Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 Part 30

(I shake my head.)

_Kandarka._--"Where are you going?"

"I don't know."

_Kandarka._--"Come to Aheer with me, I fear no one. You fear no one when you come with me."

"I don't fear any one but G.o.d."

_Kandarka._--"G-- it's the truth!" (seizing hold of my hands to embrace me.)

I cannot but lament my feeble powers, to depict the character of my various visitors, and to represent their ideas in English. I am obliged to be content with a bald outline of their characters, and a miserable translation of their thoughts into English dress. This Kandarka is in himself a complete character, and a study for the tourist.

This evening paid a visit to Berka, the most aged Sheikh. It was dark when I arrived at his date-branch hut. I entered; it was a large enclosure. I found the aged Sheikh with several of his brothers, and they and their children sitting round a flickering fire. One of them was dressed in white. I asked the reason. The Sheikh told me he was a Marabout. The French Government writers of Algeria have distinguished Touaricks into white and black Touaricks, from the white and black clothes which they are said to wear. I never heard of this distinction.

Now and then I have seen a Touarick dressed in white cottons, or woollens; it seemed to be a matter of caprice. All dress in black and blue-black cottons of Soudan; it is the national colour. And here we have a new case of contrarieties in Mussulman nations living near neighbours, for the Moors and Arabs detest black as much as the Touaricks admire black. The Touaricks seem to have caught the infection from the colour of their country, which is intersected with ranges of black mountains. In one of the early skirmishes of the French in Algeria, an officer describes the appearance of the enemy, as covering the mountain's side, whence they sallied, with a white mantle, the Arabs were so thick and their burnouses so white. Berka was very gentle and affable, like every man of a good old age. "You are welcome in this country," he addressed me; "this is a country of peace." Whilst conversing with the old Sheikh, I heard a gruff heavy whisper from the farther end of the hut, _Hash-Halik_, "How do you do?" I turned round, and to my no small astonishment, I saw the Giant Touarick, stretched along the full length of the very large hut, sweltering in the fulness of his might. The reader will remember the honourable mention made of The Giant in Ghadames. He then raised up his ma.s.sy head and Atlantean chest, and put out his brawny sinewy arm, and clenched my hand: "Yakob, the Shanbah have murdered my little son, _they_ are the enemies of man and G.o.d, not _you_ Christians.

I am going to cut them all to pieces. Last year I killed eight with my own good sword. When you come back from Soudan, you will not hear any more even the name of the Shanbah." The Giant groaned out this in bad Arabic. He was greatly afflicted for the loss of his son. The Shanbah brigands fell upon a troop of Touaricks, in whose care he had left his little son, a child of very tender age, I presented Berka with a fine large white turban, and we parted good friends. The Giant is the nephew of Berka.

_5th._--Called upon Hateetah. He had, as usual, many visitors.

Conversation turned upon politics. They were anxious to know the relative amount of the military forces of the nations of Europe, and of the Stamboul Sultan. I always tell them France has plenty of money and troops. This keeps down their boasting, for the French are near, and they are alarmed, and they think, as an Englishman, I must tell the truth when I praise the French. If I abused the French they might suspect me, but I have no inclination to do so. At the same time, I'll defy any traveller to write fairly and justly upon the late history of North Africa, without filling his pages with _bona fide_ and well-founded abuse of the French and their works in this part of the world. They emphatically stink throughout Africa. Hateetah vexed me by begging a _backsheesh_ for his brothers. I positively refused; there's no end to making presents. All the Sheikhs, as Bel Kasem Said of Khanouhen, have "a large belly." On returning home, I determined to keep the door shut to prevent people coming to annoy me. Now that I have no sugar or dates left, I have nothing wherewith to get rid of them. Every visitor who leaves me, without a small present, however trifling it may be, considers himself insulted by me, or that I don't like him.

Still at a loss to know what to do, whether to proceed to Soudan, or return and finish my tour of the Mediterranean. Sometimes I fancy I'll toss up, and then, checking my folly, I'll try the _sortes sanctorum_; a feather would turn the scale. On such miserable indecision hangs the fate of man!

