season we had figs and apples. The dinner was not quite so merry as Gagliuffi's, the champagne being absent.

We had a smart rain-shower in the morning, and in the evening also there was a tempest of wind and lightning, and a little rain. The flashes were very vivid, and lighted up the whole firmament.

The Tibboos persist in saying that there is plenty of water in their country, abundance of rain, frequent springs; and some go so far as to describe their streams as running a distance of from one to eight days'

journey. They acknowledge, however, that the soil of their country is not very favourable to much cultivation of grain and fruit. Perhaps they want to attract visitors, but are not likely to succeed at present.

Justly or unjustly, they bear a very bad character; and in Mourzuk, to call a man a Tibboo is rather worse than to call a man a Jew in Europe.

_June 1st_, Post-day.--Letters, private and public, were forwarded. It is now determined that we shall start for Ghat next Wednesday; at any rate the Germans talk of doing so, whilst I am inclined to wait for Hateetah and his escort. It would be imprudent to run the risk of a disaster at this early stage of our proceedings, and my greater responsibility renders me more cautious, and perhaps more timid, than my enthusiastic companions. I am engaged in finis.h.i.+ng my last despatches and reports, collecting Arabic descriptions of Fezzan, one of which is by the Bash Kateb, and corresponding on the future expenditure of the Mission. The weather has become very hot with the advancing season, but I am now pretty well used to the heat. The thermometer has risen to 103; in Bornou it rarely exceeds 105: I may hope, therefore, to brave the sun's rays under or near the line.

Few incidents worth recording mark the latter days of our stay at Mourzuk. I paid a visit to Abd-el-Kader, the Sheikh of the Pilgrims.

This holy person is quite humanized, and talks freely of the politics of the Barbary coast. He entertained myself, the German, the Greek doctor, and Gagliuffi with tea; and this at _sunset_, when all the other pilgrims were at their prayers. He is a Tuatee of Gharai, and has been many times to Mekka in his present capacity. Indeed he makes the journey about once every three years. The pilgrim caravans travel very fast; no others can keep up with them. On leaving any place where they have halted, the Sheikh has the privilege of demanding the release of two or three prisoners; and the scandalous whisper that any Barabbas can sometimes obtain his liberty by a judicious investment of presents. When encamped near a town, moreover, the tent of the Sheikh becomes an inviolable asylum for every criminal who chooses to take refuge there.

Many other privileges equally valuable are enjoyed by this functionary.

Abd-el-Kader himself is an extremely urbane gentleman, and we retired quite satisfied with our reception. He gave me a vocabulary of the Tuatee dialect, and some account of the statistics of the place, which I forwarded to the Foreign Office. It appears that formerly the people of Tuat paid to the Algerines five hundred camel-loads of dates and ten _necks_ of gold, i.e. the gold ornaments sometimes worn round the camels' necks. When the French made their conquest, they sent to the Tuatees to renew their tribute to them as the actual masters of Algeria.

The answer returned was, "Come and take the tribute!"

_11th._--The gardens continue to attract my evening strolls. Every one is now busy sowing ghaseb, and I pa.s.sed a half hour in working with some cheerful labourers at the preparation of the ground, smoothing the soil in the squares for irrigation. They were amused at my voluntary industry. I sleep now late of mornings after my evening exercise in the gardens, and find myself the better for it.

Perhaps the first melons ever eaten at Mourzuk appeared on Mr.

Gagliuffi's table about this time; they were very good.

_12th._--The Germans were preparing to start early in the morning; they are obliged to lighten everything, and reduce each camel load to two and a-half, or even two cantars. The Tuaricks will not carry more; generally their maharees are small, and they have few stray camels. The Germans went off in good style and great spirits. They propose to accompany a caravan of Tanelk.u.m Tuaricks, who go by way of Aroukeen, leaving Ghat far on the right. I was not able to persuade them to delay their departure, so that we might all travel together: but it may be expected that they will not find it so very easy or safe to get through this country without the special protection of those who claim authority over it.

Two or three days of gheblee succeeded--unpleasant weather to be out in the desert. I found it bad enough at Mourzuk--100 in the shade at four o'clock in the afternoon. Hateetah was reported to be on the road; so I determined to wait five or six days for him, and thus not deviate from my original plan.

