[(Large-size)]

WANDERINGS
IN
NORTH AFRICA.

CHAPTER I.

Malta to Benghazi. — Benghazi. — Aspect of the Town. — Population. — Diseases. — Government. — Antiquities. — Dress of the Inhabitants. — Trade. — Artisans. — Jews.

The journey which the following pages describe had been for many years the object of my wishes, although it was only in 1852 that I was able to put my design in execution. The experience of several tours in Syria had taught me the necessity of knowing the language of the country, for the sake of personal safety, as well as for gaining information; I therefore lost no opportunity of making myself acquainted with the colloquial, which differs so much from the classical, Arabic. The study of this language is, indeed, very difficult, but it has been to me a most charming employment, and I have never regretted the many long hours which I have devoted to the acquisition of it. Before leaving Europe I had carefully studied all that ancient or modern authors have written upon the old Pentapolis; and I came to this country provided with the necessary instruments for measuring heights and ascertaining the positions of the several points I should visit. I do not, however, pretend to write a book full of antiquarian lore or geographical details—on this head, my predecessors have left little to be gleaned. Thrige, in his “Res Cyrenensium,” offers an ample repertory for those who are desirous of knowing every fact that classical antiquity has handed down to us, concerning the ancient wealth and arts of the Cyreneans; and Beechey has given, with the utmost accuracy, the position of the principal points of interest. Pacho gives us many interesting details in his work, though, perhaps, he has too highly coloured his descriptions; his drawings of the remaining ruins are full of errors. Pacho has the merit of having alone traversed this country at a time when it required no little enterprise to risk a passage through it. I disclaim all merit on the score of enterprise or remarkable discoveries; and if the narrative of my visit to this lovely region should induce others of my countrymen to vary their Egyptian and Syrian tours by a visit to the Pentapolis, the object of my ambition will be gained. I shall have conferred upon them the benefit of calling their attention to this forgotten land, and on the inhabitants the still greater advantage of a more frequent contact with European civilisation. There is no country, excepting Morocco, where the Moslem has so little felt the influence of modern civilisation, or where his fanaticism is more offensive. Here, we are still in the sixteenth century; the pages of Shaw and other old travellers are recalled in our daily dealings with the Arabs, whose most offensive characteristics are only mitigated by the vicinity of Malta, and through a certain traditionary fear of British power.

Without further preamble, I shall state that my point of departure was Malta, from whence I sailed for Benghazi, now the principal town in the district, and the seat of Government. I took my passage on board a brigantine of 150 tons, the Pace, the largest vessel which trades between Malta and Benghazi. The depth of water in the small part of the ancient harbour, which is not yet sanded up, admits no vessel which draws more than ten feet of water; after September the passage is so insecure, that all direct intercourse ceases, and letters then can only be conveyed from Malta by Tripoli, whence there is a weekly courier who comes in thirteen days. I stowed myself on the deck of the brigantine, in a box ten feet by five, and about three and a half high, which, when washed and carpeted, formed no inconvenient cabin, and saved me in great part from the attacks of those creeping and jumping fellow-passengers from which no Mediterranean merchant-vessel is free. Being well supplied with new books, I managed to kill time pleasantly enough during the six days that the passage lasted. In the evening, after sunset, I used to take a seat upon the deck, to chat with the captain and the scrivano,—a sort of mate,—and thus learnt from them all they could tell me of the trade between Europe and the regency of Tripoli, and of the wonders of the unknown land I was going to visit. In their gossip I sometimes caught a faint echo of old Herodotus. I much enjoyed one of their stories, which they told with the greatest gravity, assuring me that they had heard it from the most respectable natives. In the interior of Africa, beyond the black hills, is a race of people whose men are dogs, their women being like those of other nations. The husbands spend their days in hunting, and at night bring home to their wives the game they have killed; these cook and eat the meat, and give the bones to their dog-husbands. They were both intelligent men, able to give a satisfactory account of their trade; but they made no difficulty in believing this story, and other tales not less marvellous. The profits of the trading vessels are principally made on the return voyage, when the cargo consists of cattle for the consumption of the island, and bales of coarse wool, which is principally destined for Leghorn. Paper and glass from this place, plain and printed cottons from England and Switzerland, with planks from Trieste, form nearly all the imports to Benghazi. The approach to the town is not promising; the long, flat line of sand, broken here and there by groups of palm-trees, becomes visible only at a very short distance from the shore. On nearing it, two insignificant white-washed marābuts, and the castle—a square building, flanked with round towers, standing on the sea-shore, and conspicuous only from its whiteness—are the first objects which strike the eye. The town itself is not seen until the traveller is close to it; it looks like a large collection of mud huts, unrelieved by a single minaret, or even by the dove-cots, which render many of the mud villages on the Nile so picturesque. Closer inspection confirms this first impression of the town. The houses are indeed built of stone, badly cemented with crumbling lime; but in the whole town not more than a dozen have the convenience of a room raised above the ground-floor (ghorfa). They are built round an oblong court, with no attempt at architectural ornament, the walls not exceeding fourteen feet in height, and almost in no case are the rooms more than ten feet in breadth, though frequently thirty or forty feet long. They are lighted from the door; and, in the better houses, one, or perhaps two, rooms have the additional convenience of small windows, which are closed by wooden shutters. The flooring is sometimes of flag-stones, generally of mud; and the flat roofs, formed with the undressed trunks of the juniper trees, laid side by side across the walls, covered with mats and plaster, are not impervious to the winter rains. This is no unfavourable account of the houses of Benghazi; and when I add, that the streets, filled with loose sea-sand, are kept tolerably clean—remarkably so for an Oriental town—I have done ample justice to its merits. The water for drinking is brought from wells at a distance, in barrels or skins; and every house has in its court-yard a well of brackish water, which in many places is found at a depth of six feet. There are near the shore two public wells—one due to a former English consul—which are used for watering the cattle, but the essential luxury of a fountain, or the convenience of a walk where the sand does not reach the ankles, has not been thought of. The sanitary inspection, under a talented German doctor, is very strict, and in some cases might, perhaps, be adopted with advantage at home. His word is law in all such matters as cleaning the streets, or removing nuisances; no meat can be exposed for sale in the market, which has not been offered for his inspection before going to the slaughter-house; no burial takes place without his certificate, though he only examines the body when death is suspected to result from plague or other infectious disease. He has not only the right to examine the bodies of females, but he can have them disinterred if buried without his certificate. Proceedings so contrary to Moslem prejudice, and even to Moslem law, afford perhaps the strongest proof that can be adduced of the utter disregard which the powers at Constantinople show to the religious laws of the Koran, as well as of the slavish submission of the people to the Government.

