The 12th December was a beautifully mild morning, the thermometer at eight being at 56. After breakfast, all seemed revived; but it was with pain I observed the exceeding weakness of Doctor Oudney and Hillman. I managed to get a sketch of the castle of Tegerhy from the south side of a salt pool close to the town; the entrance to which is small, low, and arched, something resembling a sally-port: within a second wall and gateway, there are loop-holes which would render the entrance by the narrow passage before mentioned extremely difficult: above the second gateway, there is also an opening from whence missiles and firebrands, of which the Arabs formerly made great use, might be poured on the assailants. Wells of water are within the walls, and tolerably good; and with supplies, when in a state of repair, I have no doubt Tegerhy might make a very good defence.
The sultans of Fezzan probably think that the only means of keeping these people in order is by keeping them poor. Their only produce is dates, but those are of excellent quality. No vegetables are raised here, and we could not even procure an onion. Almost every town in Africa has its charm or wonder, and Tegerhy is not without one. There is a well just outside the castle gates, the water of which, we were told most gravely, “always rose when a kafila was coming near the town! that the inhabitants always prepared what they had to sell on seeing this water increase in bulk, for it never deceived them!”—In proof of this assertion, they pointed out to me how much higher the water had been previous to our arrival than it was at the moment we were standing on the brink. This I could have explained by the number of camels that had drank at it, but I saw it was better policy to believe what every body allowed to be true: even Boo-Khaloom exclaimed, “Allah! God is great, powerful, and wise! How wonderful! Oh!” Over the inner gate of the castle there is a large hole through to the gateway underneath, and they tell a story of a woman dropping from thence a stone on the head of some leader who had gained the outer wall, giving him, by that means, the death of Abimelech in sacred history.
The situation of Tegerhy is rather pleasing than otherwise: it is surrounded by date trees, and the water is excellent; a range of low hills extends to the eastward; and snipes, wild-ducks, and geese, frequent the salt-pools, which are near the town. The natives are quite black, but have not the negro face: the men are slim, very plain, with high cheek bones, the negro nose, large mouth, teeth much stained by the quantity of tobacco and trona (or muriate of soda) which they eat; and even snuff, when given to them, goes directly into their mouths.
The young girls are most of them pretty, but less so than those of Gatrone. The men always carry two daggers, one about eighteen inches, and the other six inches, the latter of which is attached to a ring and worn on the arm or wrist. A Tibboo once told me, pointing to the long one, “this is my gun; and this,” showing the smaller of the two, “is my pistol.” The women make baskets and drinking-bowls of palm leaves with great neatness.
On the 13th, we left Tegerhy, and proceeded on the desert: it was scattered with mounds of earth and sand, covered with athila (a plant the camels eat with avidity), and other shrubs. After travelling six miles we arrived at a well called Omah, where our tents were pitched, and here we halted three days. On the 16th, after clearing the palm trees, by which Omah is surrounded, we proceeded on the desert. About nine we had a slight shower of rain. At three in the afternoon, we came to a halt at Ghad, after travelling ten miles. Near the wells of Omah, numbers of human skeletons, or parts of skeletons, lay scattered on the sands. Hillman, who had suffered dreadfully since leaving Tegerhy, was greatly shocked at these whitened skulls, and unhallowed remains; so much so, as to want all the encouragement I could administer to him.
Dec. 17.—We continued our course over a stony plain, without the least appearance of vegetation. Coarse opal and sand-stone[10] strewed the path. We saw Alowere-Seghrir, a ridge of hills, bearing east by south; Alowere-El-Kebir, a still higher ridge, lies more to the east, but was not visible. These, by the accounts of the natives, are the highest mountains in the Tibboo country, with the exception of Ercherdat Erner. More to the south, the inhabitants are called Tibboo-Irchad (the Tibboos of the rocks). Through passes in both these mountains, the road lies to Kanem. About sunset, we halted near a well, within a half mile of Meshroo. Round this spot were lying more than one hundred skeletons, some of them with the skin still remaining attached to the bones—not even a little sand thrown over them. The Arabs laughed heartily at my expression of horror, and said, “they were only blacks, nam boo!” (damn their fathers!) and began knocking about the limbs with the butt end of their firelocks, saying, “This was a woman! This was a youngster!” and such like unfeeling expressions. The greater part of the unhappy people, of whom these were the remains, had formed the spoils of the sultan of Fezzan the year before. I was assured that they had left Bornou with not above a quarter’s allowance for each; and that more died from want than fatigue: they were marched off with chains round their necks and legs: the most robust only arrived in Fezzan in a very debilitated state, and were there fattened for the Tripoli slave market.
Our camels did not come up until it was quite dark, and we bivouacked in the midst of these unearthed remains of the victims of persecution and avarice, after a long day’s journey of twenty-six miles, in the course of which, one of our party counted 107 of these skeletons.
Dec. 19[11].—Moved round a winding pass to the west, and after an ascent of three hundred feet descended a sandy steep to the east. This was rather a picturesque spot, looking back upon Thenea. Our road lay over a long plain with a slight ridge. A fine naga (she-camel) lay down on the road this day, as I thought from fatigue. The Arabs crowded round, and commenced unloading her, when, upon inquiry, I found that she was suddenly taken in labour: about five minutes completed the operation,—a very fine little animal was literally dragged into light. It was then thrown across another camel; and the mother, after being reloaded, followed quietly after her offspring. One of the skeletons we passed to-day had a very fresh appearance; the beard was still hanging to the skin of the face, and the features were still discernible. A merchant, travelling with the kafila, suddenly exclaimed, “That was my slave! I left him behind four months ago, near this spot.”—“Make haste! take him to the fsug” (market), said an Arab wag, “for fear any body else should claim him.” We had no water, and a most fatiguing day.
Dec. 20 was also a dreary day of most uninteresting country; and it was 5. 30. when we arrived at the Hormut-el-Wahr. These were the highest hills we had seen since leaving Fezzan: the highest peak might be five or six hundred feet. They had a bold black appearance, and were a relief to the eye, after the long level we had quitted. We entered the pass, which is nearly two miles in width, and wound round some high hills to the south: the path was rugged and irregular in the extreme, and bordered by bold conical and table-topped detached hills. We blundered and stumbled on until ten at night, when we found the resting-place, after a toilsome and most distressing day. We were several times foiled in our attempt to find a path into the wadey, under these hills, by which the camels might move, and where the water was. Hillman was exceedingly ill this night, and Dr. Oudney too fatigued to render him any assistance. El-Wahr is a wadey of loose gravel, and has a well of good water. This was the eighth day since our camels had tasted water: they were weak and sore-footed, from the stony nature of the passes in these hills of El-Wahr. At night it blew a hurricane.
It is three miles from where we halted to the end of the wadey; where, to the west, there is a high hill called El-Baab. These hills extend away to the east, and form part of the range which are found near Tibesty, where they become higher and bolder. We had now a stony plain, with low hills of sand and gravel, till we reached El-Garha, which is a detached conical hill to the west, close to our road; and here we halted for the night[12].