Five days journey, mostly of mountainous road, to the well Woyk (ويق).
Three days to the well Sarfaya (صرفاية).
Four days journey to the mountains called Hedjar es Soud, (حجار السود) or the black rocks, so called from their colour, and which are a part of the above mentioned chain. At the entrance of them lies the well called Byr el Asoad (بر الاسود), where the caravans usually stop a few days. From thence in crossing the mountains, the traveller comes, after
Five days journey to a well, the name of which my informant had forgotten. Some date trees grow there: from thence
Seven days journey to El Boeyra (بويره) a small well, which is likewise called Abo. I suspect that several of these wells have different names, and that the northern Arab traders apply to them Arabic names, in addition to those they receive from the native Tibbous. At this well the mountains terminate, and the road descends again into a level plain. The well of Boeyra or Abo, is situated within the country of Tibertz, a large district of that name, where the strongest tribe of the Tibbou reside. From hence the road leads over the plain
Six days journey to Katroun (قطرون), the first village within the territory of Fezzan, which is likewise called Heleit el Morabetein (حلة المُرابطين), or the village of the learned men. Cultivated districts are passed from thence to Morzouk (مرزوق), which is at the distance of two or three days journey. In all, fifty-two days journey from Borgo to Morzouk: but as the rate of march is slow, and the caravans make considerable halts at several of the wells, they usually occupy sixty or seventy days in the journey.
During this march, Bagerme, Bahr el Ghazal, and Bornou, are to the west of the road. I have been constantly assured that Bornou is more to the westward than due north of Bagerme, which agrees likewise with what Hornemann heard at Fezzan; namely, that Bornou lies south of Fezzan. On the road just described, no river or lake is to be met with except during the rainy season.i[4] The water found in the wells is every where sweet: and many of them are very deep, and cased with stone, the labour, it is said, of Djân or demons. In the winter time rain water is met with in the torrents and ponds. The wells are the property of different tribes of the Tibbou nation, who are idolaters, and do not speak Arabic. Their encampments are met with in the neighbourhood of the wells, and the caravans in passing pay to them some trifling passage duties. The road is safe from any open attacks, as the Fezzan traders are well armed with firelocks, a weapon unknown to the Tibbou, but they are obliged to be upon constant guard against nightly robbers. In the most barren parts of the sandy desert, the camels find shrubs or herbs to feed upon, and the travellers some brushwood to light their evening fires.
It seems that the current prices of articles used in the slave trade at Fezzan, bear the same proportion to those at Waday or Borgo, as do those of Sennaar, when compared with those of Upper Egypt. A camel at Waday is worth seven or eight dollars, which at Fezzan costs from twenty-five to thirty-five dollars. A slave boy at Fezzan is worth from forty to fifty dollars, and at Waday from ten to twelve dollars.
The Bey of Tripoly, as chief of Fezzan, sends presents to the Sultan of Borgo, and receives others in return. From Dar Saley to Bagerme are 15 days journey, and as many from Bagerme to Bornou, but there is a shorter road from Dar Saley to Bornou, which leads in 20 days to that place.
I should observe here, that the statement of distances in Soudan is subject to great uncertainties, because the Negroes often reckon the distance only to the confines of the country, and not to the principal town; thus for instance, they will state the distance of Bornou from Dar Saley, without specifying whether it is Birney, the capital of Bornou, or only as far as the frontier.