On our way to Rhout el Assoud we passed several flocks of sheep, but could not persuade the shepherd to part with a single one. As we were now heartily tired of being so often refused what there seemed to be no sufficient reason for withholding, we told the man that we should act as the Bashaw’s people would on similar occasions, if he did not think more considerately on the subject; which was as much as to say, that if he would not part with his sheep voluntarily, we should certainly make bold to take it without his leave; the only difference being, that His Highness’s people would have taken the animal without paying for it, while we were quite ready to pay the full price of it. But the Arab, who had evidently been tampered with by the Dúbbah, was steady in his decided refusal; and we were too hungry to wait very long in endeavouring to reason him out of his obstinacy. Besides, we had already proposed an alternative, and could not with credit avoid putting our threat in execution. As neither our dignity, therefore, nor our appetites, would allow us to discuss with our obstinate Arab friend the propriety or impropriety of eating his mutton against his will, we judged it better to dispense with all such logical minutiæ on a subject where the parties were not likely to agree, and, dropping the argument, we took up the sheep, and tendered the money we had offered for it. Our opponent, however, was still as obstinate as before in refusing to take our piastres, though he saw a fat sheep take its departure from his flock, and occupy a position upon our Chaous’s shoulders, while nothing remained to him in lieu of it. We had no doubt, on our leaving him, that he would change his mind before long, and told him, in consequence, where we meant to pitch our tents, that he might come for his money at his own leisure and convenience. But the sheep was killed and eat, at least a good part of it, and still no shepherd appeared; and we went to sleep in full assurance that he would come the next morning before the camels were loaded. During the night our Arab watch-dog kept up a continual barking, very much to the annoyance of old Shekh Mahommed, who was always rejoiced to have any opportunity of finding fault with poor Morzouk, whom he frequently honoured with the titles of useless cur, noisy rascal, and other equally flattering appellations. Our whole party, however, were too much tired with the day’s exertions to pay any particular attention to this warning; and indeed it must be said that our shaggy young guardian was too much in the habit of employing his nights in barking merely for his private amusement, to render any further notice of him absolutely necessary, than that of lifting up occasionally the canvass of the tent to throw a stick or a stone at him, accompanied in general with some little verbal admonition. No one, however, was kept awake on this occasion, so far as we have been able to learn, but old Shekh Mahommed el Dúbbah; and we have reason to believe that his opinion of Morzouk’s sagacity was not quite so indifferent after this night’s alarm, as it had been before its occurrence; for the first thing which he discovered on turning out in the morning, which he usually did very early, was that three of his camels were missing; and on summoning his people, and searching everywhere in the neighbourhood, no traces whatever could be seen of them, but the track of their footsteps in the sand, with those of a man in their company.
It was impossible not to laugh when the fact became current that some of the Dúbbah’s camels had been stolen, and we really believe that every individual of our party, with the exception of himself and his sons, were wicked enough to enjoy the circumstance, and to consider it as an excellent joke. No sooner were the traces observed by the Dúbbah of the man’s footsteps who had carried off his camels, than he knew them to be those, at least so he declared, of our obstinate friend the shepherd above mentioned. The man certainly never made his appearance again while we remained in the neighbourhood, and it is probable that he took this summary process of paying himself for the sheep which had been so unceremoniously transferred from his flock to our kitchen kettle.
Three camels were no doubt something more than a fair remuneration for the loss of a single sheep; but then something was to be allowed for the risk of the raid, and everybody owned that the camels had been lifted in a very neat and expeditious manner, such as would not have disgraced the keenest moss-trooper on record in the annals of Border exploits. The animals had perhaps been supposed to be ours; or it may be that the reaver was not particular as to property, and had merely contented himself with taking as much as he could carry off, without reference to the doctrine of retribution. Be this as it may, the visitation had in reality fallen upon the head of the proper person; for had it not been for the intrigues of the Dúbbah, our obstinate friend would have been happy to sell us as many sheep as we might have required of him; and we were all too well convinced of this circumstance to regret the loss which the old Shekh had sustained.
Our stock of provisions, both for ourselves and our horses, was by this time so much diminished, that we had (we know not whether to say luckily or unluckily) no absolute occasion for the camels which were missing; and the remaining ones had little more to carry, in addition to their former loads, than a collection of empty baskets and boxes, which could now only serve to feed the flames or the camels themselves[27]. There was in consequence no occasion for delaying our advance, by seeking to replace the loss sustained; and we continued to move on as usual, with no other motive for discontent than the absence of old Shekh Mahommed, whom we sadly longed to plague on his indifference to the summons which had been so loudly and unceasingly given him by the “useless cur Morzouk, who always barked without the slightest occasion.” But the Dúbbah had taken horse before the camels were loaded, and was following the tracks of his lost animals as fast as he could spur his old mare.
