M. de Brisson was then taken to his comrades who were in the vicinity, and whom he found in a pitiable state. They were almost starved; for during the three days which they had been in captivity they had had no food but a little wheat-flour spoiled by sea-water, mixed with some barley-flour, which had for a long time been preserved in goats-skins. While they were enjoying this wretched meal, a friend of Sidy-Mahammet came and told them to hide themselves without delay, as the Wadelims were coming from all parts to carry off the slaves and treasure. The talba profited by this advice, and they all hid themselves behind some hillocks of sand, where they remained till some Moors of the other tribe, who were interested in preserving their plunder, came to reinforce their comrades. A guide went before the Frenchmen, and pointed out to them the road they had to take, by erecting at certain distances little pyramids of stones. This precaution was necessary in order to avoid the outskirts of the enemy, particularly those of the Wadelims. Indeed, these people are so avaricious, that whether friends or enemies they are equally to be dreaded. At break of day all those who possessed Christian slaves came with them, and joined the Frenchmen; when the whole body marched off for the interior of the country, at which resided the families of their respective owners.
This journey was to the Europeans toilsome in the extreme: they were dying with hunger and thirst, by which they experienced such pain, on moving the tongue, that they were afraid to ask the simplest question. Being forced to follow the steps of the camels, whose pace was hastened, they were exhausted by fatigue; and to avoid being surprised, they made several counter marches, in consequence of which they were a fortnight in making a journey which was generally performed in five days.
After climbing mountains of a prodigious height, covered with small greyish flints as sharp as those of muskets, they descended into a sandy plain, interspersed with thistles, and here the cavalcade rested. M. de Brisson having walked till his feet were excoriated, could proceed no farther; on which his master made him get up behind him on a camel, whose rough movements caused him to experience insupportable pain. Being naked, and having no means of preventing the friction of the camel’s hair, he was soon so chafed, that his blood ran down the camel’s sides. This was a sight which afforded much amusement to his master; and the better to enjoy it, he pressed the camel to a quicker pace. At length M. de Brisson, no longer able to endure the torture, threw himself down on the sand, and experienced no other injury than a few scratches from the thorny thistles.
Towards evening they met their guide and halted. M. de Brisson being no longer able to move, and suffering all the horrors of starvation, threw himself behind a bush and implored death; but they soon roughly pulled him from his retreat to make him unload the camels. Being, however, tired of his life, he made some resistance, and knocked down the Moor who disturbed him, on which the latter ran off and fetched his master, who assured his captive that he had nothing to fear. This, and many other instances of a similar nature, prove that the Moors are not insolent, and that they only shew courage when they meet with no resistance.
The shipwrecked mariners, while sitting beneath the bushes, perceived some arrangements which made them tremble with horror. The Moors put a quantity of stones in a brasier, and made them red hot; they then lifted up a lage stone, and dug a hole in the ground, occasionally making shouts of laughter, and repeating the name of Brisson. At length they called him to them, and made him approach to the hole which they had dug; but what was his surprise when he saw them draw from the hole which they had just dug, and in which he thought they were going to bury him, a large skin full of water, a sack of barley-flour, and a newly-killed goat. His fear subsided, and the sight of the provisions gave him a new life; he saw them fill a large wooden bowl with water in which they put a quantity of flour, and then, by throwing into it the red-hot stones, they made it boil. By this means they produced a sort of gruel which they kneaded in their hands, and ate without chewing. The slaves had for their repast the same steeped flour, and a very small quantity of brackish water: the goat was reserved for the next day. The guide who went before them had procured those provisions in a neighbouring village, and had concealed them under the stone. M. de Brisson observed, that the resentment of the Moor whom he had struck was converted into acts of kindness and complaisance: for this man brought him a larger share of provisions than was allotted to the others. The meal being finished, each man laid himself down to sleep behind the bushes.
