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

by Frederick William Beechey; H. W. Beechey

Before we left Braiga, one of the Arabs of the place brought a present of five lambs to the tents, and gave them in charge to Shekh Mahommed el Dúbbah, who, thinking that this would prove a most excellent opportunity of showing his generosity to the best advantage, as well as his extraordinary influence with the Arabs of the place, in being able to procure sheep when we could not purchase them at all, made his appearance with great ceremony at the entrance of our tent, with two of the lambs above mentioned. After many compliments and professions of service, he offered the two lambs as a present from himself, and begged we would do him the favour to accept them. As we had lately found reason to be much dissatisfied with the Dúbbah’s conduct, we did not choose to be under an obligation to him; and having given him to understand the reason of our refusal, declined accepting the lambs as a present, but offered at the same time to purchase them. The old Shekh looked disconcerted, as we intended he should be, and slowly retired from the tent. And now began a parley between his avarice and his conscience, which terminated at length in favour of the latter; for, though not very tender on most occasions, this inward monitor of our worthy conductor would not allow him to receive money for what he knew was already our own, although it did not object to let him take the credit of presenting it to us. The result was, that he soon after paid us a second visit, bringing with him the two lambs as before, but which he now acknowledged were intended as presents to us, instead of to himself, as he assured us he had imagined: he informed us, at the same time, that the Arab who brought them was a shepherd belonging to the Bashaw, who wished to shew us what attentions were in his power, and had presented us with the best that he had. The other three lambs, he said, were really intended for him; but we afterwards found, from the shepherd in question, that the whole number had been presented to us. We also discovered that the reason why we could not, on many occasions, procure sheep or goats from the Arab tents which we passed on our journey, at which we had often been surprised, was because two of our party, followers of the Dúbbah, had usually gone before on pretence of reconnoitring, and had strictly enjoined the Arabs not to sell us anything whatever. We afterwards recollected, in confirmation of this manœuvre, that the only times when we had been able to purchase sheep were those at which we had accidentally been in advance of this worthy couple; and the Arabs we chanced to meet seldom failed on these occasions to ask us, of their own accord, whether we did not want a sheep or a goat, some butter, manteca, or other articles of provision, which they would have been able to furnish us with, and which they would, in fact, have been glad to dispose of. We could assign no other motive for this conduct on the part of our Arab guides, than the wish of making us as dependent as possible upon themselves, that they might either have an opportunity of showing their influence, or of planning with more effect some scheme to impose upon us. Yet the very same people who would take so much trouble to forward their own interested views, at the expense of another, would in all probability consider themselves greatly to blame, or at any rate highly disgraced, if they suffered a hungry traveller, of whatever creed or nation, to leave their own tents unsatisfied, should he apply to them for relief. But such is the inconsistency of Arab character; and it may perhaps be said, that he who should consider them as a generous nation, because they practised this species of hospitality, would be as much deceived in his opinion of them, as he would be who should imagine that they have no liberal feelings, because they are well skilled in selfish tricks and manœuvres.

On leaving Braiga, we travelled over a hilly country to the eastward, and passed two interesting ruins of ancient forts, of which we contrived to obtain plans. About noon we halted near a bold rocky promontory, called by the Arabs Tabilba, on which are the remains of a castle. On a hill just above it are the ruins of a very strong fortification, which was connected with the castle by a wall of five feet in thickness carried quite round the precipice on which it stood. This was defended on the inland side by a fosse of thirty feet in width excavated in the solid rock; and the rubbish extracted from it was piled up to form a bank on the outer side. On the beach are the remains of a wall remarkably well constructed, or it never could so long have resisted the violence of the surf which beats against it. It appears to have formed part of a landing-place or quay which has originally been built in its immediate neighbourhood. The interior of the rock on which the castle stands has been excavated into numerous galleries and chambers, which seem to have answered the purpose of barracks. Some of these are very spacious and very well finished; but the dash of the sea, which now washes through the exterior chambers, has completely destroyed their surface, and has left them in parts so little foundation as to render it very dangerous to enter them. In fact, the base of the rock in which these excavations have been made is perforated like a honeycomb by the continual action of the sea, which now washes through the hollows with a roar which may be heard at a considerable distance, and must in stormy weather be tremendous. In one of the chambers were several Greek inscriptions which have been written with ink on the walls; but they are now so indistinct, that we could not succeed in copying more than a few words of one of them.

They are written in what may be called the running-hand of the Greeks of the Roman Empire, and it is probable that one much accustomed to this character might succeed, with the assistance of a strong and steady light, and the frequent application of water to the inscriptions, in making out more than we were able to do with the little time we had at our disposal, and the light we were able to procure. In other parts of the rock were excavated tombs, some of which were entered by a quadrangular well, in the manner of those common in Egypt. We found nothing in any of them but scattered bones, from which we were not able to ascertain the mode of burial adopted. There can be no doubt that great part of the rock just described has already been washed away by the sea, which has here gained considerably on the land; and several wells are now observable some feet under water, which were of course originally above its level.

