During the whole day a constant succession of visitors came to pay their compliments of condolence, and I seriously thought that, with such an accession of evils, we should in a few days more be hurried to our graves. Yussuf and Hadje Mahmoud attended on us, as did our little girl, who was our principal nurse, and was very humane and careful. We lay ten days in this state, and during that time Yussuf, by my desire, sold about 100 lbs. of our powder, so that we now again obtained a little money; but we were too ill to enjoy any benefit which our riches might procure us. Mr. Ritchie’s horse, which had never recovered its flesh since coming from Tripoli, and which was very old, I sold, through the medium of Yussuf, for seventy dollars, to the Sultan. By the sale of many trifles, which the Sultan no longer made an objection to our disposing of, I cleared, after paying my debts, about 150 dollars, including the money for the horse and powder, and now determined, should I recover, on penetrating still farther to the southward of Morzouk, though incapable of making such progress as I wished, from not possessing sufficient funds for the purpose.
I found myself under the absolute necessity of soon returning to England to receive instructions for my further proceedings (supposing me still to be employed on the mission), for although money for the additional grant of £1000 could have been procured from Tripoli, much time must have elapsed before I could have obtained it; and even then, I must have gone in person for it. I had no one whom in my absence I could have left in charge of my goods at Morzouk, Belford being too sick and helpless either to keep guard over them, or to remain alone in that place. Added to this, £1000 was a sum by no means adequate to carry me through Africa; as it would be requisite to purchase merchandise totally different from that which had already been provided, and without which I could not have made my way. Belford, from his weak state, could not accompany me far, and to proceed alone would have been actual madness, until the necessary arrangements for my future operations, and regulations as to pecuniary matters had been fully understood and arranged. Under all these circumstances, therefore, and to my great regret, I could only resolve on a short progress into the Interior.
As soon as we recovered sufficient strength to get up stairs, I opened Mr. Ritchie’s sitting-room, where we found only a few scattered papers, an unfinished journal, and some letters. These I collected, and in Belford’s presence burnt all which were private; but every other document bearing Mr. Ritchie’s handwriting I carefully preserved. We were both much astonished at his having left so few memoranda, as we felt confident, that though for many months he had, from repeated illness, been unable to write, that at least, prior to his arrival in Morzouk, he must have made many notes, as well as composed a regular journal.
I knew that he had always trusted much to his singularly retentive memory, and was also aware that he expressed great impatience for the arrival of more cool weather, when he might, with less inconvenience, commit his ideas to paper; and these reasons might probably account for his having left so few mementos of the scientific mind with which he certainly was gifted. It is also to be regretted that Mr. Ritchie, during his illnesses, would never avail himself of my repeated offers to take down in writing any observations which he might have considered worthy of note; and from this unfortunate circumstance much, very much valuable information has been lost.
I caused all the chests of merchandise to be removed into our large room, and with Belford’s assistance opened them, in order to ascertain their contents. They had been packed before my arrival in Tripoli, and Mr. Ritchie had determined that they should not be opened until we reached the Negro country. I found in them, amongst other things, about 600 lbs. of lead, one camel load of corks for preserving insects on, and two loads of brown paper for preparing plants. As these amounted in all to about five loads, which were not worth carrying back to Tripoli, I sent them, with two large chests of Arsenic bottles into Yussuf’s house, taking a proper receipt for them, so that any future traveller or myself might be enabled to receive them. I found that the other goods, including five cwt. of books and two chests of instruments, would load about eight camels: we therefore commenced taking a list of them, and putting them carefully away, when we were again attacked with fever, and confined to our beds, remaining with all our merchandise at the mercy of Arabs and natives.
I had at this time occasion to turn off our man, and the woman also who cooked for us, as I had strong reason to doubt their honesty. Yussuf lent us, in our distress, a fine intelligent boy called Barca, who, with our Negro girl, greatly assisted us.
The weather having become very cold, we had a fire made in a hole in the ground, round which we sat in the evenings with some of the friends who came to see us. On these occasions they told us many long stories; but Belford’s deafness prevented his being amused with them as I was. Religion was generally the subject of these tales, which, when related by the old Hadje, were usually prefaced thus: “When a man has been three times to the holy house, as I have been, he begins to know something, thank God!” He repeated many marvellous stories of the country of Sindi, or Persia, in which is the bed of the sun, and where grows a tree bearing a fruit resembling a coffin. This growing daily larger until ripe, at last bursts, and out of it a man drops to the ground, who cries “Wauk, wauk; in the name of the merciful God,” and instantly expires, sinking suddenly into the earth. He told me that in Paradise the prophets are permitted by God to ride on animals of extraordinary beauty, called Borāk, whose form is something like that of an antelope, and their swiftness such, that in the twinkling of an eye they can spring out of sight. All the prophets on the bare backs of these animals, but Allah, out of love for Sidina (our Lord) Mohammed, gave him a golden saddle, on which he parades before the faithful. Many more stories equally extraordinary are told and believed all over the country; and in Morzouk are a few copies of some of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments, and the voyages of Sindèbad the Sailor, which are as fully accredited as the Koran itself.
Yussuf generally amused me by singing, and ridiculing the Arabs. The Tuarick were always subjects for his wit, and he related many curious anecdotes of them. One which, though greatly exaggerated, is much in character of these people, was of a man sent as a courier from Ghraat to Ghadāms, eighteen days’ journey, for which he received sufficient provision to support him the whole time, but which devouring at a meal, and girding his loins with a belt, he mounted his camel, and performed the journey without other sustenance! These people, however, really can abstain from food for three or four days without any apparent inconvenience.
On the 8th of December news arrived that the slave hunters had made but little booty, the people having been warned of their coming, and that they were on their return home. We also heard that the men of Waday had cut the throats of eighty-two white traders in Wara, the capital, and had determined to suffer no Moors to trade again in their country, but to kill them immediately on their entering it.
I now began a little to recover my health, and Belford, though still quite deaf, was without fever.