Bought half a sheep for a Spanish dollar. It's not much of a bargain, for it is one of the Soudan species, and very thin and bony. Touarick flocks are nearly all this kind of sheep. When the Arab, who was "halves with me," divided the carcase, he took two pieces of wood, and then sent Said down stairs. One of the pieces he gave me, and the other he kept. He now, taking back my piece, called Said to return, and told him to put each piece of wood on each half of the sheep. My piece determined my half, and his piece his half. This is the Arab _sortes sanctorum_. The butcher had sprinkled his hayk with the blood, a drop or two were on it, and he was distressed to wash them out lest they should prevent him saying his prayers. A portion of the entrails, the spleen, he applied to his eyes as a talisman for their preservation.

There is an old woman very fond of annoying me; let us suppose she must be a witch; she always calls out after me when I pa.s.s her stall, "There is but one G.o.d and Mahomet is the prophet of G.o.d." To-day, words would not suffice; the old hag ran after me and thumped me over the back, to show her zeal for Mahomet, who, begging pardon of his Holiness, has not, after all, been so very kind to the ladies in his religion, unless it be the compliment which he has paid them, by placing all the imaginable felicity of Paradise in their embraces. I took no notice of the virago. I find it's no use. I was glad, however, to hear she was not Touarick, and only a Billingsgate Mooress of the place. I am also happy to tell my fair readers, she was not fair but very ugly. A large party of people followed me home, hooting me, to give them something to eat. This rabble fancies they have the right to insult a Christian, unless he gives them something to eat or to wear. To bear all this, and ten thousand little delicate attentions of the rabble of Ghat, requires, as Mr. Fletcher hints, "Conciliation," with an occasional dose, I should think, of that most necessary of all Saharan equipments, in travelling through The Desert.

PATIENCE.

_6th._--Sulky with the insolence of the rabble, and determined not to go out till the evening. A brother or cousin of Hateetah called to beg, and being in a bad humour, I told him I was just going round the town to ask for a few presents myself, in return for those I had given to the people.

He was not abashed, but answered, "Good, good." He waited half an hour in silence, for I got to my writing, and went off much pleased, I should imagine, with his visit. One of the slaves of the Governor came in, and said sharply, "What's that fellow _douwar_ (_i. e._ go about seeking)?"

"He wants you to give him some of your _gusub_ (grain.)" "_Kelb_" (dog), he replied. This slave himself was a brazen-faced beggar, and a bit of a thief, but withal a droll fellow. I asked him how he was captured? He answered, navely, "You know Fezzan, you know Ghat;--well, these two countries make the war, and catch me a boy." "How do you like Haj Ahmed, your master?" "He has plenty wives, plenty children: we slaves must plenty work for all these. Now, I like to eat. Haj Ahmed, he Governor, but he gives me nothing to eat. I work for him six hours--I work for others six hours. The people give me to eat, not Haj Ahmed."

This is the character of slave-labour in Ghat. The masters have half of their labour for nothing, or because they are their slaves: with the rest of their labour they support themselves. The _meum et tuum_ is not, and indeed cannot be very strictly observed by the poor people who have to support such a precarious existence; and when Said went down to bring up the meat to cook for supper, he found this young gentleman had carried it nearly all off to cook for his own supper, leaving what remained for us to make the best of.

It is now reported that every stranger will leave Ghat in five or six days, one ghafalah going to the south, another to the north, one to the east, and another to the west. To these five or six days ten or twenty may be added. This is ordinary calculation of Desert time.

Afternoon, Jabour called with a young man, who had a bullet lodged in his arm, which he had received in a skirmish with the Shanbah. I could only recommend a surgical operation, and his going to Tripoli. At this Jabour was alarmed, and asked "What would the Turks do to the young man?"

begging of me medicine. I offered to take him under my protection, but it was of no avail. The amiable Sheikh was as friendly as ever. I asked him to write a letter to England. Jabour replied justly, "You are my letter; I have written on you. You can tell your Sultan and people the news of us all." "Don't be afraid to return, there are no banditti in that route.

