The face of the cliffs of the plateau was blackened as with the smoke of a huge furnace, which gave a majestic and yet gloomy appearance to the scene as we descended the pass towards the valley of El-Hasee. We found the plain strewed with great masses of dark sandstone, seeming to have been detached by some convulsion from the rocky walls, which now rose in apparently interminable grandeur behind us. We glanced back in awe, and yet in some triumph, towards the iron-bound desert we had thus safely traversed; but our eyes soon turned from so bleak a prospect, when we beheld, dotting the sandy wady, clumps of the wild palm, green copses, and the majestic ethel-tree.
It was about two in the afternoon when we reached the camping-ground, all our people shouting, "Be-Selameh el Hamadah!" Farewell to the Hamadah! I cried out the same words in a joyful voice; for, although now that the dangers of the plateau were overcome they seemed diminished in my eyes, yet I felt that we had escaped from a most trying march with wonderful good fortune. It is difficult to convey an idea of the horror and desolation of so vast a tract of waterless and uninhabited country. They alone who have breathed the sharp air of its blank nakedness can appreciate it, or understand how any accidental delay, sickness, the bursting of the water-skins, the straying of the camels, might produce incalculable sufferings, and even death. "Be-Selameh el Hamadah!" then, with all my heart. "Be-Selameh! be-Selameh!" again rings through the caravan, as we reach at length our camping-ground, and throw ourselves at full-length under the pleasing shade. Even the camel-drivers were so fatigued, that they stretched out as soon as the command to halt was given, and let their animals stray at will, without taking the trouble to unload them. I had observed the same supineness during our halts all through this trying district, which seems to oppress their imaginations as well as prostrate their bodies. Several times I had been obliged myself to collect wood and make a fire to rally our lagging servants. Indeed, on more than one occasion I was compelled to exert my personal authority. On the third night, particularly, I wished all the people to rest one hour. The camel-drivers resisted this reasonable request, and were backed by Yusuf. When it became a question between myself and my interpreter, I jumped off my camel and stopped the caravan. The chaouch supported me, and in this case at least behaved very well. If we had continued all night, we should have made a march of sixteen hours,—too much for the blacks, and indeed for any man on his feet.
On the whole, however, I have to observe, that as we approach Fezzan our camel-drivers are getting more civil and obliging. Is this the genial effect of native air, or expectation of a present? They have not mentioned the latter subject yet, but, on the contrary, promise me some dates.
The broad valley of El-Hasee is sandy, like all those of Fezzan. It is bounded on the north by the perpendicular buttresses of the Hamadah, and on the south by sandy swells. The well is not copious, but affords a regular supply of slightly brackish water. The people descend to the bottom, thirty or forty feet, and fill their gerbahs. The blacks are very troublesome, and require a good deal of patience. This morning they would not fetch water from this well, although quite close by the tent. I was obliged to threaten to leave them before I could get them to move. They are, probably, a little broken down by the fatigue of the Hamadah.
We passed through Wady El-Hasee on the 24th, and after mid-day began to ascend, and continued to do so until we pitched tent at half-past four, at a place called Esfar. This is also a species of plateau, but consists of sand-hills, sandstone rocks, and shallow valleys filled with herbage and shrubs. I was glad to get rid of the eternal limestone and have a change of the sandstone.
On the 25th we started early, and had a cool temperature all day. Our chaouch went out, and by the assistance of the greyhound bitch brought in a young gazelle. For about three hours the camels had herbage; but afterwards came a desert more horrible even than the Hamadah. It consists of sandstone rocks, and valleys covered with pebbles and loose blocks. Some of the rocks are perfectly black, and would be considered by an European geologist, on a distant view, as basalt. Until half-past four in the afternoon we did not see a blade of grass, a sprig of vegetation, or living thing of any description; but at the camping-ground was a thin scattering of herbage, near the foot of the black mountain called Solaou Mârrafa.
We have sometimes moral disquisitions among our people. This day we had a dispute on religion. The Zintanah, a real orthodox Musulman, maintained a strict distinction between the believers and unbelievers, giving heaven to the former and hell to the latter. Yusuf and several more tolerant gentlemen held out hope of mercy to us all, as God was "the Compassionate and the Merciful." The chaouch also lectured the people on courage, and publicly maintained that the Fezzanees were all cowards. This fellow is a second Sir John Falstaff, without the corpulence. The tone of all members of the caravan, as I have mentioned, is now much humanised. Every one is more civil to us, and, by habit, to one another. However, the chaouches must, of course, get up a quarrel now and then: they do it between themselves; but, as a sign that they likewise are a little civilised, have only had two regular explosions to-day. Probably these worthies, who remind me of a bull-dog and a terrier, find particular pleasure in this form of social intercourse; for I always observe, that they are on more friendly terms than ever after they have almost come to beard-pulling.
I interfere as little as possible in all these quarrels, but now and then it is difficult to hold aloof. This morning, for example, the black who has two wives, took it into his head to beat one of them in public. I called upon him to desist, upon which he went to work harder than ever; so that I was compelled to break a stick over his shoulders to reduce him to quietness. These little caravan incidents were often the only ones that diversified our day.
On the 26th, after a march of ten hours, with cool weather at first, but suffocating heat afterwards, we reached Edree, a town of El-Shaty, in a state of great exhaustion. During the latter part of the march, however, we had been cheered by the sight of the town, which stands on a small mound of yellow clay and rock. The whitewashed marabout of Bou Darbalah gleamed a little distance in front of the place, which in itself is now a heap of ruins, having been destroyed by Abd-el-Galeel, on account of the resistance of the inhabitants to his usurped authority. He also, with a cruelty rarely practised in Saharan warfare, cut down above a thousand palms; thus rendering it impossible for the place to recover rapidly from its disasters. Previously there had been a hundred and twenty heads of families; now there are only twenty-five, and these are still diminishing it is said. However, many little children are now in the streets, naked, and covered with filth.
These few inhabitants are a mixed race, some being as fair as those on the coast, whilst others are as black as the darkest negroes of Central Africa. The Sheikh and two or three patriarchs of the village were polite and hospitable, and showed every disposition to comply with the orders sent by the Pasha of Mourzuk to supply us with fresh provisions without payment. I accepted a sheep and two fowls; but the dates for our blacks I paid for, and added a few presents.