When I arrived that night, the 12th of July, the heartiness of their welcome could not have been exceeded. It made one really appreciate kindness when it was extended, as it was by these French officers to me, with such thorough genuineness.
At the risk of being accused of gluttony, I must acknowledge how I enjoyed my supper at Insalah that night. After eating food cooked in sand for the past five weeks it was a treat to have a well-served-up dish.
It appeared that the Commandant, Colonel Laperine, was away, a piece of news at which I was much disappointed, for I had heard so much of his fame as a soldier skilled in desert warfare, that I had looked forward to this opportunity of meeting him. In the Central Sahara, I suppose there is no name so widely known and respected, or feared, as the case may be, by Tuareg and Arab. He had served for many years with French troops in this region, where only the hardest and most self-controlled men can possibly exist, and on many occasions had led “forlorn hopes” with brilliant success. Although he has now left those parts for a high command in France, Colonel Laperine’s name is one which will live for many a long year in the Central Sahara.
Insalah Oasis
Date-palms grow here in profusion, thanks to the liberal system of irrigation which waters their roots. In the moist ground at their feet are grown small patches of barley and a few coarse vegetables. On seeing this vista of emerald verdure, who would think that for many hundred miles south, east, and west there is scarcely a green blade, nor anything more restful to the traveller’s jaded eye than small patches of sun-scorched Saharan vegetation?
I was comfortably housed in the post at Insalah that night, and the following day my baggage arrived at an early hour, having marched all night. The exhausted camels were taken away by Mahomed for a well-earned feed on dates and a thorough rest. Although we had been fortunate in not losing a single animal during the hardships of the last five weeks, yet most of them were in a desperately poor condition, and would need many weeks in a pasturage before they would be again fit for work.
From Gao to Insalah I calculated I had marched across 936 miles of desert, and the time taken was fifty days.
I had slept that night on the roof of my house, as I was warned it would be very hot inside. I awoke very early to find a small sandstorm raging round me, and jumped out of bed fairly quickly. It was not till some hours later, when the wind had abated, that I was able to get my first real glimpse of Insalah.
The officers’ quarters were all inside the fortified post, and were built with thick walls of red clay. This clay is found in the desert in certain places not far from Insalah, at some feet below the sand, and all the huts at Insalah are made of it. Insalah lies in the middle of a sandy plain, which is enclosed on the east and west by low ridges of sand-hills. It is one of the oases, and the principal one, in the region called Tidikelt. It is a date-palm oasis of some importance. The oasis stretches for a distance of about three and one-third miles to the west, while the grove of palm trees is on the average one and one-third miles wide. Insalah is made up of three “ksours” or villages. The total population is about five hundred. These consist mostly of Arabs, but traders from all parts of the Sahara, who are constantly arriving on their way through, make a further floating population of fifty to one hundred souls.