At the close of the above letter he adds, “I am happy to inform your Royal Highness that I have the greatest support from Ben Dríss in favour of my proceeding to Soudan; and he hopes the Sultán will order my return by Tâfilêlt to Fez. I have completed my arrangements with the Sheik of Wád Nún, who undertakes, for a sum which I deposit in the hands of the consul here, Mr. Willshire, who has managed the matter with great judgment, to place me safely in Timbuctoo, provided the Sultán of Morocco does not object. I only wait the answer to the letters sent to make this request. My companion Abou’s family is still on the throne of Timbuctoo; Hamed Libboo, the present king, being one of his cousins, and Fehidier, king of Houssa, another of his relations, and Woled Munsor Enēēloo, king of Bambara, is well known to him.”
In the month of April, 1836, Mr. Willshire, H. B. Majesty’s vice-consul in the empire of Morocco, received the emperor’s royal passport for Davidson and his companion to proceed from Agadeer to Wád Nún, in consequence of which they immediately set out, and reached that place on the 22nd of April,[153] but as no caravan was then likely to be assembled, they were long detained in that sultry region. During this interval Mr. Davidson again addressed the Duke of Sussex.
“Tekínecou. Wadnoon, 3d July, 1836.
“Sir,—Presenting my humble duty to your Royal Highness, I beg leave to offer my most grateful thanks for the letter and its enclosures, and for which I shall ever feel indebted to your Royal Highness’s condescension. This, with other letters, found me returned to this place, after several ineffectual attempts to prevail upon any of the tribes to escort me across the Sahara,[154] on the confines of which I have been for the last three months, with the prospect of a further detention to the commencement of September. The objection of the Sultán of Morocco to my entering the district of Suse is owing, as he stated, to the dangerous and unsettled state of the country. The difficulties and delays with which I had to contend in passing through the numerous tribes now settled in the countries of Upper and Lower Suse, having no semblance of government and acknowledging no power, brought me to Wád Nún, too late for the spring Cafilas,[155] and at a period when the intense heat deterred even the Arabs from attempting the Sahara. Money, that all-powerful engine, prevailed upon five of the best of the Dummanees, who came with the van of the great Cafila from Soudan, to undertake with Sheiks Mohammed and Khiafee (who have each made the journey twenty times) to conduct me in safety to Timbuctoo, provided they were guaranteed a certain sum of money; but this only at the request of Sheik Beyrock, under whose protection I have been for the last three months, and for whose permission to pass I have already paid very heavily. All our arrangements were completed the 6th of June, the day appointed for starting. On the 4th of this month the Great Cafila, which was twenty days behind its time, reached the encampment from which I was to have started: this brought sad news. It had been attacked twice on the route; the last time only four days’ journey from this place, thirteen persons killed, much property taken, and many slaves set at liberty. The Dummanees had charge at this time, and were bound to avenge this. They attacked a large encampment of the tribe Erdghebat, the assailants of the Cafila, carried off one thousand camels, three hundred horses, and twenty-eight of the choicest slaves. This at once sounded the tocsin. All the tribes were in arms, each calling upon the other to take their parts. The Erdghebat attacked the town of Tajacanth, two days’ journey (forty-six miles) from this, but were repulsed by the Dummanees, in whose district the town is, with the loss of forty killed and one hundred wounded, most of whom have been brought to me for attendance, the Dummanees losing but four men, and having sixty wounded, many of whom also are here. Sheik Beyrock is almost the only person whose people are not involved in this quarrel. He is the great arbiter and the most powerful of them all. They have all sent deputations to him, which has afforded me an opportunity of seeing portions of most of the tribes. My position is far from enviable; the jealousy and amour propre of these people is beyond all belief. I am charged with favouring one whose large arm requires two splints to support the fractured bone, or looking down upon another as puny, because I give him but two pills, whilst others less daring than himself take three. I