The census just completed gives 1200 for the number of houses in Benghazi, which, in this country, represents a population of 10,000 to 12,000 souls; the deaths in the last year were 333, and seem to favour the higher number, but they were above the annual average, in consequence of epidemic measles having carried off 57 children. In general, Benghazi may be considered the most healthy town in North Africa; neither fever nor dysentery are endemic here, nor is any other form of disease frequent, except ophthalmia, the prevalence of which may be ascribed to the general filthiness, and to the habit which the people have at night of sleeping exposed on the terraces, or in the damp court-yards. It is disgusting to see the little children, round whose inflamed eyes swarms of flies cluster, no one taking the trouble to drive them away. The markets are abundantly supplied with mutton; occasionally beef is offered for sale; but vegetables and fruit are very rare, and, till the last six years, nothing but onions were to be had. Though the sea abounds in excellent fish, the quantity taken is very small. Wine, potatoes, and fruit are sometimes to be had, brought from Malta or Canea, from whence the European and wealthier Turkish residents obtain their few luxuries. When I speak of wealth, it is in a comparative sense; probably no one, either native or foreigner, has a capital of 4000l.; but there is no absolute poverty among the people, for the cultivation of the land is open to all, on paying a tax of one-tenth of the produce; and, excepting the Morocco or Tunis Hajji, who pass through on their way to Mecca, I have never seen a beggar in Benghazi.

The government of the province is in the hands of a Bey, sometimes sent from Constantinople, sometimes nominated by the Pacha of Tripoli, to whom he is subordinate. Soliman Agha, the present Kaimakan, formerly in a domestic situation in his household, was long Kehin to the present Pacha of Tripoli (Izzet Pacha), and by him was appointed to Benghazi. His inability to read or write is considered no obstacle to his being an efficient Governor of an extensive district; and in the visits I paid him I must acknowledge that he seemed to be well-informed regarding the affairs of his government, and to have an excellent memory. The object of such an appointment is, of course, that the Pacha may have in Benghazi a dependant who will not interfere with his peculations. The Kaimakan, or Bey, is assisted by a Medjlis, or council, composed of the Cadi, Mufti, and some ten members chosen from among the principal persons of the place; and his consideration is sustained by part of a regiment which is stationed here—the rest of it doing duty at the castles newly erected for the purpose of keeping the Arabs of the interior in subjection. The Consular body consists of an English Vice-Consul, a French Consular Agent, and Vice-Consuls—or calling themselves such—for Tuscany and Sardinia. All of them, excepting the Englishman, are merchants, and it may be questioned if their action is consequently as independent as it should be, when we remember the monetary transactions which they have with the customs, which are here administered by the local Government. I can personally bear testimony to the cordial hospitality of the French Consular Agent, M. Brest, and of his family; and to the unceasing attentions of M. Xerri, a young Maltese merchant, whom I found acting as Vice-Consul in the interim between the departure of the last Consul and the arrival of his successor. Although the climate of Benghazi is perfectly wholesome, I should not recommend it to any one as a residence: there are few of the necessaries, and none of the luxuries, of life to be found there; above all, there is no kind of society. Its antiquities afford at most two days’ employment. They consist of large squared blocks of stone scattered along the sea-shore, foundations of ancient buildings in the sea, between the reef, which probably formed the old mole, and the shore, with a flight of steps at the extremity of the former. The shore has sunk considerably in this part of the coast, as the foundations of buildings now beneath the water testify; and often, after a winter storm, gems and medals are picked up on the beach. On the land side of the town, the sea has also made an irruption, forming a shallow lake in winter, which dries up in summer, and leaves the surface glittering with salt, if the winds are not high: hence Benghazi may be said to be built on a narrow tongue of sand. On the opposite side of this lake, the summits of the hills to the south-east of the town are covered with old tombs, many of which are rifled, but not a few still yield vases and stalactites of terra cotta. It was from here that M. de Bourville obtained the splendid Panathenaic vases which adorn the Museum of the Louvre; but such good fortune is hardly to be looked for again. The existence of the tombs is not indicated by monuments or other external marks,—a circumstance to which, perhaps, they owe their preservation. Some are grottoes cut in the rock, beneath its surface, and have long been sanded up; the more common are rectangular excavations, about five feet by two feet, cut in the rock, and covered by rough flattish stones. These also are always found completely choked with sand; they contain vases generally of a coarse quality, really fine vases being rare. The statuettes are, generally, much more beautiful; and nothing can exceed the grace of some which I saw in Paris, derived from M. de Bourville’s collection. Though this country is named by ancient writers as famed for its engravers, I have not seen a single fine intaglio or cameo found here.