The Shanbah are in the west," he added. I promised, if ever returning to Ghat, I would bring him a sword with his name engraven upon it. He said, "I know you will, Yakob." I am tempted to think Jabour is the only gentleman amongst the Touaricks. Another of Hateetah's cousins came to beg, but went away empty-handed. This evening visited Bel-Kasem in the expectation of seeing Khanouhen. The prince saluted me very friendly, and asked, in a sarcastic tone, "How is the English Consul (Hateetah)?" My appearance then suggested thoughts about Christians. "What is the name of the terrible warrior who has killed so many Christians in Algeira?" he demanded.

_I._--"Abd-el-Kader."

"Yakob," he continued, "come, let you and me fight, for it seems Mussulmans and Christians must fight. Here, I'll lend you a spear,--take that" (giving me a huge iron lance.) I took it, and turning to Bel-Kasem, said, "What's this cost?" so evading the challenge. "The price of a camel," shouted Bel-Kasem at the top of his voice. "Ah!" cried Khanouhen, "right, now sit down again; men are fools to fight--why cut one another's throats?" "Yakob," he went on, "your Sultan's a woman, does she fight?" There was now a tremendous knocking at the door. This was two or three cousins of Hateetah. "D----n that Hateetah," cried Khanouhen, "Bel-Kasem, turn them away." Hereupon, Bel-Kasem started up in the most abject style of obedience, and pushed one of his slaves out of the room-door into the open court, crying "Bago, bago" (not at home). There are certain foreign words which get currency, and supplant all native ones. This "bago" is neither Touarghee, nor Ghadamsee, nor Arabic, although used by persons speaking almost exclusively these languages.

Bago is Housa, as before mentioned. Then the slave called "Bago, bago, bago;" then half-a-dozen slaves, close to the street-door, called "Bago, bago, bago." The knocking continued; the "bagos" continued, the uproar was hideous. Then Bel-Kasem gave his slave a slap, crying, "Bago, you _kelb_ (dog)." Now the slave was off again to the other slaves, shouting and yelling "Bagos," till the "bagos" drowned the knocking and the clamour without, and the disappointed supper-hunters retired growling like hungry wolves of the evening. Bel-Kasem now gave me a hint to fetch the money for Khanouhen. I was off and back in an instant, very glad to give the Sheikh the money according to our new compact. I put it into the hands of Bel-Kasem. "Go out," said Bel-Kasem, "and see the fine parrots I have bought." I went out, and in the meanwhile the politic merchant slipped the money into the hands of the Prince. When I came back, they both began to ridicule Hateetah. The Prince said, "Yakob, place yourself under the sword of Hateetah, and go out with him and fight a hundred Shanbah." "Oh, he's an a.s.s," replied Bel-Kasem. Such was their style of ridicule. Bel-Kasem is a well-meaning little fellow, but a sort of fool or jester of the Sheikh's. Khanouhen allows him to say anything and do anything, but laughs at him all the time. Bel-Kasem always brings the Sheikh some pretty present, and Khanouhen throws around him his powerful arm of protection. The slavish merchant and faithful sycophant always calls him Sultan, swears by the Sheikh's beard in his quarrels with the other merchants, and threatens all his rivals in trade with Khanouhen's wrath.

The Sahara has its factions in every group of its society. It would appear that without faction neither Saharan nor any other sort of society could exist. Ghadames gives us its _Ben Weleed_ and _Ben Wezeet_. Ghat gives us three great factions in its Republic of Sheikhs. We may thus cla.s.sify their politics:--

MONARCHICAL FACTION.

Mohammed Shafou Ben Seed, _the Sultan_ of the Ghat, or Azgher Touaricks.

El-Haj Mohammed Khanouhen Ben Othman, the heir-apparent of the throne.

Marabout El-Haj Ahmed Ben El-Haj, Es-Sadeek, Governor of the town of Ghat.

Ouweek (second-rate Sheikh).

ARISTOCRATIC FACTION.

Mohammed Ben Jabour, Marabout Sheikh.

DEMOCRATIC FACTION.