have, however, managed to keep pretty good friends with all of them. This place offers but little of interest on which to address your Royal Highness. I hope I shall be enabled during my stay to correct some trifling geographical errors, particularly as to the course of two rivers passing through the district, and the Wad Draha,[156] which finds its way to the sea. I have, however, the satisfaction of informing your Royal Highness that I have positively arranged my departure, under a heavy forfeiture and disgrace for non-compliance on the part of the Dummanees, for the 21st of Jumád Awwal, our 1st of September, to halt three days at Tajacanth, and to perform the journey to Timbuctoo within forty days: for this, however, I have to pay very heavily. The arrangement has been made since I commenced this letter, which I have the honour of addressing to your Royal Highness, discussing the matter two days; since when many of the chiefs of the tribes were here, by express order of Sheik Beyrock. I told them at once that I wanted to go to Soudan; they knew it, and had been sent for the purpose; that the two Sheiks, Mohammed and Ali, of the Dummanees, were to take me, and that I had already given Sheik Beyrock what he asked to ensure my safety, and now wanted to know what they would require for their camels and escort; the sum demanded was so exorbitant that I said at once I would give the matter up, go back to Fez, and request the Sultán to send me on. Upon this, the Deleïm[157] said, ‘You don’t go back without giving me five hundred dollars to pass my district.’ The Abousebah,[158] a day’s journey to the north of him, said, ‘If the Deleïm gets this, so will I.’ I appealed to the Sheik, who said he was as much astonished as I was. Seeing this, one of the party, who was the constant referee, said, ‘Christian, we are all pledged to protect your person: no one will harm a hair of your head; stop where you like; your person is safe; we all know your name—Ben Daoud.[159] We have promised this to Sheik Beyrock. One from each tribe will be with you, but pay you shall. We said nothing about your money; all we were asked was to protect your person, to swear none should harm you. Depend upon us; we keep our word, but go which way you will, you shall pay.’ The Sheik begged me to leave it in his hands: he admits he has drawn a great expense upon me, and has told me, under the circumstances, to write to the vice-consul at Mogador, who knows all these people, [in order to] get him to say what I ought to give, and he will make up the rest. Seeing my position, and recollecting the sibyl’s books, I offered one-half the amount asked to take me to Timbuctoo, which within the last hour has been accepted, and we have eaten some salt since.
“I find here still the Jews. The same precise account of their arrival and taking up their residence in the valleys of Atlas. One is here from Jerusalem begging alms, unusual amongst the Jews. He is advanced in years, quite blind, and has kept constant pace with me, taking advantage of my escorts from Tangier to this place: is anxious to get to Arowan,[160] where there is a very learned Rabbi. I cannot help him; my means will not allow me. They ask nearly as much for his passage as my own; having a greater fear of the Jews getting to Soudan than the Christians. I trust by this time your Royal Highness has recovered your perfect sight, hoping that about the period of this letter’s reaching England, your Royal Highness will have received the copies of the inscriptions from the tombs of the district of Mesfywa. I can hardly expect the copy of the record from Couba or Kobba will reach Morocco till the end of the autumn, when the Rabbi told me he should be returning, and would deliver it to the Consular Agent, the Jew Courkoss, to whom I have several times written. My companion begs most respectfully to present his duty, and hopes your Royal Highness will deign to receive the few lines from his pen, which he begs me to enclose. I am sorry to say I have great fears for his health; he cannot bear fatigue, and has been attacked with ophthalmia. The whole of the Soudan people know him, and tell me he will prove a certain passport; that he is a cousin of Hamed Libboo; and another of his cousins, Ali, called Koutouk, the warrior, is now king of Kong, and that many of his family are at Kong, all rich and in power.
“Hoping this will find your Royal Highness in the enjoyment of perfect health, and trusting shortly to have the honour of addressing your Royal Highness from Soudan,
“I have the honour to be, &c. &c.
“John Davidson.”
