These, whom Mr. Horneman styles a mighty people, appear to occupy the habitable parts of the Great Sahara, situated to the west of the meridian of Fezzan. They must necessarily be widely dispersed; and they are also divided into many tribes. Mr. Horneman very properly confines himself to what he knew, concerning them: and this knowledge related to little more than to the tribes of Kolluvi and Hagara, who live the nearest to Fezzan; and carry on a commerce between that place, Soudan, and Gadamis.
The Kolluvi possess (from recent conquest, it would seem,) the country of Agadez; which, with other provinces adjacent, forms a state named collectively, Asben. It adjoins to Kashna (a part of the empire of Houssa,) on the south; Bournu on the east. Its capital is the city of Agadez, said, by Mr. Magrah’s informant, to be in size equal to the suburbs of Tunis; which, Mr. Magrah observes, compose the largest proportion of that city.
But it would appear by the Soudan route, transmitted by that gentleman, that the establishments of the Tuarick in other places, as Gazer, Tagazee, Jenet, &c. consisted only of small villages, scattered through an immensity of space: indeed, like most of the other tribes situated within this singular region. Zanfara and Guber, which are said to lie adjacent, pay a tribute to Asben.
The Hagara are the most easterly of the Tuarick, and are near Fezzan. These I am not able to place on the Map: possibly, they either occupy Ganat, on the south of Fezzan; or, as the Tuarick possess Jenet and Sockna, on the NW of it, the town of Agaree, in the same quarter, may be the Hagara meant. It appears in the routes collected by Mr. Magrah, at Tunis.
Mr. Horneman also mentions, but without any notice of situation, the Matkara tribe: also that of Tagama, situated towards Tombuctoo and Soudan.[75] He forms an ingenious conjecture respecting this tribe. They are said to be whiter than the rest of the Africans of the interior (or rather, perhaps, less black); and are not Mahometans. Now, as the term Nazary, or Christian, is applied generally to those whom the Mahometans call unbelievers, Mr. Horneman infers that this circumstance has given rise to the report of there being a tribe of white Christians near Tombuctoo.[76]
The eastern Tuarick live chiefly a Nomadic life.
One curious particular relating to the Tuarick is, that they have formed colonies in Siwah, Augila, and Sockna; all of which are commercial places, forming a chain along the northern border of the Libyan Desert, towards the maritime states along the Mediterranean. To these, the Lesser Oasis is to be added, in course; as speaking the same language as Siwah; and this is corroborated by Mr. Browne, who says (page 132), that the Lesser Oasis forms a kind of capital settlement of the Muggrebine Arabs. Gadamis also may possibly be found to be a colony of the same people; whose establishments of this kind, may extend along the northern border of the whole Sahara; since they have colonies in a quarter so remote from their own nation.[77]
The Tuarick are said, by Mr. Horneman, to be a very interesting people; the most so, of any of the tribes of the Sahara: but he gives the palm of intelligence, benevolence, and mildness, to the people of Houssa; who are, however, Negroes.
This Houssa, (or Haussa, as Mr. Horneman calls it), whose position has so long evaded geographical research, is, according to this gentleman, an empire, consisting of a number of lesser states, in the very centre of North Africa. Kashna, or Kasna, which has so long figured on the Map as an independent empire, must, according to his description, (and which is very consistent), give way to Houssa, of which Kasna is no more than a province. He includes in Houssa, on the authority of a Maraboot, the countries situated generally between Tombuctoo, Asben, and Bournu.[78]
He says that three names are applied to this empire (as to Fittré:) Haussa, the name among the people themselves; Soudan,[79] (meaning the country of the Blacks, or Negroes) by the Arabs; and Asna, by the people of Bournu. But this last, he says, in strictness, applies only to the countries of Kasna, Kano, (Gana,) and such parts of Houssa, as lie to the eastward of these: in effect, those parts of Houssa which border on, or are nearest to, the Bournuans: a practice that has prevailed, more or less, in every country.