On the evening of the succeeding day we reached the little village of Zoúia, which is somewhat resembling, but very superior to, Zelīten. After quitting Selin we had divided our party, and leaving the camels to pursue the direct road, we proceeded along the sand-hills which flank the beach, and arrived at an inconsiderable collection of hovels situated immediately on the coast. This place is called Zoraig, and contains, we were told, about an hundred persons, who cultivate just sufficient ground to supply themselves and their families. They were, however, provided with several wells of good water, which they distributed by means of troughs over the cultivated ground. We here dismounted to partake of some dates and water, which were cordially offered to us by an old man of the village; and we soon learned from him that the Adventure had been there several days, and that a party of the officers had been on shore. Two little ports, if such they may be called, are here formed by reefs of rocks lying off the village, and the natives have dignified them with the titles of Mersa Gusser and Mersa Zoraig[5].
On the following day we entered Mesurata by a circuitous route shaded thickly with date-trees, and enclosed between well-furnished gardens.
We had now reached the eastern boundary of the cultivated districts, where they terminate on the margin of the Syrtis; and as this was the place where we were to change our camels, we pitched the tents in a garden near the town, and proceeded to make the necessary arrangements.
The town of Mesurata is built with tolerable regularity; its streets cross each other at right angles, and near the centre stands the market-place, which, like most others in this country, is half occupied by a pool of green and stinking water. The houses are only one story high, and are built with rough stones and mud; the roofs are flat, and formed with slight rafters, covered with mats and a quantity of sea-weed, over which is laid a thick coat of mud, smoothed and beat down very carefully. They are fortunate who can mix a little lime with the mud which forms the outer part of their roof; for without this addition it is wholly incapable of resisting the heavy rains which assail it in winter, and a thick muddy stream never fails to find its way, through the numerous mazes of sea-weed and matting, to the luckless inhabitants below: the white-washed walls are in consequence usually marked with long streaks of this penetrating fluid, and present a singularly-variegated appearance. The greater part of the town has been built upon a hard rocky incrustation, about two feet in thickness; the soil beneath is soft and sandy, and, being easily removed, is excavated by the Arabs into storehouses for their corn and dry provisions. Some of these have in the course of time fallen in, and the streets are in such places not very passable.
The extent of the district of Mesurata, according to the report of its Shekh, is from Selin to Sooleb, a place in the Syrtis, two days distant to the southward of the town; it consists of the villages of Ghâra, Zoúia, Zoroog, Gusser Hámed, Gezir, &c., and is said to contain 14,000 inhabitants, including those of the town of Mesurata; the population of the five villages which we have just named amounts to about 1250 persons, supposing the estimate of the Shekh to be correct, from whom this statement is derived. The gardens, which extend from Zoúia to Marábūt Bushaifa, produce dates, olives, melons, pomegranates, pumpkins, carrots, onions, turnips, radishes, and a little tobacco and cotton; among these may be mentioned the palma christi, which we frequently observed in this neighbourhood. Many of the gardens are raised from six to eight feet above the road, and are enclosed by mud walls, or by fences of the prickly pear and wild aloe. The dates, which are of several kinds, are in great abundance, and the olives yield a plentiful supply of oil: these, with barley, which is also very abundant, are carried to various markets for sale; for the home-consumption of the place consists chiefly of dates and dúrrah, and the greater part of the barley is exported. The principal manufactures of Mesurata are carpets, the colours of which are very brilliant, straw mats, sacks of goats’ hair, and earthen jars. The market is in general well supplied with meat, vegetables, the fruits of the country, oil, manteca, and salt; the latter is procured from some very extensive marshes a few miles to the southward of the town[6].
Mesurata (or “Mesarata,” as some authors write it) has been described by Leo Africanus as “a province on the coast of the Mediterranean, distant about an hundred miles from Tripoly.” He states it to have contained many “castles and villages, some on heights, and others in the plain;” and adds that the inhabitants were excessively rich, on account of their having no tribute to pay, and the attention which they bestowed upon commerce. They were in the habit (he continues) of receiving foreign wares, which were brought to them by the Venetian galleys, and of carrying them to Numidia, where they were bartered in exchange for slaves, civet, and musk from Ethiopia; these they carried into Turkey, and made a profit both in going and returning.
In the lifetime of the late Bashaw, Mesurata was in a very disturbed state. The inhabitants had refused to receive Sidy Yusef, and it was only by the assistance of Shekh Haliffe that they were at length reduced to obedience[7]. The place is not now so flourishing as it is stated to have been in the time of Leo, and its commerce appears to be trifling.