In the wall fronting the south, we observed part of an arch protruding itself from among the rubbish which encumbered it; and found, on clearing it, that it had been constructed without a key-stone, of square blocks, arranged so as to touch each other at the bottom, and having the interstices above filled up with good cement, which appeared to be more durable than the stone. We found other examples of arches so constructed in different parts of the Syrtis and Cyrenaica. The appearance of the top of the arch just described had given us hopes of discovering an entrance to some part of the fortification through the wall in which it was formed; but we found to our disappointment, on clearing it from the rubbish, that what we thought would prove the entrance extended no more than three feet from the external surface; and that all farther advance was prevented by a solid wall built across it, which appeared to be part of the original structure. Among the rubbish we found a silver coin, and several copper ones, so corroded that it was impossible to ascertain their antiquity.

We should willingly have given a much longer time to the examination of the ruins at Tabilba than the few hours we were enabled to bestow upon it; but the lateness of the season left us no choice on the subject, and we had already spent more time at Braiga than we could well afford to employ in such researches. It must however be confessed, that if we had doubted the probability of being able to return and examine them with greater minuteness, we might have been tempted to stay longer at many places in the Syrtis than we should perhaps have been authorized in doing.

We have no hesitation in supposing Tabilba to be the site of the maritimæ stationes of Ptolemy. Its position corresponds so well with that assigned to the naval stations in question, and its remains are so well calculated to induce the belief that they have originally been appropriated to the defence and accommodation of a considerable number of men, that we cannot be sceptical on the occasion. On either side of the promontory on which the castle has been built is a small sandy bay, neither of which at present affords any shelter for vessels, but from which the galleys of the ancients might have been easily drawn up on the beach, when it might not have been practicable for them to keep the sea.

This mode of sheltering their vessels was common to the Greeks and Romans, to whom a port, such as in our days would be considered a good one, appears to have been by no means necessary. We are told indeed by Strabo, that this part of the coast was very sparingly provided with ports and watering-places[25], and the harbour which he calls the best in the Syrtis is now no harbour at all[26]. Mersa Braiga is in fact the only port in the gulf which can at all be considered as such, in our estimation of the term; and here the shelter is only afforded by breakers, and could not prevent the small vessels of the ancients from being driven on shore in stormy weather.

On the day after our arrival at Tabilba we continued our journey along the coast, and proceeded to Ain Agàn, passing two ruins of forts conspicuously situated on the hills. The beach in this neighbourhood presents a very dreary prospect; but the scene is much improved after passing the wady, and the country then begins to be cultivated. Many flocks of sheep and goats soon presented themselves to our view, and tents were scattered about in all directions. We procured from the Arabs here a scanty supply of corn for our horses, of which the poor animals stood very much in need; but we were obliged to apply for it in a more decided tone than we had hitherto found it necessary to assume on such occasions, as the Arabs, though they had plenty, were not very willing to part with it. There are some wells of brackish water at Ain Agàn, which is however the best that this neighbourhood affords, and we were glad to fill all our water-skins with it before we proceeded any farther.

A few miles from Ain Agàn is a remarkable hill, called Aàlum Limàrish, the summit of which overlooks an extensive tract of country, and Mersa Braiga may be plainly distinguished from it. To the southward of Aàlum Limàrish we observed a chain of lakes and swamps, which the Chaous informed us extended two days to the south-eastward. They communicated with the wady at Ain Agàn, and might once have joined the sea; the water in them is quite brackish.

To seaward we observed an island about a mile in length, with breakers east and west of it extending a considerable distance; from which we may infer that it was once much larger. The Arab name for this island (which is Gàra) too much resembles that of Gaia, one of those laid down by Ptolemy, to leave much doubt of their being the same. Gàra is situated farther to the north eastward than the island which we allude to in the map of Ptolemy, and is besides nearer the coast; but the similarity of the names cannot here be overlooked, and we do not hesitate to identify it with Gaia. At about a mile from the shore, nearly opposite Aàlum Limarish, is a remarkably white rock, about forty feet high, and steep on all sides; it has breakers scattered about it, and should not be closely approached till better known: beyond this rock, which is called Ishaifa, we perceived the sea breaking heavily over another rock, as much as four miles from the shore, which extends itself in reefs towards Gàra. There are two other islands laid down by Ptolemy in the Gulf of the Greater Syrtis; but one of these is placed in the neighbourhood of Aspis, where we could perceive nothing whatever like an island, and the other is laid down so far in the centre of the Gulf, that we could not certainly have seen it had it been still in existence. On coming abreast of Gàra, which lies about six miles off shore, we had a good opportunity of observing it with our glasses; it appeared to be covered with verdure, and we thought we perceived some appearances of building upon it; it rises in white cliffs from the sea, in some parts very abruptly, but the table-land on their summits was green when we passed it. It was in vain that we longed for some means of crossing over to this island, for there is not a boat or a vessel of any description to be found from one end of the Gulf of Syrtis to the other; but we consoled ourselves with the idea that it would be visited by the officers of the Adventure, which we afterwards found to have been the case. In passing by Ain Agàn, the Shekh of the place paid us a visit; but as we found that we could obtain no information from him, and he soon discovered that there was little chance of getting any bàkshis from us, the visit was not of very long duration. From Aàlum Limàrish to Sheibah, the country is much encumbered with sand-hills, which are however partially covered with vegetation; and finding we made but little progress in passing among them, we kept along the beach, which is hard and level as far as Rhout el Assoud, so called from its dark colour. Near Sheibah we found the water tasted very strong of sulphur, besides being brackish and stinking, but among some sand-hills two miles beyond it there were several wells of sweet water; a circumstance which it is essential to know, as the water of Sheibah can scarcely be called drinkable, and there is no other but that just alluded to at less than two days from the place.