Berka Ben Entashaf, the most aged of the Sheikhs.

The Sheikh of gigantic stature[80].

Hateetah Ben Khouden, the "_friend_" of the English.

I found the strongest demonstrations of rivalry, and the bitterest feelings of faction, in the conduct of these several princes of The Desert, who are the personages of influence and authority amongst the Ghat Touaricks. In the monarchical cla.s.s the Governor of the town is allied to the Sultan by marriage, though Khanouhen has no family by the Governor's sister. Shafou, the venerable Sultan, is of such gentle una.s.suming manners that he exercises no political influence over the wild sons of The Desert. Khanouhen embodies the Sultan, and is the man of eloquence, of action, and intrepidity in the national councils. He is feared by all (Jabour, perhaps, excepted), but, nevertheless, is not tyrannical in his administration of affairs. Jabour, the Marabout, is a wise, upright, and amiable prince. His influence extends beyond the Ghat Touaricks. Jabour told me himself, he had several people subject to his authority, extending as far as Timbuctoo. To these, the Prince promised to commit me in case I determined to make a journey to Timbuctoo. Like Khanouhen, Jabour has two wives; one resides in Ghat, where the Sheikh has a _town-house_, and the other in the country districts. He has, besides, four or five sons. I saw one of them, who was as much of an aristocrat as his father. The merchants a.s.sured me that Jabour's influence, more especially as he is a marabout, although he is no demagogue priest of the _Higgins' calibre_, is unbounded. "With a slave of Jabour," they declared, "you may go to Timbuctoo, and all parts of Sahara." The Sheikh himself does not visit the neighbouring countries.

This is not the custom of the Touaricks, the people being opposed to the Sheikhs leaving their districts; but they send their slaves or relations continually about. Berka, the head of the democratic faction, is too old to exercise power, he has only strength enough to get about. The aged Prince paid me two visits, and was as gentle as gentleness could be. His family contains some powerful and intrepid chiefs, amongst the rest the Giant, the Goliath of the Ghat Touaricks. But, speaking of giants, _Ba.s.sa_, Sultan of the _Haghar_ Touaricks, is the real Giant of The Desert. Some of the people report this Giant Desert Prince to have six fingers on each hand, and to be several heads taller than he of Ghat. His spear, they describe, in the true spirit of the marvellous, to be, "higher than the tallest palm." I may help their imagination, "And the staff of his spear is like a weaver's beam, and his spear's head weighs six hundred shekels of iron," or is like--

"The mast Of some great admiral."

Were I to adopt our present fanciful theories of accounting for the origin and migration of nations, I should here have a fine field before me, and the Touarghee giants of The Sahara would become, by the trans.m.u.ting fancy of our antiquarian theologians, the veritable Philistines of Gath and Ekron. For many of the Berber tribes, amongst whom the Touaricks are cla.s.sed, especially the _Shelouh_ of Morocco, relate traditionally that their fathers came from the land of the Philistines, and that they themselves are Philistines. What then is easier than to find in the name of _Ghat_ the _Gath_ of the Philistines?

But unfortunately, _Azgher_ is the Touarick name of themselves and their country. Still the name of _Ghat_ must have its origin. As before noticed, the original signification of the term _Ghat_ has been traced to mean "_Sun_" or "G.o.d," in the ancient Libyo-Egyptian language. I am not competent to give an opinion on the subject. One of the Latin writers makes the aboriginal people of North Africa to have been Medes. The probability is they were Syrians of some cla.s.s. From the coast they would naturally pa.s.s or migrate to The Sahara.

Hateetah is an extremely pacific man in his conduct, and greatly liked for his peace-making disposition; but he is only a second-rate Sheikh, and has no political influence over Touarick affairs, beyond what the chief of his family enjoys. He has several brothers and cousins, all esteemed Sheikhs, but with little or no power.

The government of the Touaricks is an a.s.semblage of Chieftains, the people supporting their respective leaders, the heads of their clans in the feudal style, and all these controlled by a Sultan or Sheikh-Kebir.