I went to visit the wife of Mohammed Es-Sfaxee, who goes with us to Soudan as a merchant, carrying a considerable quant.i.ty of goods on account of M. Gagliuffi: this gentleman accompanied me. The object of our visit was to see whether the Sfaxee had left a sufficient quant.i.ty of provisions with his wife to support her during his absence. It is necessary to take such precautions with these Moors, who often barbarously abandon their families, without any adequate provision, for months and even for years together. We found that he had left dates, wheat, and a little olive-oil and mutton-fat--the ordinary stock of all families in Fezzan. Only a few rich people indulge in such luxuries as coffee, sugar, meat, and liquid b.u.t.ter.

An Arab saying: "You must always put other people's things on your head, and your own under your arm. Then, if there be danger of the things falling off your head, you must raise your arm, and let fall your own things to save those of others." I do not know what things I shall let fall of my own; but this I know, that during my whole residence in Mourzuk my mind has been continually occupied in endeavouring to save Government money. But I have received little a.s.sistance.

The weather still continues hot, with wind from the south: however, I walked in the gardens. On the 16th, the boat went off to the caravan; the camels carried it very easily, to the astonishment of the good people of Mourzuk. On the 17th, the thermometer was at 102 in the shade--in the sun, about 130. We received letters in answer to those first written from Mourzuk, and learned that all the despatches written on the road for Tripoli had arrived in safety. The Arabs, therefore, are not quite so bad as they are represented.

_20th._--At length Hateetah may be said to be reported "in sight," and we are busy preparing for departure. The escort has arrived at Tesaoua, and will be here on Sat.u.r.day at latest. As the Germans are still at Tuggerter, we shall proceed on the Ghat route together, after all: it will be a tough piece of work, whichever way performed. The heat continues intense--from 100 to 104, and 130 in the sun. Cooler weather is expected in August; but at present all the natives complain, and fevers are becoming prevalent. In the desert we shall escape that danger; for disease comes only in the moist depression of the plateau on which Mourzuk stands. We hear talk, by the way, of a fine new route--only forty days--just opened, from Ghat to Timbuctoo, across the deserts of Haghar. The present Sultan of the Haghar Tuaricks is called Ghamama.

One of our party, who undertook to accompany us to take the management of the boat, has not proved equal to the occasion; and I have therefore written to Tripoli, to request that two Moorish sailors, of Jerbah if possible, should be sent up by the direct route to Bornou. I had almost engaged a very excellent person at Tripoli, the captain of the vessel in which I arrived; but when he called at the Consulate on the subject, some minor official ordered him off with a contemptuous "Barra! barra!"

and he accordingly yielded to the solicitations of his crew and embarked without seeing me. There is too much of this self-sufficiency and off-handedness in all Consulates in the Levant, where a grain of authority is apt at once to magnify a man, in his own estimation, into a mighty potentate. I regret my Jerbine captain very much; he originally volunteered to accompany us, and entered into my plans with an enthusiasm and intelligence rare among Muslims.

These small details of our expedition are interesting to me to record, though probably many will think them superfluous. Perhaps they will serve to give a true idea of the magnitude of the undertaking, and of the great responsibility which weighed upon me, and thus prove an antic.i.p.atory excuse for any accusation of shortcoming or dilatoriness that may be preferred against me. I will not, however, enter further into the business-details of the expedition--merely observing that, among other things to which I had to attend during my stay in Mourzuk, were, in the first place, to collect provisions and stores for a journey that may last two years; secondly, to purchase presents for the princes and other distinguished persons of the interior; and thirdly, to provide against the casualties of the journey, payment of salaries, &c. All these things I had to do on my own responsibility. Among other things, I have purchased from Mr. Gagliuffi an Arab gun and pair of pistols, inlaid with silver and curiously wrought, for the sum of 180 mahboubs.

This is for a present to the Sheikh of Bornou, who will expect something pleasing to the eye as well as the boat, which he may at first, perhaps, not appreciate at its full value.

I have already made a good many casual allusions to our plans and arrangements; but it will be necessary here, before our departure from the last city that acknowledges the Ottoman authority, to make a brief statement of our position and prospects. Things that already appear clear to me may not be so to others. During my former visit to Ghat, when I travelled as a private individual, known as "Yakob," I made acquaintance with Hateetah, a Tuarick Sheikh, who had a.s.sumed the t.i.tle of Consul of the English. It is the custom in that country for every stranger on his arrival to put himself under the protection of one of the head men, to whom alone he makes presents, and who answers for his safety. Mr. Gagliuffi had written to him to come with an escort to protect our party as far as Ghat. It appears, however, that very grand accounts had circulated in the Sahara on the magnitude and importance of our mission; so that it was impossible for one Sheikh to monopolise us.