Soon after our arrival, the Shekh of Mesurata, Belcázi, came to pay us his visit of ceremony. He was accompanied by Shekh Mahommed el Dúbbah, and attended by a train of mounted Arabs, tolerably well armed with long guns and pistols. The splendid attire of Shekh Belcázi, displayed to advantage by a large and handsome person, threw far into the shade the less imposing costume and figure of his companion. It consisted of three cloth waistcoats, richly embroidered with gold, and a pair of most capacious crimson silk trowsers, bound tight round his waist, which was none of the slenderest, by many an ell of handsome shawl. Over this, notwithstanding the heat of the day, he had thrown, in ample folds, a large white barracan, and above this a heavy red cloth burnoos, the hood of which was pulled over eight or ten yards of muslin rolled round his head as a turban. The eyelids of the Shekh had been carefully painted with the sable powder usually employed for that purpose, and which is considered, even by men, in the regency of Tripoly, to be absolutely requisite on occasions of ceremony. The tips of his fat and gentlemanly-looking fingers were at the same time stained with hénnah; and, as the dye had been recently and copiously applied, would decidedly have made those of Aurora look pale.
While the Shekh had been thus minutely attentive to his own person, that of his horse had been by no means neglected; for his bridle was of crimson silk embroidered with gold, and his scarlet saddle-cloth displayed a broad edging of gold lace: the saddle itself was of rich crimson velvet, and the high back and pummel, which appeared through the saddle-cloth, were also thickly embroidered with gold. A broad band of gold lace was stretched across his chest, and a large and thick tassel of crimson silk and gold (which might have served a Grand Cross of the Bath), together with a numerous collection of charms, were suspended from the neck of the animal. The large gilt Mameluke stirrups, kept in constant motion by the rider, flashed gaily in the beams of the sun, which were glanced off in many a brilliant sparkle from this glittering assemblage of precious metal. If Phœbus himself had appeared in all his splendour, mounted on one of his gayest chariot-horses, he could scarcely have been more an object of admiration and wonder in the eyes of the humble and unassuming crowd of Arabs which had assembled to witness the show, than Shekh Belcázi and his charger were on this occasion.
We dare not guess how the lady of our honest friend the Dúbbah would have supported this splendid exhibition, in which her husband was so completely eclipsed; but we thought that the eyes of Shekh Mahommed himself did occasionally wander to the shining masses by his side, with something like an expression of jealousy. If it were so, however, the glance only found its way through the corners of the Dúbbah’s orbs of vision; for his head kept its post with becoming solemnity, and was never once turned towards those objects of his envy, to which all other eyes were so fully directed. It must at the same time be allowed, that the toilet of Shekh Mahommed had been much more attended to than usual. He had made a temporary adjournment from his usual only garment to a white cotton shirt of very decent exterior, over which he had carefully arranged a clean-looking white barracan; and he had drawn from the innermost recesses of his saddle-bags a new white burnoos of no ordinary texture, which he persuaded himself to substitute for the old and coarse brown one he had hitherto worn on the road[8]. His saddle-case was now observed to be of crimson morocco, a circumstance with which we were not before acquainted; for it had hitherto, on the journey, been turned inside out, or more properly speaking, with the outer side in, to prevent it from being soiled, and from fading in the sun. His saddle-cloth also, which had hitherto consisted of a dirty piece of white flannel, was now of bright scarlet cloth; and, besides the embroidered covers to his silver-embossed pistols, he had carefully suspended from different parts of his body a great variety of little bags, of different colours and sizes: these were the repositories of his powder and ball, and carried tinder, flints and steel, money, nails, and tobacco, with sundry other little matters too numerous to mention. By his side also hung a neat little smàat, or goat skin, with the long black hairs left to ornament and protect the outside; and which, properly speaking, was meant to hold water, but which likewise served indifferently for holding milk, oil, or butter, or any other substance which it might be necessary to carry in it. We should state that, under all this variety of ornament, Shekh Mahommed el Dúbbah sat with dignity upon his mare, a recently-acquired present from the Bashaw, whose spirit had been prudently roused on this occasion by the stimulus of an extra feed of corn. The display of Arab horsemanship which concluded the procession, received additional éclat from this precaution; and the Dúbbah’s mare, after manœuvring her head to admiration, first on one side and then on the other, and prancing, and pacing, and rearing, to the delight of the assembled spectators, no sooner felt the angle of the spur assail her sides, than she sprang forward with a bound in advance of the party, and being suddenly pulled up with a powerful bit, was thrown back upon her haunches within a foot of our tent-cords. The old Dúbbah looked round to enjoy the applause which he felt he had deserved, for his horsemanship and his mare, from the crowd who had witnessed the exhibition; and the two Shekhs alighted and entered the tent, each apparently well pleased with himself.