The next morning as soon as day appeared, a signal was given for their departure; and M. de Brisson, with the other slaves, were ordered to collect the camels and load them; after which the troop set off, and at noon stopped in a plain where there was not a single tree to shade them from the rays of the sun. Having unloaded the camels, the slaves were employed in digging up roots to make a fire; a labour which, in this country, is the more troublesome, as all the trees, roots, and grasses, are thorny. As soon as the fire had imparted a sufficient heat to the sand, they covered the goat entirely with it; and while the slaves were keeping up the fire, their masters regaled themselves with the raw fat of the animal, for which they seemed to have a great relish. When the goat was dressed, the Moors, without taking the trouble to knock off the sand, ate it with a most incredible voracity, gnawing it to the very bones, and pulling off the skin which remained on them with their nails: they then threw the bones to the slaves, telling them to make haste and get their dinner, that they might reload the camels.
Towards evening they perceived some tents on a little eminence, with a few herds grazing: the inhabitants of this village came in crowds to meet the travellers; but far from expressing towards the unfortunate slaves the mild laws of hospitality, they overwhelmed them with insults, and subjected them to the most inhuman treatment. Two comrades of M. de Brisson were used with extreme rigour, and the women were more ferocious than the men. Their owners made but feeble resistance; for they were very glad that the people occupied themselves more with the slaves than with the burdens of the camels. M. de Brisson, who was at a little distance from his camel, perceived a man who was aiming at his face with a double-barrelled musket, on which he presented his breast to him and told him to fire; when the assassin, struck by his firmness, let the piece fall from his hands. At the same instant he was struck on the head by a stone, and for a moment lost his senses; but on recovering himself he burst into a rage, and loudly demanded vengeance. There needed no more to spread terror through the village, and the savages who had come to see the travellers took to flight; one of them, however, before he ran off, gave M. de Brisson a blow on the breast with his musket, which made him vomit blood, and the unfortunate man was unable to recognise the fellow who had injured him; but by complaining loudly he excited the curiosity of several of those monsters, who asked him a number of questions, and seemed pleased with his answers.
M. de Brisson, to prove that he knew the king Alikouri, and that he had been his friend at isle St. Louis, attempted to imitate the egeums or buffoons, whom that king had in his suite: by this kind of drollery he so highly pleased his master, that he made him repeat his mimickry several times, and at last employed this stratagem to divert the people, who, he feared, would steal his property. No sooner had he mentioned the talent of his slave for imitating the egeums, than M. de Brisson was surrounded by crowds of men, women, and children, who were constantly pressing him to sing, and for which they rewarded him with a little camel’s milk.
The travelling party remained one day in this canton; but the inhabitants, though they had received them coldly, supplied them on their departure with provisions for three or four days. They proceeded eastward, and passed over large plains, which were covered with white, flat, and round flints, but not a single plant was to be seen; and the horizon appeared to be loaded with a reddish vapour, which resembled in different parts the flames from volcanoes. The small pebbles pricked the feet of the Frenchmen, and produced a sensation similar to the burning of sparks. The air contained neither birds nor insects; and the silence which prevailed was so profound, as to produce a sort of terrific effect on the mind. If by chance a breath of air arose, the traveller immediately experienced an extreme lassitude; his lips became chapped, his skin parched, and his whole body covered with painful carbuncles. The Moors, who had retired to live in these countries in order to avoid certain tributes which they did not wish to pay, were afflicted by the atmosphere as much as their slaves; for so inhospitable is the region, that the most ferocious animals dare not penetrate it.
On leaving this plain they entered another, where the wind had raised from space to space the sand into hillocks, and the intervals of which produced a few odoriferous plants, which the almost famished camels devoured with avidity. They afterwards came to a valley surrounded by mountains, the soil of which was white and saponaceous; and here, for the first time, they found some pools of water: it was very brackish, covered with green moss, and had a pestilential smell; but such was their thirst, that they drank it with indescribable pleasure. Towards evening they had the good fortune to meet with an hospitable horde by whom they were well received, and who pointed out to them the road which led to some other villages where they could obtain provisions to last them for the remainder of their journey. This information was very seasonable, as their guide had lost his way.