Proceedings of the expedition to explore the northern coast of Africa, from Tripoly eastward

by Frederick William Beechey; H. W. Beechey

At Sharfa commences another salt lake which extends to Houeijah, a remarkable promontory, taking the appearance at a distance of a castle in ruins, and which may possibly be the cape called Liconda. Between the lake and the sea is a narrow slip of land occupied by a party of Arabs, who were so completely concealed among the hills, that we were close upon them before we were aware that any living soul was in the neighbourhood. The cattle of this place were closely attended by the men, to prevent their ranging on the heights, and, consequently, becoming visible to those who might be passing; a manœuvre which they probably had adopted from supposing us to be some of the Bashaw’s people, whose observation they hoped by such means to elude, and thus escape the payment of the tribute which in the event of their discovery would have been exacted from them by the soldiers of His Highness. We were however received by these people very kindly, and they brought us out milk and dried dates, unasked for; in return for these attentions, we gave the men some gunpowder, with which they were highly delighted, and presented the women with some strings of beads of different colours, which were accepted with many smiles of acknowledgment.

So well practised are the Arabs in eluding observation, from the nature of the wandering life which they lead, and the little security which there is for property in the country they inhabit, that even those who are well acquainted with their usual haunts are often unable to find them; and strangers might often pass within a hundred yards of their tents, without suspecting there was a soul in the neighbourhood. As the whole property of a wandering Arab consists in his flocks and cattle, and the few little articles contained in his tent, he has very little trouble in moving, and half an hour after he has determined to leave the place of his residence, no traces will remain of his late habitation, but the ashes scattered about the hole in the earth which served his whole family for a fire-place. His sheep and cattle are collected without difficulty at the sound of his voice, or that of some part of his family, while his tent, in the mean time, with all its contents, the chief of which are his wives and his children, are packed up in a few minutes on the backs of his camels, and ready to move on with the rest. If he is not pressed for time, the women often walk with the older children, and assist in driving the cattle; and should he have no camels, which is very often the case, both women and children are loaded to the utmost of their strength with such articles as cannot be transported in other ways. But neither women nor children on these fatiguing occasions exhibit any signs of discontent or uneasiness; the length of their journey and the weight of their burdens are borne with the greatest cheerfulness; and the whole is considered as a matter of course, which their habits of life have accustomed them to expect, and to support without any other effects than the temporary fatigue of the exertion. If the journey should be long, the tent is seldom unpacked till they have arrived at the place of their destination, and the whole party sleep very soundly on the ground, in the midst of their sheep and cattle, till the first appearance of day-light summons them to rise and take up their burdens, which have probably in the mean time been usefully employed in affording them the luxury of a pillow.

On quitting the hills among which our late acquaintance were encamped, we passed along the track of Ras Houeijah (the promontory above mentioned), and were detained some time in consequence of the lake having terminated in a swamp, which extended to the sea, and in which our horses sank so deep as to render great caution necessary. The land at the back of the marsh rises tolerably high, and was better peopled than any part we had yet seen in the district of Syrt. At about one o’clock we reached Wady Shegga, a large fiumara so called, and having procured some brackish water a little way up it, continued our route till we reached some Arab tents, where we halted for the night. At Shegga we found the remains of some forts, strongly and regularly built, and of the same quadrangular form with those which we have already described. On a large mound of rubbish we also observed a Marábut, rudely built with the stones of fallen structures about it. In a valley belonging to the chain of hills which runs at the back of Shegga are considerable traces of small buildings, rudely put together with the unshaped stones of the soil. They consist principally of strait lines and parts of squares, built with very little regularity, and occupying both sides of the valley. Traces of walls may also be still observed across the valley, which is furrowed and torn up by the passage of torrents rushing down in the rainy season from the hills, but which seems to have formerly contained much more building than can be perceived in it at present. The rain seems to have been also a principal agent in destroying the buildings on the sides of the valley; but the loss which has been sustained is scarcely to be regretted; since neither these structures, nor those which occupied the centre of the valley, could ever have been of any importance, although they have certainly been very numerous. Before the entrance of the valley, near the forts which have been mentioned, are also seen traces of building, but which do not seem to have been much more important than those which we have just alluded to. On the whole, nothing more can well be collected from these remains, than that the place has been formerly the site of a small town, which must always have been a very miserable one. There is however a good deal of pasturage in the neighbourhood, occasioned by the plentiful supply of water from the hills, and we found ourselves surrounded on all sides by flocks of sheep and goats, among which were also a good many camels.

At about two miles’ distance from the remains above described (to the eastward) is a very remarkable projection of a high cliff into the sea, on which has been built a strong and very conspicuous fortress, constructed with large stones regularly shaped and put together. The greater part of this building, owing to the cliff having given way, is tumbled in ruins about the beach, and though little of the ground plan now remaining can be satisfactorily made out, yet it may well be inferred, from an inspection of the whole, that this fortress has been one of considerable strength[1]. It commands an extensive view, on both sides, over the sea, and overlooks many remains of building which are scattered about the plain at the back of it. At the foot of the eminence on which the fortress has been built, is a ravine, which must at times be the bed of a considerable torrent, and which, crossing the plain from the mountains by which it is bounded, empties itself into the sea at the base of the fort. The mountains, which here run parallel with the beach, approach at the same time so closely to the sea, that the plain which intervenes might be easily defended by means of the ravine just described. Along this ravine are traces of strong walls which have been constructed on both sides of it, and have formerly extended from the sea to the foot of the hills; and which must in their perfect state have formed, together with the ravine, a very effectual barrier to the pass.

