Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 Part 13

Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846 Part 13

Her Majesty's Government was anxious that Dr. Tomlinson should visit all the coasts of the Mediterranean, both to strengthen the few Protestants scattered on these inhospitable sh.o.r.es, and to show the various authorities and people of this famed inland sea, that the English had a religion, and cared for its prosperity. Up to the time I left the Barbary coast, Dr. Tomlinson had neither visited Tunis nor Tripoli, though he had been resident at Malta some three years. This is too bad; and it is quite clear the Bishop does not understand the object of his mission in the Mediterranean. He ought to have shown himself at once in all Barbary; he then might have annihilated this monstrous error, propagated by Romish priests, that the English had no religious books, and were not Christians. It is but justice to add, the Bishop went to Tangiers. Mr.

Hay expected a very unctuous episcopal visit, and was shocked to hear the good Bishop talk so much about fortifications and "horrid war." There is consistency in everything; and common sense dictated that the Bishop should have, on such a visit, a.s.sumed his character of "Overseer of the scattered Protestant flock." Unfortunately, when he went first to Malta, Dr. Tomlinson acted more like an episcopalian tight-rope dancer, always balancing himself between Puseyism and Evangelicalism, and so distracted the few Protestants at Malta. He is eminently a man of no decision of character; and whenever he does manage to get up his reluctant will to a decision, it is invariably on the wrong side of the question. Here in The Desert I found myself pestered with both political and religious questions; and to have shirked either, would have been to offend the people. There was no alternative but to preach to them that all the English and all Protestants had the same Bible as the Romanists, and were equally Christians with them. I may add, of the Bishop of Gibraltar: Since my return, I have heard that his Lordship found all his efforts useless to conciliate the Malta papistical authorities; that he was much shocked at their treachery; and that he was determined, on his return again to Malta, _to become once more a good Protestant_. The truth is, he had nothing to do with the Roman Catholics. He was to mind and care for the Protestants in Malta, and on the sh.o.r.es of the Mediterranean. I believe, however, he did do something in the way of unpleasant interference with Colonel Warrington. It is well known the Colonel was high-priest of Protestantism through his long Consular service of thirty-three years, as well as Her Britannic Majesty's Consul. The Colonel baptized, married, and buried, whenever applied to. He baptized, married, and buried the members of his own family, and was surprised Sir Thomas Reade had not the courage to do the same. Of this the Colonel was very proud, citing the authority of some peer in the British Parliament, who said, "If the King's subjects wished to _procreate_ in a foreign land, where there was no parson, why should not the British Consul help them?" This the Bishop demurred at; but the Colonel supported himself on the authority of Dr. Lushington. The Colonel was undoubtedly right.

Still, politically and ecclesiastically, it would be much better if English clergymen of some denomination or other were established along the line of the whole coast of North Africa, which would show the native Mussulmans we had a religion, and that we could afford to support and protect our co-religionists. The French reap a good harvest by _their protection of Christians_, which, characteristically enough, they use as a political engine of aggrandizement.

On returning home, my Moorish friends pestered me still with more questions, as to what people were _before_ the Christians. I endeavoured to impress upon them, that the Christian era was comparatively _new_, and that _before_ Christ, there were many nations, and great events occurred.

I found them grossly ignorant. But I had the good fortune to procure an Arabic map in the possession of one of the merchants, who had laid it up for many years amongst dusty papers. This had been published by the printers and agents of the Church Missionary Society of Malta, very much to their credit. By the aid of this, I made more progress in teaching geography to the people. Seeing several dots on the map where _Sahara_ is written, the people asked me what it meant. I told them sand. However, I must protest against this device. We shall see that the greater part of The Desert is stone and hard earth. The term "_sandy border_" of The Desert is equally incorrect. Such a distinction does not exist in the Tripoline provinces. The Desert comes up to the gates of Tripoli, it then gives way to cultivation and The Mountains; it beyond them appears again here and there and everywhere, within and without the regions of rain.

There is nothing like a border of The Desert. The "Grand Desert" and "Pet.i.te Desert" of the French, are equally incorrect and absurd. All is Sahara, or waste, uncultivated lands, and oases scattered thick within them, as spots on the back of the leopard[42].