The number of Sheikhs, when the lesser, or second and third-rate, Sheikhs are included, is very considerable, and makes the country, as the Governor says, "a country of Sheikhs." In their various districts, each greater Sheikh exercises a sovereign, if not independent authority. In any national emergency, they all willingly unite for the common defence and protection, as now, when they are collecting their forces, in a common effort to extirpate the Shanbah banditti. The people, however, enjoy complete liberty. The Touaricks, though a nation of chiefs and princes, are in every sense and view a nation of freemen, and have none of those odious and effeminate vices which so darkly stain the Mahometans of the North Coast, or the Negro countries of Negroland. Every man is a tower of strength for himself, and his desert hut or tent, situate in vast solitudes, is his own inviolable home of freedom!

According to Haj Ahmed, the Touaricks of Ghat muster fifteen thousand warriors. Let them be ten thousand, this would give an entire population, including women, old men, and children, and slaves of both s.e.xes, of about sixty thousand souls. These Touaricks possess a good number of slaves, but of the male s.e.x to look after their camels. Every able-bodied Touarick is a warrior, and is equipped with a dagger, suspended under the left arm by a broad leather ring attached to the scabbard, and going round the wrist, and a Touarick of adult age is never seen without this dangerous weapon; a straight broad-sword is slung on his back, and he carries a spear or lance in his right hand. Most of the spears have wooden shafts, but others are all metal, and mostly iron. Some are of fine and elegant workmans.h.i.+p, inlaid with bra.s.s, and of the value of a good maharee, or thirty dollars. They have staves also, which they use as walking-sticks, or weapons of war, as it may be[81]. These are their weapons of warfare. The matchlock they despise. "What can the enemy do with the gun against the sword?" the Targhee warriors ask contemptuously.

They, indeed, use the sword, their grand weapon, as the English soldier the bayonet. Their superior tactic is to surprise the enemy, especially in the night, when the Genii help them, and hack him to pieces. The spear is used mostly to wound and disable the camel. Their manner of disposing of the booty, is characteristic. "What are we to do with these women and children?" they asked me, "when we have exterminated the Shanbah men."

Without waiting for a reply they said:--"Oh, we'll send them to the Turks and sell them." They have the example of the Turks themselves, who, on the destruction of the Arab men in the mountains, collected the women and children together, and sent the best of them to Constantinople to be sold, in defiance of the express law of the Koran.

The maharee cannot be overlooked; this remarkable camel, which is like the greyhound amongst dogs for swiftness and agility, and even shape, they train for war and riding like the horse. They do not rear the ordinary variety of camel found in North Africa and on the Coast.

????????? or ????????, are the two manners in which I have seen the Moorish talebs write this word in Arabic. An Arab philologist says, the term Maharee is derived from the name of the Arabian province of Mahra, on the south-east coast, adjoining Oman, whence this fine species of camel is supposed originally to have been brought into The Desert. The Touaricks, of course, have very curious legends about their peculiar camel. We have, however, the Arabic ?????, "to be diligent," "acute-minded," and the term ????????, "flying away," from which ?????? may probably be derived. At least there is no apparent objection to such derivation. The Hebrew cognate dialect has the word also. ????? signifies "to hasten," "to be quick;" but I cannot a.s.sert positively it has any relation with this derivation. In the books written on Western Barbary, we find the terms _heiree_ and _erragnol_ to denote the "fleet" or "swift-footed camel," the former of which is apparently a corruption of mahry or maharee. It is said that camels are called by names derived from the Arabic numerals, as _tesaee_, "ten," (??????), and _sebaee_, "seven," (??????) according as they perform a journey of _ten_ days, or _seven_ days, in _one_; but I never heard of this distinction in any part of The Desert. It is pretended that the mahry cannot live on the Coast of Africa on account of the cold. This has not been sufficiently tried, for Haj Ibrahim kept one at Tripoli, which thrived very well, and was in good condition. It is, however, a very chilly animal, and seems to feel the cold as much as the Touarghee himself. In its healthy state it is full of fire and energy, and always a.s.sumes the mastery over the camels of the Coast, biting them, and trying to prevent them from eating with it in circle like other camels. Mounted on his mahry, dressed out fantastically in various and many-coloured harness, (the small saddle being fixed on the withers, and the rider's legs on the neck of the animal,) with his sword slung on his back, dagger under the left arm, and lance in the right hand, the Touarghee warrior sallies forth to war, daring everything, and fearing nothing but G.o.d and the Demons. In the year '44 they made an inroad upon the sandy wastes of the Shanbah bandits; days and months they pursued the brigand tribe over the trackless regions of sand; and during this expedition they neither tasted food, nor drank a drop of water, for seven days!--still keeping up a running fight, pursuing and butchering the Shanbah, who all disappeared at last, concealed under heaps of sand. This statement, which shows the extraordinary power of endurance--the moral and physical temperance in the Touaricks, I had from the Governor of Ghat himself, and which coming from him deserves credit. But the Touaricks do not eat every day though they may have food in the house. They eat generally every other day. And this amply suffices them when merely reclining in their tents, or lounging in the Souk. Habit is everything; we might all live on one meal a day if we could accustom ourselves to it. The people pretend that, though the Shanbah can count the grains of their desert region of sand, and know every form of the sand-mountains as well by night as by day, the Touaricks had nevertheless the advantage over them, pursuing them better by night than by day, because the Genii were their guides; and many Shanbah, who had hid themselves under the sand, were unburied by the Genii, and slain by the Touaricks.

