Of these empires, Cashna, till of late, was esteemed the first in power; but though a thousand villages and towns are still included in her vast domains, she is now considered as much inferior to Bornou.
ROUT FROM MOURZOUK TO BORNOU.
FROM Mourzouk in Fezzan to Bornou, the capital of the empire from which it takes its name, the Fezzanners, whose commercial spirit no distance can discourage, are conducted by a rout of more than a thousand miles. Temmissa, the first town at which they arrive, and the last which they see in Fezzan, they reach on the seventh day; and in three days more they enter the territories of Bornou. Several villages, inhabited by Blacks, whose persons, their waists excepted, are entirely naked, whose meagre limbs and famished looks announce their extreme of misery, and whose idolatrous religion neither excites the resentment nor restrains the charity of the benevolent Fezzanners, mark the northern frontier of the empire.
On the day following their departure from these melancholy hamlets, they begin the ascent of a hilly uninhabited desart of sand, where a few bushes of penurious vegetation point out the successive wells that are found in these barren heights, and diminish the fatigues of a three days passage. At the close of the fourth day they enter a plain that is inhabited by Mahometans, where, in addition to a plentiful supply of excellent water, they are cheared with the sight of date trees, and of Indian corn.
From this plain, which lies to the West of the Desart of Tibesti, and the end of which they reach on the second day, a part of the Tibesti mountains take their rise. These vast hills, the range of which is very extensive, are variously peopled; but such of them as are crossed on the rout from Fezzan to the City of Bornou, are inhabited by a mixture of Musselmen and Idolaters, who employ themselves in breeding camels and asses, and other cattle, particularly horses of a small size.
Exclusively of the two days that are requisite for the passage of the mountains, an allowance of twice that time is generally given to refreshment and repose; soon after which a fertile and beautiful country, as richly diversified as numerously peopled, opens to their view. Its inhabitants are herdsmen, and with the exception of a few Pagans who are intermixed among them, are Musselmen in their faith. Their dwellings are in tents which are composed of hides, and their wealth consists in the multitude of their cows and sheep.
Four days are employed in crossing these fortunate districts: the sixth conducts the caravan to the entrance of the vast and burning Desart of Bilma. Surrounded by this dreary solitude, the Traveller sees with a dejected eye the dead bodies of the birds that the violence of the wind has brought from happier regions; and as he ruminates on the fearful length of his remaining passage, listens with horror to the voice of the driving blast, the only sound that interrupts the awful repose of the Desart.
On the eleventh day from their entrance on these scorching sands, the caravan arrives in the fertile plains that encompass the Town of Domboo, the approach to which is enlivened by the frequent appearance of the majestic Ostrich, and of the gay but fearful Antelope.