The weather still continues hot, with wind from the south: however, I walked in the gardens. On the 16th, the boat went off to the caravan; the camels carried it very easily, to the astonishment of the good people of Mourzuk. On the 17th, the thermometer was at 102° in the shade—in the sun, about 130°. We received letters in answer to those first written from Mourzuk, and learned that all the despatches written on the road for Tripoli had arrived in safety. The Arabs, therefore, are not quite so bad as they are represented.
20th.—At length Hateetah may be said to be reported "in sight," and we are busy preparing for departure. The escort has arrived at Tesaoua, and will be here on Saturday at latest. As the Germans are still at Tuggerter, we shall proceed on the Ghât route together, after all: it will be a tough piece of work, whichever way performed. The heat continues intense—from 100° to 104°, and 130° in the sun. Cooler weather is expected in August; but at present all the natives complain, and fevers are becoming prevalent. In the desert we shall escape that danger; for disease comes only in the moist depression of the plateau on which Mourzuk stands. We hear talk, by the way, of a fine new route—only forty days—just opened, from Ghât to Timbuctoo, across the deserts of Haghar. The present Sultan of the Haghar Tuaricks is called Ghamama.
One of our party, who undertook to accompany us to take the management of the boat, has not proved equal to the occasion; and I have therefore written to Tripoli, to request that two Moorish sailors, of Jerbah if possible, should be sent up by the direct route to Bornou. I had almost engaged a very excellent person at Tripoli, the captain of the vessel in which I arrived; but when he called at the Consulate on the subject, some minor official ordered him off with a contemptuous "Barra! barra!" and he accordingly yielded to the solicitations of his crew and embarked without seeing me. There is too much of this self-sufficiency and off-handedness in all Consulates in the Levant, where a grain of authority is apt at once to magnify a man, in his own estimation, into a mighty potentate. I regret my Jerbine captain very much; he originally volunteered to accompany us, and entered into my plans with an enthusiasm and intelligence rare among Muslims.
These small details of our expedition are interesting to me to record, though probably many will think them superfluous. Perhaps they will serve to give a true idea of the magnitude of the undertaking, and of the great responsibility which weighed upon me, and thus prove an anticipatory excuse for any accusation of shortcoming or dilatoriness that may be preferred against me. I will not, however, enter further into the business-details of the expedition—merely observing that, among other things to which I had to attend during my stay in Mourzuk, were, in the first place, to collect provisions and stores for a journey that may last two years; secondly, to purchase presents for the princes and other distinguished persons of the interior; and thirdly, to provide against the casualties of the journey, payment of salaries, &c. All these things I had to do on my own responsibility. Among other things, I have purchased from Mr. Gagliuffi an Arab gun and pair of pistols, inlaid with silver and curiously wrought, for the sum of 180 mahboubs. This is for a present to the Sheikh of Bornou, who will expect something pleasing to the eye as well as the boat, which he may at first, perhaps, not appreciate at its full value.
I have already made a good many casual allusions to our plans and arrangements; but it will be necessary here, before our departure from the last city that acknowledges the Ottoman authority, to make a brief statement of our position and prospects. Things that already appear clear to me may not be so to others. During my former visit to Ghât, when I travelled as a private individual, known as "Yakōb," I made acquaintance with Hateetah, a Tuarick Sheikh, who had assumed the title of Consul of the English. It is the custom in that country for every stranger on his arrival to put himself under the protection of one of the head men, to whom alone he makes presents, and who answers for his safety. Mr. Gagliuffi had written to him to come with an escort to protect our party as far as Ghât. It appears, however, that very grand accounts had circulated in the Sahara on the magnitude and importance of our mission; so that it was impossible for one Sheikh to monopolise us. Hateetah, therefore, had come, accompanied by two sons of Shafou, the nominal Sultan of all the Tuaricks of Ghât. Wataitee, the elder of the two, is very plausible, and undertakes to accompany us as far as Aheer. It is to be observed, that the Tuaricks of this place have hitherto never ventured to come to Mourzuk; and it is considered wonderful that they have come for the first time at the summons of infidels.
My first plan was, to proceed by the direct route to Aroukeen with the Germans and the Tanelkums, and from this place make an indispensable expedition to Ghât. But circumstances compel me to march direct to that place by the common road. Our escort is to cost us dear, but it will ensure our safety. These Ghât Tuaricks, however great they may talk in their own country, are really very poor; they subsist almost entirely on the custom-dues levied on caravans. Wataitee himself said, "I am the son of the Sultan, it is true; but I have nothing. If I stay in my country, I do not feel my necessities much; but if I must escort you to Aheer, then I must be well-clothed and fed, or else the people will say, 'Behold the son of Shafou, how poor and miserable he is!'" Besides paying about two hundred Spanish dollars for the escort, I have had to feed all the people, and furnish them with tents. They had led me to expect much more reasonable treatment; but there is no help, and I feel that I am not yet at the end of my troubles of this description. With these prefatory remarks, I enter upon an account of my departure from Mourzuk for the oasis of Ghât.
[4] Showers of rain are subsequently mentioned, however; and it is a mistake to suppose that the hard blocks of fossil-salt mixed with earth, of which the houses in the oases of Northern Africa are often built, can be so easily melted down.—Ed.