19th.—Continued the route of the plateau till the afternoon, when with a low range of mountains on our left, we entered a hilly undulating country, having stones, some good sized blocks, scattered thick over all the surface of the ground. In the small intervening valleys were a few acacias, and a little herbage for our camels. But behold a wonder! At noon, we passed through one of these small valleys, when to my thorough and complete amazement, we found a few men and a tent pitched. Doing what? Oh, wonder of wonders! These men were digging a well at the command of the Turks! Formerly the Turks in Barbary did nothing but fill up the wells, or let them be filled up. Another day has dawned over "the spirit of their dream." The Ottomans now begin to see that they must step forward in the march of improvement, or be blotted out of existence, as a nation of the earth. This is the most difficult part of the route in coming up from Tripoli to Mourzuk, and the object of digging the well is to reduce the distance where water may be taken in to two and a half or three days, instead of four or five, which is now the case. The new well is already dug very deep, and I am sorry this extraordinary enterprise of the Turks, that of digging a well in The Desert, has not yet been crowned with success. Water would be found at last, but I have my misgivings about their perseverance. The French scientific officers, who have examined the Saharan districts of Algeria, are of opinion, that Artesian wells might be bored through every part of The Desert, and all these vast solitudes be linked together with chains of wells. Nothing is too great for the enterprising genius of man!
We encamped late in one of these valleys. The male slaves went to fetch wood. They were benighted, and could not return, or find their way back. A horse-pistol was fired three times, and these reports brought them into the encampment. Our Moors recommend me, when at any time benighted in The Desert, never to move, but wait for some sign or signal, or report of firearms, or until a person be sent in pursuit of me. This the slaves did, and were enabled to return. Had they wandered about, they would probably have got a long way out of the track, or from the encampment, and not heard the report of the pistol. To show the improvidence of our Moors, we had only just powder enough for these three discharges.
20th.—Continued through the undulating country until we got fairly amidst massy mountainous groups of considerable altitude. These mountains are covered with small blocks of black (iron) stone, and ferruginous shingle. These immense groups are called Gibel Asoud, "Black Mountain." I went, on foot, with Essnousee and his slaves, "the short-cut," or mountain foot-path of Nifdah, leaving the camels to go round by the other, or camel route, of En-Nishka. I found, however, this "short-cut" a very long one, and dreadfully fatiguing. I recommend all travellers never to believe in the short-cuts of the Arabs, for they are sure to be deceived. These people have no ideas of distance or time. Only conceive a weak and exhausted traveller, like myself, climbing up and down groups of mountains for two weary hours. At length we descended into the valley where is the well of Ghotfa. We only remained an hour to rest, and drank a little water, not encamping at the well. We proceeded to meet the camels by the camel route. On overtaking them, we encamped at night-fall. This was another long and weary day, and made our fourth from Omm-El-Abeed. Our slaves were exhausted to the uttermost; their song, with which they were wont to cheer themselves, was never heard: their plaintive choruses never broke over the silence of Desert! It was to-day, whilst threading the precipitous mountain-path, I observed the unhappy negress, who went blind and mad by overdriving. Our route to-day is graphically described by Denham, and the passage being short, I shall copy it. "We had now to pass the Gibel Asoud, or Black Mountain. The northernmost part of this basaltic chain commences on leaving Sockna. We halted at Melaghi (or place of meeting); immediately at the foot of the mountain is the well of Agutifa (Ghotfa,) and from hence, probably, the most imposing view of these heights will be seen. To the south, the mountain-path of Nifdah presents its black overhanging peaks, the deep chasm round which the path winds, bearing a most cavern-like appearance. A little to the west, the camel-path, called En-Nishka, appears scarcely less difficult and precipitous, the more southern crags close the landscape, while the foreground is occupied by the dingy and barren Wady of Agutifa, with the well immediately overhung by red ridges of limestone and clay, the whole presenting a picture of barrenness not to be perfectly described either by poet or painter." By this craggy gorge the plateau above-mentioned is entered, and it is frequently by such gorges, which seem to be the buttresses of the plateaus, that the elevated Saharan plains are approached.
About noon we met a reinforcement of Arab cavalry on the way to Mourzuk, to intercept the son of Abd-El-Geleel, in the event of his returning during the spring to Egypt or the Syrtis. I found the reputed six reduced to two hundred men, and most triste cavaliers, mounted on still more miserable horses. The stories which we have read of the fondness of the Arab for his horse were sadly belied by the fact of the condition of this troop. Indeed, an Arab treats his horse much in the same way as his wife—most miserably bad. This triste troop, worthy the command of the Knight of La Mancha, was a faithful picture of the wretched condition of the province of Tripoli. On passing me, some saluted, and others stared. Said met a former fellow-slave of the island of Jerbah going under the protection of this escort. The freed slave gave a confused account of the last act of abolition of the Bey of Tunis. He was on his way to Begharmy, his native country. I observed a Turkish officer, having a sort of sedan-chair, swinging on the back of a camel, a good thing for an European female travelling in these countries, and not a bad thing for a worn-down emaciated tourist like myself. I envied him this Desert luxury.
21st.—Started with the first solar rays, and as we journeyed on, the valley of Ghotfa widened, till we found ourselves traversing an immense plain, at the extreme north of which, and on the west, we saw the palms of Sockna. We had seen them yesterday indistinctly from the peaks of Gibel Asoud. We continued our route for four hours, when we arrived at Sockna. There is still a goodly number of palms, notwithstanding the thousands destroyed by Abd-El-Geleel when besieging this place. The trunks of the destroyed palms still remain, and look like a leafless forest in winter, or as if blasted with lightning. But these Arabs, either in building up or in throwing down, never do their work effectually. Tired of their work of destruction, they thus, happily, left the inhabitants a considerable number of palms, affording a good stock of dates. We were met near the gates of the city by the friends and relatives of our people. Some of them gave me a salute, but I am now so half-Moorishly dressed, or Turk-like, that I am not readily distinguished as a Christian. When within the walls, the heat and the refraction of the sun's rays from the stone walls were so intense, that I really thought my face would have been burnt up. With a little patience we were domiciled in the dark room of an empty house, where I went to bed at 3 p.m., and did not get up till the evening of the next day. During these hot sultry glaring days in Desert, how grateful is darkness,—how much better than light. On arriving at a station, I find it the best thing possible to lie down an hour or two, and, if in a town, where we are to remain a few days, to go to bed at once. This is the only way to recover effectually, and far better than food or stimulants. Since leaving Tripoli I have not performed a more arduous journey than these last five days. Our days' journeys were at least fourteen or fifteen hours long. In summer it requires seven days, or five short days and five long nights. On the road, there were no animals or living creatures, except a few lizards, starting from under the camel's feet, as if to look who we were, and ask why we had come to disturb their solitary basking in the sun; and a few swallows, which seemed to follow us to the well, or to the shores of the Mediterranean, whence they will now skim their airy way to the more temperate clime of Europe. I think, also, we saw two birds not unlike snipes. But we shall soon get within the region of birds and beasts.
Footnotes:
[49] A ghubgha is a measure of six feet long, and measures pieces of cotton six feet long (and three inches broad), from which circumstance the currency is thus named. Four ghubghas form a rottol or pound, and thirty rottols are of the value of a Spanish dollar. This was the exchange in 1845.
[50] The Sanctum Sanctorum of the Temple of Mecca.
[51] The names of the five times of the day when Mussulmans pray.