To the north of El-Kubbeh, not in the direct road to Derna, lies Messakit, where are some curious caves, one of them containing rudely-carved emblems, of Christian origin. A gently-undulating plain leads eastward to Beit Thamr, near which are many excavations, one of them evidently part of a country house, where the apparatus for pressing oil is still to be seen, hewn in the living rock. This is one of the places where bees are reared in great numbers, for the sake principally of their wax. Our English bees would, perhaps, rebel, if one attempted to house them in the long wooden boxes, which here supply the place of the elegant and commodious habitations they are accustomed to; but their fellows of the Cyrenaica, though less pampered, produce larger supplies of wax, and the honey almost vies in flavour with that of Hymettus. After passing Beit Thamr, the road enters a valley, called Brouk, filled with small streams, the last which are met with till close upon Derna. Above, on the heights, are ruins of a castle, and along the valley many excavations, one of which, containing a fountain, has a number of niches, as if for votive offerings or statues. Here the road begins to ascend through a beautiful wooded country, affording cover to numbers of the red-legged partridge, of which we started whole coveys at every turn. The grave of a Marābut, called Sidi Yadem, on the top of this ridge, was our sleeping place. From this point to the summit of the steep descent which leads to the coast, is a journey of four hours and a half, over rising grounds, affording, in the breaks of the hills, occasional glimpses of the sea; and on the heights are many remains of ruined fortalices. The descent, called the Okbah, though certainly steep, is not the fearful pass which it has been described; and in all this journey I never had occasion, from the badness of the road, to dismount from horseback. In the last years, I believe something has been done to improve this piece of road, which may be considered good by any one who is acquainted with the passes of the Lebanon.
CHAPTER IX.
Improvidence of the Arabs. — Derna, its lively appearance. — Ruined Battery. — Curious Bargain.
From the summit of the Okbah one looks down upon a long line of coast, the view extending to the promontory Ras el Hilal (Nausthasmus) on the left, and eastward to the Ras el Tin. The hills which run along the sea-line to the right are barren sandstone; the coast, a line of low rocks; and from this point Derna is only just visible, as a dark spot on the sea-shore in the midst of glaring sands. It took an hour to descend from this height to the more level ground; and the intense heat reflected from the sandy soil, where not a shrub affords the slightest shade, made this the least pleasant three hours’ ride I had yet had in this country. Neither well nor fountain is met with in this day’s march till about an hour from Derna, where a brackish spring issues from the rock, and flows directly into the sea, in a situation where it is difficult to find it. At length, after ascending a low hill of sand, which had hitherto bounded the view ahead, the green gardens of Derna relieve the eye, lying between the foot of bare rocky hills and the sea. Here I was most kindly received by the English Vice-Consul, Mr. Aquilina, whose ready hospitality I with difficulty declined, being unwilling to inflict the presence of strange servants on his establishment. Through his kindness I was soon put in possession of a garden, where I pitched my tent under the shade of its palms and fig-trees. Though we had not before met, I was already indebted to this gentleman for many of the attentions shown me while at Grennah; and during my stay here I derived from him much valuable information—the result of his thirteen years’ residence among them—regarding the people of the country and their governors.