Saw the Rais late, who had heard all about my conversation with Ettanee, and jokingly said, "_War, war_, that old fellow, aye?" His Excellency turned, to other matters: "The Shanbah are not going to attack the Touaricks, they are coming hereabouts to plunder our caravans." Asked him, if the city was secure enough to prevent them entering and pillaging it? His Excellency replied, "Yes," but adding, "_koul sheyan maktoub_ (all is predestinated)." This doctrine is not only a comfort in every misfortune, but also an apology for every fault, crime, or mismanagement a person may be guilty of. Nay, if a man be starved to death, because he will not work, which is sometimes the case in this part of the world, as well as Ireland, it is destiny and the will of G.o.d! . . . . . . So of all other things. If Ghadames should be stormed and plundered by the Shanbah in its present defenceless condition, it will be, as a matter of course, the will of G.o.d. But I must add, which unhappily cannot be said of Ireland, the security of human life is very great in Ghadames and the neighbouring desert. I have heard of no murder since I have been here, and a murder is the last thing thought of. This does not arise from any prevent.i.tive police, but from the simple dispositions of the people--their horror and unwillingness to shed human blood! If a messenger from a distant planet were to come to prove the divinity of a religion, from the absence of the crime of murder, and were to take these Saharan oases, and our Ireland, and put them in the balances of Eternal Justice, we should soon see Ireland and its popular religion kick the the beam, as--

"The fiend look'd up, and knew His mounted scale aloft."

The "signs of the times" in this country are, when I first came here bread was found in the Souk occasionally, as a luxury for the poor who could not buy wheat and make bread; now, and it is only a little more than a month, no bread is to be found. To-day not a single sheep was killed anywhere, and I am obliged to go without meat. So the country progresses in poverty and misery, so rapidly is its money being filched from the people! Or, is it because every body has conspired together against the Rais, and determined to wear an air of abject poverty? And thus to evade the new contributions? This cannot be. To-morrow is the last day of Ramadan; provided the new moon can be seen. I hope they'll see it, for I am heartily sick of the Ramadan: the most amiable and kind-hearted get out of humour in Ramadan; as to the Rais, I never go to see him, except in the evening, unless to get a little money from him, his Excellency being my banker. A Turk, who smokes all day long for eleven months out of twelve, must suffer greatly in these thirty days.

Should like to have tried a day's fasting, as I have been so strongly recommended by the people, but I expect to have enough of fasting in The Desert, and it is of no use adding to our miseries for the sake of curiosity or vanity. From recent conversations, it appears there is no great danger in attempting Timbuctoo, but I have resolved on the route of Kanou, because my object is not so much a journey of discovery, as to collect a statistical account of the slave-trade, and see whether there are any practicable legitimate means for extinguishing the odious traffic. For this latter object, the Kanou route is decidedly more advantageous. A wild adventure to Timbuctoo, ever so successful, can never serve me in such stead in the end, when I have to read my own heart and its motives, as a humane mission on the behalf of unhappy weak Africans, doomed, by men calling themselves Christians, to the curse of slavery.

_1st October._--Sheikh Makouran paid me a visit this morning. Our conversation turned chiefly on the discoveries of lands and countries since the times of Christ and Mahomet. The Sheikh was a little surprised when I told him: "We ought to consider the world as just beginning, for the ancients knew but little, and the greater part of the now inhabited world was unknown to them." Moors, like some Christians, think the time is near when Deity shall appear to destroy all unbelievers in their respective religions. For myself, I cannot but believe that the world has only _yet_ begun. It is impossible that the Creator should destroy the world in its present imperfect state. No--the world will go on yet thousands of years on years in the path of improvement unto (_shall I say?_) perfection. At any rate, I belong to those whose aspirations are for the future and not for the past. I am not enamoured with Hebrew patriarchal innocence, or Grecian cla.s.sic polish and freedom, or Christian mediaeval chivalry of the past. I am of the _New_ Englanders, but not for the resurrection of the past. Rather than subscribe to divinely-anointed kings and pious monks, church charities and May-day holidays and May-poles for the people, I would sooner affix my signature to railways, electric telegraphs, and the wild, bold, and raving aspirations of a Sh.e.l.ley--in fact, to plunge anywhere head _foremost_, than back again into the past.

A Moor to-day, in wishing to give a grand idea of the Touaricks (some of whom were present), said, "Muley Abd Errahman (Emperor of Morocco) and the Sultan of Stamboul, pay tribute to the Touaricks; but they pay tribute to no one." This is ingeniously made out by the merchants of Tripoli and Morocco, the subjects of the two Sultans, being obliged to pay black-mail in pa.s.sing through the Saharan districts of the Touaricks.

Some of the ill-natured are continually magnifying the dangers of the route of Kanou, and one present said, "You can't go, there are thousands of Touaricks to block up your way." Annoyed with this man and others, I replied, "Do Touaricks eat the flesh of Christians after they have killed them?" This made him very angry, and he began to apologize for the Touaricks, one cla.s.s of Mohammedans being always anxious to defend another from unwonted or odious suspicions. They have, nevertheless, not the least difficulty in confessing that the Touaricks will kill Christians, as such, thus tacitly acknowledging it to be right to kill Christians. The more respectable Ghadamseeah argue that in no case, if I pay the Touaricks a certain sum as tribute, or what not, have the Touaricks a right by the law of the Prophet to do me the least harm.