In the territory of Wád Nún the traveller’s patience was severely put to the test. He was detained there from April till November. From Glamiz he wrote to his brother, on the 25th September, as follows:—
“Since my last letter, I have made three ineffectual attempts at getting on, although I now begin to feel somewhat confident that Sheik Beyrock, with whom I still am, never intended sending me till the end of this month, he being so fully pledged for my safety and due arrival, that fearing the heat and the unsettled, nay warring, state of the tribes, did not choose to run these double additional risks. On the 25th of this month there is, by mutual consent, a general cessation of hostilities, to enable the tribes to attend the great Socco[161] of El Shig, held at ten hours’ ride from this place, and at which the Arabs dispose of the produce of their flocks and tents, and lay in their provisions for the whole year. The armistice lasts for six days, to give time for going and returning, the market occurring on the 28th and 29th. Of this it is intended I should take advantage, and as my people do not purchase anything, but merely come as a cloak and take me off, we shall get full three days’ start, and be nearly out of the reach of danger. I am now going on in a very different style from that mentioned in my last, partly by taunting the Tajacanths as being cowards, and more perhaps by holding out to them the rich harvest they may gain by having the whole market for salt, purchased at Toudeyny, which supplies Soudan, to themselves. Paying, as I am, an enormous sum to go on, and advancing money for the purchase of salt, to be repaid on arrival at Timbuctoo, or, in the event of an accident, to be returned to Sheik Beyrock, who is to replace it in the hands of the Vice-Consul at Mogador, I now take the whole of this portion of the Tajacanths, to the number of two hundred men and six hundred camels. Our arrangement is as follows: On the 25th, when the Sheiks with two hundred camels and sixty men start, as if to visit the Socco, two hundred camels with corn and water will proceed direct to the Sahara; thirty camels will be detached from those accompanying the two Sheiks, and come here for my baggage, which by this, you will say, is no trifle, the presents I am obliged to carry and the money (the cowries), ten camel-loads of which does not amount to one hundred pounds sterling, being all bulky. After shewing themselves at the Socco, they will join me on the road; we shall proceed to the tents, where we shall arrive on the 28th. A second two hundred camels with sixty men will proceed immediately. We remain two days to pack up our tents and grind zimeta,[162] the food eaten on the road, and carrying nothing with us but my baggage, which will now be divided between fifty and sixty camels, and make all speed to overtake the two former divisions. We shall materially lessen the load of the first, by giving drink and food to our own beasts, and loading those who for three or four days have carried nothing; and in this way push on to the first division, making no stop, with but very short nights, till we arrive at Towdeyny; there all will be loaded with salt, and this will require from eight to ten days. I hope, however, to find Hamed Libboo’s nephew there, and who no sooner hears there will be no regular Cafilá this year than he will be off with the news. I shall join him, provided poor Abou, about whom I have great fears, as you shall presently hear, can bear the journey. All are in great spirits, the people here believing that I have suffered so much on my last trip, from which I returned four days ago, that I have abandoned the idea of going on, and am now only waiting till I see El Shig, and go back to Fez. This is all very good, and I keep up this story: ’tis a very unsavoury one for me, as I cannot make the least preparation in the way of food for the journey, and forty-five days’ hard travelling, and barley and dates ground up together and mixed with milk or water, is but poor food. Meat is given but twice, at Toudeyny and Arowan, at both which places the Cafilas rest. I have had a task of ten days’ hard work on dry bread, and that not the sweetest at the end of the time, and one piece of fish, but am better in health for it, but not much fattened by it. My two first excursions were productive of little information or amusement; not so my last, which was replete with incident, and afforded me both pleasure and information. We started from this place, accompanied by the Sheik, and about a dozen friends and house slaves, under the impression that we could have reached the tents of the Tajacanths, to which, if we got, my things were to have been immediately forwarded. The first day convinced us of the impossibility of this, and not wishing to appear foiled or disappointed, we proceeded to the river Draha,[163] passing a beautiful country as far as scenery, but wholly without drinkable water, and came to the sea where this river empties itself. I had not for some weeks past eaten any of the food cooked in the Sheik’s house, but had been living on some stuff furnished by the Jews residing here: they received orders to prepare a bag of bread for the Christians, with which we started, the Sheik carrying tea and sugar; after a ride of eight hours, we halted at a very powerful spring of water, but so salt, that neither the Sheik’s horse nor mine would drink, and by a sort of law here, horses are neither allowed food nor water for twelve hours before they commence a journey: four small loaves were divided among the party, and those who liked took a saline draught, not an effervescent one. We remained half an hour, and proceeded, crossing a fine chain of hills, starting many herds of gazelles, and after two hours arrived at a large encampment, where we slept. Tea was made, but of the same water we had passed, and the boiling had far from improved its saltness. The preparation for dinner was too disgusting, and I will spare it you. We started the following day before day-break: the heat being excessive, we were obliged to cover the stirrups, &c. with our haiks.[164] At one P.M., going S.E., the thermometer was 140°—112° in our tents at night. Reached the wells, and found much cattle, but water salt. Here we got plenty of camels’ milk. Rode till six; halted, and killed two large wolves and many snakes. Off early, and crossed the mountains of Ab-el-Assel,[165] at the foot of which we found Bahra, one of Sheik Beyrock’s sons-in-law, with 1,000 camels. Here I saw much of Arab life—the settlement of points of law, marriages, and divorces. Here the story-teller and the bard divided the night between them. The wild Arab girl danced and sung the praises of the Sheik, and the poor Christian had a ditty composed in his favour. Next day we turned towards the sea; killed some wild boars; at the sea, got some fish;—and turned homewards, taking a different route: but no water except salt. I was ten days on this journey, and travelled, on an average, ten hours a day. Before this reaches you I shall be on my way to Timbuctoo. An express will be sent on my arrival.