Such advantages of situation could not well have been overlooked by the ancients; and there is little doubt that this position was originally one of importance. It appears so well calculated, both by nature and art, for the establishment of a boundary line, that we have little hesitation in supposing the remains above mentioned to have at some period defended the limits of the states of Cyrene and Carthage; and it is accordingly here that we should feel most inclined to fix the site of the Castle of Euphrantes. The distance of this fort from Zaffràn, considered as Aspis, does indeed seem too great for the literal meaning of Strabo’s term συνεχης: but then the circumstance of its uniting a strong boundary line with a very conspicuous position, seems to make this place so very eligible a site for the castle in question, that we cannot refrain from pointing it out to our readers as the spot of all others which we could most wish should prove to be really such. We know the πυργος Ευφραντας to have been a boundary tower, since it is expressly said by Strabo to have been the limits of Carthage and Cyrene under the Ptolemies; so far therefore the resemblance between this fort and that of Strabo appears to be sufficiently complete. Again, amongst all the fortresses with which the Syrtis is filled, two only are mentioned in ancient history by name, those of Euphrantas and Automala; and it would seem probable, from this circumstance (at least it appears so to us), that these castles should have been distinguished from others by conspicuous positions. Of all the positions occupied by forts between Zaffràn and the point to which we are arrived, there is no one which can be materially distinguished from another but that of Bengerwàd, which we have just been describing; and this is so remarkably conspicuous a position, from the height of the eminence and its almost insulated situation on the beach, that it must have been at all times an object of importance from the sea, and could not fail to have been noticed by Strabo in his passage along this part of the coast. It is probable that the position of the Philænean Altars was not sufficiently well calculated by nature for a boundary; and that this circumstance, rather than the desire of increasing his territory in so unprofitable a district, induced one of the Ptolemies to remove the line of separation further westward to the castle of Euphrantas. In passing along the coast, in a westerly direction, from the sandy tract where the monuments of the Philæni[2] might be looked for, had they still been in existence, the most eligible situation which would present itself for a boundary post is certainly that of Bengerwàd; and this, as we have stated, is so extremely well calculated for such a purpose, that we can scarcely suppose it could have been overlooked by the king of Egypt when he fixed the new limits of his dominions.

It will be unnecessary to trouble our readers with any protracted discussion of a point which admits of no positive proof; and we will leave others to decide, without further remark, how far the meaning of the term employed by Strabo (συνεχης) may be extended, in consideration of the reasons which we have alleged.

On leaving Wady Shegga we passed over a tract of red sand collected in little hillocks about the plain, which were, however, as well as the spaces between them, occasionally covered with vegetation. We here saw some gazelles, hares, and jackalls, and a good many jerboas, and fired at a snake about six feet in length, which the Arabs told us swelled out when much irritated, and was very venomous; he however escaped slightly grazed into a hole in the sand. This was the only snake of any size which we had seen in the Syrtis; it was of a very dark colour, and about as thick as a man’s wrist. Immediately behind the promontory which we have mentioned above, is a small sandy bay which the Arabs call a port, and which might in former days have served as a landing-place for boats. This Ràs (or head land), with Ràs Houeijah, forms a spacious bay, in which good anchorage might probably be found close up under the western shore. After passing Bengerwàd the coast gets lower, and the road leads along an uninteresting flat between it and the hills.

Five miles from the Ràs, upon a sandy point, are the remains of a small fort, and about three-quarters of a mile inland of it are several large mounds of sand and rubbish, through which appear occasionally parts of the walls and ground plans of houses. These are evidently the remains of an ancient town, and the houses have here been more concentrated than those of any town which we have observed in the Syrtis; but they are now in so very incumbered a state, that we could form no correct idea either of their number or of their plans. It is probable also that excavation would here be uninteresting, as the hand of time seems to have been fully as much concerned in the destruction of this place as that of its most inveterate enemies. Considerable traces of building may be observed all the way from these remains to the wells at Hudea, and indeed all the way from Bengerwàd; and immediately about the wells the ground plans become more regular, as well as more numerous. There is no doubt that the greater part of this tract has been formerly inhabited, but the mounds which we have mentioned seem to us more characteristic of a town than any of the other remains; and we will venture to suggest them as those of Charax, described by Strabo as a trading frontier-town, resorted to by the people both of Carthage and Cyrene. It was at Charax that the Carthaginians exchanged their wine for the silphium, and the liquor which was extracted from it, (so we translate the passage, reversing the order)[3]; neither of which, from the value attached to these commodities, were allowed to be exported from the Cyrenaica by individuals; and were consequently disposed of with great caution and secrecy to the traders of Carthage who assembled at Charax to treat for them.

As the identity of the fortress at Bengerwàd with the tower of Euphrantas may scarcely, perhaps, be considered as decidedly established; it will probably here appear strange that we should point out the vicinity of the ruins above mentioned to Bengerwàd as one of the reasons why we imagine them to be those of Charax.

But whether the tower of Euphrantas be placed at Bengerwàd or not, we cannot consider that place as any other than a boundary; and as Charax was evidently a frontier-town, and must be looked for somewhere in this neighbourhood, we may assume the vicinity of the remains in question to the only spot which we have met with which may decidedly be termed a boundary, as a reason why they are probably those of Charax. This once allowed, it will be the more readily admitted that the ruin at Bengerwàd is very likely to be that of the tower of Euphrantas; for Charax, as before stated, is the first place which is mentioned by Strabo after that fortress, and may therefore be identified with the first town to be met with in passing from the tower to the westward. Here is however nothing certain but the existence of a boundary, and that of a town a little to the westward of it; and it remains to be determined how far the facts which we have stated may be received as proofs of the positions which have been suggested for the tower of Euphrantas and the trading town of Charax, both of which must be looked for between Aspis and the bottom of the gulf, and to the westward of the Philænean altars and the fortress of Automala[4].