At a short distance from Rhout el Assoud, we observed, to the north eastward, about a mile distant from the shore, six rocks connected by breakers, under which there appeared to be good anchorage for small vessels: the coast opposite them is low, and formed in shallow sandy bays, some of which have rocks extending across their entrance, and would afford protection for boats. At night we halted at Shohàn, without having seen a single living object during the day. On a hill near Shohàn are the remains of a Maràbut, overlooking a large plain covered with brushwood. From this hill we could perceive the ruins of two forts situated upon eminences to the south eastward. On the following day, after travelling eight hours along a plain, bounded by marsh and sand-hills towards the sea, we reached Carcora, where we hoped to find the place described by Captain Lautier on the north side of the bay, in which he states that he discovered an ancient well containing many Greek inscriptions[28]. All our researches, however, on this point were unavailing; and the Arabs we met with about Carcora were all positive in affirming that no such well existed. We had the more reason to regret our failure, as the inscriptions (should they have turned out to be legible) would most probably have given us names and dates which might have been essentially useful to us, and could scarcely have failed of being interesting. There are at Carcora two coves which would serve for boats; they may be known by some high sand-hills lying between them, and by two ruins situated upon the hills inland nearly abreast of them[29]. With the exception of these coves, there is nothing whatever of any interest on the coast between Carcora and Bengazi. Inland, however, there are many ruins of ancient forts, and considerable remains of building, which become more numerous and interesting as they approach Bengazi. At Ghimenes, which is a day’s journey to the northward of Carcora, there are several interesting remains of ancient forts; some of which are altogether on a different plan from those which have been already described. They are built of large unequal-sized stones, put together without any cement, and made to fit one into another in the manner which has been called Cyclopian. Their form is a square, with the angles rounded off, and some of them are filled up with earth, well-beaten down, to within six or eight feet of the top; the upper part of the wall being left as a parapet to the terrace, which is formed by the earth heaped within it.
In the centre of the terrace we sometimes found the foundations of building, as if chambers had been erected upon it; the roofs of which, in that case, must have been higher than the outer walls which formed the parapet; and a space seems always to have been left between these central buildings and the parapet, in which the garrison placed themselves when employed in defending the fort. An opening like a window was observed in the parapet of one of the Cyclopian castles at Ghimenes, which might have been used for drawing up those who entered the fort, as there was no other mode of entrance whatever. In fact there could scarcely have been any communication between the upper and lower parts of these erections; for the whole space between the walls was filled up with earth in the manner already related, to within a few feet of the top. We noticed near most of them a small rising ground, with one or two wells in it, having remains of building about it; they were generally within fifty yards of the fort, by which they were commanded.
The castles have most of them been surrounded with a trench, on the outer side of which there is generally a low wall strongly built with large stones. Some of the trenches which have been excavated in the solid rock of the soil are of considerable depth and width; and in one instance, occurring between Ghimenes and Bengazi, we observed chambers excavated in the sides of the trench, as we find to be the case in that which surrounds the second pyramid, and which is equally formed in the rocky soil on which the building stands, although of course on a much larger scale. The trench of the fort here alluded to is about five-and-twenty feet in width, and its depth about fifteen; the fort itself is an hundred and twenty-five feet in length, and ninety in width, of a quadrangular form, and in the centre of each of its sides is a quadrangular projection, sloping outwards from the top, of twenty feet in length by twelve, which appears to have served both as a tower and a buttress.
The measurements are here given in the rough, but they will be found in detail by a reference to the ground-plan and elevation No. 9, in the plate containing the details of some of the forts which have been noticed in the course of the journey.
In some instances we found wells in the trenches surrounding the forts, at others, within the outer walls; and more frequently without the forts altogether, among traces of building in their immediate vicinity. The remains of building last mentioned were sometimes very considerable; but the ground-plans alone of these are now extant, from which little more may be collected than that the chambers were built in squares, ranged in line with some attention to regularity, though differing a good deal in size. Tombs are occasionally found excavated in the neighbourhood of such forts as are built on a rocky soil; but we never were fortunate enough to find any thing in them which could point out decidedly the mode of burial which had been adopted. Some of these were entered by wells of different depths, and others by approaches cut in the rock, sloping down from the upper part of the door, like those in front of the Kings’ tombs at Thebes.
The remains about Ghimenes and Imshaila may answer to those of the Diachersis Præsidium of Ptolemy; but we are not aware of any remains which may be pointed out on the coast as those of the Turris Herculis, or of the Diarrhœa Portus, of this geographer.