We soon set out, and from a rising ground observed that the desert was skirted by distant hills from north-east to south. Thermometer 25°. An old castle, called Gusser Hallem, bore south 50° west. At 3.15. we passed it: our road was very uneven, the ground being covered with little hummocks bearing small bushes. My horse, which felt no compassion for my liver complaint, started every five minutes at the dead wood, and caused me extreme pain. This little stripe of sand was never above a mile in breadth, and sometimes ceased altogether in a gravelly desert. We observed several locusts flying about. At 6.30. arrived at Tegerry, the southern limit of Fezzan, and obtained a tolerably good house; indeed, the only whole one in the place, built within a space surrounded by the walls of the ancient castle. Here we procured good stabling for our horses, and were free from interruption. No one could come to stare at us, and we were able to shut the castle gate in due form at night.
We made south 55° west, fourteen miles. No news had arrived of the Ghrazzie.
CHAPTER VI.
Castle of Tegerry — Description of the Town — Some Accounts of the Desert of Bilma — Salt Lake of Agram — Ride out on the Desert — Leave Tegerry — Belford’s dangerous State — Return to Gatrone — Arrival of the Grazzie, or Slave-hunters, with many Captives and Camels — Account of their Excursion, and of Borgoo and Wajunga — Manner of making Captives — Leave Gatrone in Company with the Grazzie — Mestoota — Reception at Deesa — Feast at Zaizow — Return to Morzouk — Go out to witness the Triumph of the Slave-hunters — Sultan’s Reception of his Son — Remarks on Grazzies — Accounts of Slave-markets — Arrival of Aboo Becker, and Continuation of Mukni in Command — Further Accounts of the Countries of the Tibboo — Arrangements in the Sale of Slaves, so as to ensure the Sultan his Share.
January 3rd. Thermometer 10° on the house-top before the sun rose. This was a striking difference from the temperature of the day before. The Castle walls were about thirty feet thick at bottom, and ten at top, and were composed, as usual, of mud, having small loopholes for musquetry. It formerly had commanded the town, but was at this time in a ruined state. There were wells in the Castle of very salt water. The similarity of the Arab and French names for an embrazure is striking, the former calling it embrāza. Close to the Castle we observed several large stagnant pools of water, which had been caused by taking the clay away to re-erect the walls. I cannot conceive that these places contribute much to the healthiness of the town. The date trees are in and close round the houses. The inhabitants are very little superior to savages, and the Arabic is scarcely understood. The language spoken is Bornou.
This being the resting-place of Kafflés from Bornou, Waday, and sometimes Soudan, provisions are always very dear, the inhabitants selling to the half-starved merchants, who arrive from those places, at whatever price they please. Corn is not to be procured; but gaphooly and barley, poor substitutes! are sold at the rate of three quarts for a dollar. Dates are certainly very cheap, a camel load selling at about three quarters of a dollar. The people of Tegerry have not the custom of burying their dates as in Morzouk, but put them in bins built for that purpose in their houses, and cover or mix them with sand: others keep them on the flat roofs, as there is no fear of their being injured by rain.
A few years ago this country was famed for the excesses committed by the inhabitants, who robbed, and not unfrequently murdered, travellers. Even large Kafflés were not secure from them, until Mukni took several into slavery, and otherwise regulated them.
It must be confessed, that the Arabs and Fezzanners have not the least compassion for the people on whom they may be quartered. A Fezzanner, if obliged to feed one man and horse for a day, considers himself cruelly treated, though he dares not complain; but should he himself obtain an order from the Sultan to go to a distant place with five or six horsemen, he will eat at every cluster of huts, insisting on meat (which is extravagantly dear), for the whole party, and taking besides a few live fowls, or a sheep, and a dozen or two of loaves with him.
As I made a practice of paying in money, trinkets, or cutlery for whatever we required, I was continually advised not to do so, but to avail myself of my order from the Sultan, which warranted my taking what I pleased. The people were indeed so accustomed to imposition, that they were themselves astonished at receiving any remuneration for the articles they supplied us with.