I have given a case of Touarghee justice. During the Ghat Souk, all the Sheikhs a.s.semble in the great square, the Sh.e.l.ly, for the arrangement of disputes; but it is mere form, and is more for gossiping and quizzing one another, the Touarick being fond of a good joke. The princ.i.p.al Sheikh present mounts a stone-bench, and sits down in a reclining posture, striking his spear into the ground, which stands erect before him, as if awaiting his orders. The very first thing a Touarghee does when he stops and sits down, is to strike his spear into the ground or sand. When my _friend_ Ouweek was napping near me at the well of Tadoghseen, his spear was struck into the sand close by his head. So it is said, "And, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the trench, and his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster." (1 Samuel, chap. xxvi. ver 7.) The Sheikh of highest rank now seated, the Sheikhs next in dignity take their seats around him, at a short distance off, in the form of a semicircle, these generally squatting on the ground. Sometimes the princ.i.p.al Sheikh himself squats on the ground. The cases of dispute are then brought forward, if any. The infliction of punishment is by fines. There is nothing in the shape of a prison,--this delectable inst.i.tution being the work and discovery of civilization. Our Irishman might indeed, without a bull, with his back to The Desert, and his face to the civilized communities of the Coast, exclaim, on sight of the first prison and gibbet, "Thank G.o.d, I am out of the land of Barbarians, and have reached the land of Civilization!" Of fines, I heard of no other case than that of the Sultan fining two strangers a couple of dollars, whilst resident in Ghat.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

In some parts of the Sh.e.l.ly there are ranges of benches of two and three flights. It is an imposing sight, to pa.s.s through the square late in the afternoon, just before they leave, and see all the Touaricks mounted on these benches. Row upon row, range upon range, they sit, closely jammed together, as thick as Milton's spirits in Pandemonium, and not unlike them, with their dark and concealed countenances, so mysteriously m.u.f.fled up with the dread litham, having before them ranges of spears, parallel to themselves, a bright forest hedge of pines, awaiting their orders for war or warlike pomp. I have frequently pa.s.sed this forest range of lances, and looked up fearfully to the dark enigmatical figures or shapes of human beings, reclining in the most profound death-like silence, not exchanging a word with one another. A most trivial call of attention, a rustling or breath of an accident of novelty, nevertheless, is enough to put instant action and fire into these ranged ma.s.ses of ice-congealed or stone statue-like warriors, who will then rush down upon the attractive object headlong, one falling over the other, until their childish curiosity being satisfied, the wild tumult subsides, and they themselves sink into their wonted blank inanity. But it is a fact, they will sit motionless thus for hours and hours, and not condescend to speak to their best friend amongst the merchants. This is their idea of dignity and superior rank over their fellows. It would appear, from the account of the Sultan of Bornou, that he, also, never condescends to speak when he receives a foreign envoy. "Slowness of motion," in Barbary, and I imagine in The East, is also considered a mark of dignity. A full-blown fas.h.i.+onable Moor always walks extremely slow. The Touarick usually rises up slowly, and deliberately walks out of the house in the same way, but otherwise he continues a fair pace. What is curious, a Touarick never speaks and salutes when he leaves you; his compliments and inquiries of health, are all on his entrance into your house.