Leo Africanus, in the sixth book of his “Description of Africa,” gives an account of the poverty of the inhabitants of Barca, and tells how they were in the habit of bartering their children for corn with the merchants of Sicily. The spontaneous fertility and pastoral wealth of the country, as I saw it, seemed to contradict this account, though the general fidelity of the author inclined me to place almost implicit belief in him. In Derna I afterwards learned, that his description, instead of exceeding, falls far short of the truth during the seasons when the country is desolated by one of those blights which occur at uncertain periods. The Arabs of Gebel-el-Achdar are among the least provident people in the world; and when a reverse befalls them, are one and all, the poor and the wealthy, reduced to the greatest straits. When the crops are abundant, everything becomes dear, labour can be obtained on no terms, the Arab refuses to sell either his cattle or flocks, he buys slaves and horses at any price, and setting his cap on one side, spends all his time in riding and gormandising. But sometimes a flight of locusts descends upon the country, and in a few hours every blade of corn or grass, and every leaf, have disappeared; or successive years of drought wither up the crops, and then, no provender remaining for the cattle, the wells are exhausted, and pestilence, which spares neither man nor beast, follows hard upon the scarcity and the drought. Then, though too late, the Arab is as anxious to sell all he has at any price he can obtain, as he was before hard in his dealings and careless of reasonable gain. He eats the corn reserved for seed, and when the rains at length descend to fecundate the country, the fields remain unsown. Such a visitation came upon them some eight years ago. Their cattle, the great wealth of the country, died for want of food; the next year there was no grain for sowing, and then the misery was so terrible that it would require the pen of a Defoe to describe it. The strongest guard was insufficient to insure the safety of the traveller in such a season; misery rendered the people desperate, so that it seemed easier to them to die in combat than by the slow agony of want. Parents sold their children literally for a few measures of barley: a very pretty girl was offered to one of my acquaintance for two dollars; and I know some persons who, through pure compassion, bought children at this price. The dying were devoured even before life was extinct; and in the ravings of hunger, as eye-witnesses have related to me, the poor wretches would gnaw the thighs and arms of those who, more reduced than themselves, were too weak to defend themselves. Thousands emigrated into Egypt, and hundreds of them died of exhaustion on the road thither.
We read in antiquity, even in the flourishing days of the empire, of terrible famines in this country; but these, doubtless, were alleviated by the resources of the other provinces. Though again subject to an extensive empire, the country can now look for no such assistance when these disasters fall upon it. The duty of the provinces is, to send yearly subsidies to the capital; that of the Government is, to send rapacious satraps to enrich themselves by the spoils of the people, and to stifle their complaints.
The town of Derna is composed of four villages—Upper and Lower Derna, and Upper and Lower Bou Mansour, the former separated from the two latter villages by a broad, stony wady, which in winter forms the bed of one of the two streams whose abundant waters, diverted by a former governor into many channels, flow through all the streets, and are at regular periods distributed to the different gardens in which the houses of the town are situated. These many streams of water, and the gardens from which rise thousands of splendid palms, rich in the bright green of the banana and the reddening leaf of the vine, give this place a strong resemblance to some of the villages on the outskirts of Damascus, a resemblance which is still further increased by the arid barrenness of the hills above and of the surrounding country. Unfortunately this luxuriant vegetation, as too often happens in these lands, is accompanied by periodical fevers, dysentery, and ophthalmia, which the sea-breezes seem to have no effect in preventing. An old castle, now in ruins, which once commanded the town from the hill above, and the lanes which lead to it, overarched, as they are, with verdure, through which the rays of the sun pierce in chequered patches, form a most picturesque scene. The whole town has an air of prosperity far surpassing that of Benghazi, though its population, about 4500 souls, is smaller, and its trade is comparatively insignificant. It consists principally in exports of wax, great quantities of which are produced in the neighbouring country, occasional cargoes of cattle for Malta, and sheep, which are yearly sent in vast flocks by land a journey of thirty-five days to Alexandria. Antiquarian remains are few, Darnis having been a place of not the slightest importance until about the fourth century: they consist of some traces of the ancient port at the western extremity of the town, a Roman gateway, and some excavations in the hills.
Derna has no harbour. From September to January its roadstead is sufficiently secure, but after this month no ship can anchor there in safety, as it is entirely exposed to the north and east winds, which then blow with great fury. There is, to the east of the town, a point where the shore makes a bend, on which may be seen a ruined battery, with half a dozen dismounted guns; it serves as a monument to record the fact that this place was held by the Americans, for a short period, about thirty years ago.[3] Probably the difficulty of making a harbour (they had planned an excavated basin in the wady which separates Derna from Bou Mansour), as well as the traditional policy of their country, always opposed to distant settlements, decided them to abandon the place.
I spent a very pleasant fortnight in Derna, encamped within reach of the sea-spray when the winds blew strong; but before I left I began to experience that feeling of discomfort which malaria is apt to give when it does not produce fever; and, notwithstanding the beauty of the place, and the attentions of Mr. Aquilina and his family, I was glad to find myself once more on the heights of the Okbah.