It now seems pretty well agreed upon by all parties who converse about my affairs, that I should return and make greater preparations, and bring with me two or three others, fellow-travellers, so as to render an expedition of this sort more useful and respectable. But the disadvantage always is, if it get abroad that such a mission is coming, laden with presents, money and provisions, the danger is tenfold augmented, whilst an indigent person like myself is in comparative security. A single person has also his own advantages over a mission of two or three, or more. He is his own master he is responsible alone for himself. Who knows, but what something disastrous had happened if I had had with me some hot-headed companion? A man will lose his life any time in The Desert in five minutes if he cannot keep his temper. He may occasionally a.s.sume airs of being angry for policy's sake, and check the insolence of some low fellow, and with other advantages. But the point is, to be cool in danger and embarra.s.sments, which, if a man cannot be, let him go into The Great Desert at his peril. It was for the same reason I would not bring with me an European servant from Tripoli, whose fluency in Arabic might have been attended with the greatest danger to us both instead of a.s.sistance. Said is pestered with questions about me or my affairs; but at times Said is stupid enough, and people get tired of asking him questions. I must mention, however, one thing to his credit and to his cunning sagacity; although a thousand times questioned, whether he himself were a slave, and how he came with me, he never let out that he was a runaway slave from Tunis, not even to his dearest companions of travel. Generally when asked a question of our affairs, he says, _Ma-Narafsh_, "I don't know," and this he does as much from his indolence in not wis.h.i.+ng to talk as from policy. Here I shall take the liberty of stating the several objections to my proceeding this year to Soudan:--

1st. My health is beginning to sink under pressure of the climate, as well as under various vexations and annoyances. Amongst the latter, I have received nothing which I wrote for to Tripoli, to persons whom I considered friends of the mission, one thing excepted, and certainly not the least thing, the money. (And I embrace the opportunity of thanking gratefully Signor Francovich, Austrian merchant of Tripoli, for letting me have money whenever I asked him, promptly and immediately, and to any amount which I drew for).

2nd. Amongst the things written for to Tripoli, and which did not arrive, were medicine, and some common instruments of observation. The medicine was packed up by Dr. d.i.c.kson, but neglected to be sent until the caravan had left Ghadames. The instruments, which could easily have been procured in Tripoli, were of the greatest consequence, in making a more extended tour intelligible.

3rd. Kanou, being reported by all the merchants as "a country of fever,"

it would have been exceedingly imprudent for me to have gone further without a good stock of medicines. We have no right to plunge ourselves into the flood of the Niger, and then accuse the hand of Providence for not saving us from a watery grave. One might have escaped the fever, as one might have been picked up by the swimming of a black man; but such a "might" belongs to accident, not the planning and arranging of legitimate expectation.

I shall not trouble the reader with ten or more reasons, all having more or less of weight, which I have recorded in my journal, but which are more curious than sensible. I mention, that, on my departure from Ghat, I wrote to the Sultan of Aheer, by the advice of my best friends, informing him of my intention to visit him at some future period. It is a mistake that, the taking of these Saharan princes unawares; they consider it infinitely more friendly to be written to beforehand. A stranger, and especially a Christian, coming down upon them unexpectedly, excites suspicion which may never be afterwards removed. The Touarick Princes of Aheer are considered the only difficulty, so far as governments are concerned, in the rest of the route. The Fullan Princes of Soudan are represented as eminently friendly to every body, every stranger of whatever clime or religion. However, I do not pretend to know what effect the Niger expedition may have produced on the Fullans, with respect to Englishmen.