Heard all the Arab soldiers have run away from Emjessen, being without anything to eat. These wise Turkish commanders gave the poor fellows a bag of barley and a little oil, and left it, like the widow's cruse in Holy Writ, to replenish itself. The Shanbah may now go and drink the water of the well, and plunder the caravans as they please. The wonder is that more open-desert robberies are not committed.

The Rais told me this evening that _one_ person saw the moon, but it is necessary _two_ should have seen the dim, pale, half-invisible crescent streak. Then the _ayed_ after the fast would have been to-morrow. At sun-set, all the people were on the _qui-vive_, the Marabouts mounting the minaret tops, but none saw it but this solitary moongazer, who, said the Rais, "might have _imagined_ he saw the moon." The telescope was not lawful, he added, "The people must see it with the naked, una.s.sisted eye."

_2nd._--No patients; only a little girl with severe ophthalmia, and the old blind man, who fancies his eyes are better with the application of the caustic. Generally the Moors think there is a different sort of medicine for women. Yesterday I was asked for a medicine for women. I gave a man a fever powder for his wife. This morning being the last before the Ramadan, the Rais sent me a _backsheesh_ of meat (not cooked) and a quant.i.ty of rice, enough to make a sumptuous festa. Certainly the Rais is very gracious, and continues, if not increases, in his friendly feelings towards me. People are killing and preparing for the festival.

There's a report, the merchants in Tripoli are afraid to leave for this city on account of rumoured depredations of the Sebaah and Shanbah.

To-morrow, my taleb says he marries his two daughters. He prepares the wedding-feast, and gives his daughters a stock of _s.e.m.e.n_ (liquid b.u.t.ter), and barley and wheat, to begin the world with. The sons-in-law make presents to their brides of clothes, besides a little money; and this is all the matter. My taleb seems very glad to get rid of his daughters so easily; they are extremely young--thirteen and fifteen.

Besides these daughters he has a pet son. People usually choose a religious festival, for the day of the celebration of their nuptials, as in some parts of England. The taleb then, who is excessively fond of religious discussion, began, "The essence of all religion is,--

_He_ (G.o.d) _neither begets nor is begotten_: and

_G.o.d has no a.s.sociate_":--

both referring to the unity of G.o.d. Speaking of the duration of the world, I said:--"The world must now begin, for, up to this time, men have been generally very ignorant; and until lately the whole of the earth has not been discovered." Very angry at this, he replied:--"Now the world will finish; G.o.d is coming to destroy all you Christians, and all the black _kafers_ (infidels), as well as the white." He then gave me an account of the creation. "The world," he said, "was created seven times,"

&c., &c., adding many curious things.

_I._--"What is to become of the world; are nearly all its inhabitants, from its beginning until now, to be d----d?"

_He._--"Yes."

_I._--"Is this the decree of G.o.d?"

_He._--"Yes, all is _maktoub_."

_I._--"But you say, G.o.d, is ???????? ???????, (_Most merciful_.)"


_He._--"Yes; but men won't obey his religion and Mahomet."

_I._--"What is to become of those who never saw, nor never could see or read the Koran?"

_The Taleb._--"I don't know; G.o.d is great; G.o.d must have mercy upon them."

_I._--"Undoubtedly G.o.d created the world; but according to you, the world is now all corrupt (_fesad_), and nearly all men must soon be destroyed.

Is this honourable to G.o.d?"

_The Taleb._--"All is decreed."

_I._--"But many of the unbelieving Infidels are better than the Touaricks and Arabs. Is not the British Consul in Tripoli better than a Shanbah bandit?--better than an a.s.sa.s.sin who cuts the throats of the Faithful? Do not all the people speak well of our Consul?"

_The Taleb._--"I know it; he's very good."

_I._--"But you can't change the religion of some people though you kill them. When the Mohammedans conquered India, they got tired of putting Hindoos to death for not changing their religion, and becoming Mussulmans."

_The Taleb._--"G.o.d knows all, but you don't know," (a frequent phrase in the Koran).

_I._--"Now, I don't think it's of much use to talk about religion, for you won't change yours nor I mine. Here's the end of the matter. We must all die, that's a thing no one disputes; but as to who is saved, or who perishes, we cannot tell."

_The Taleb._--"The truth, by G--d! If G.o.d please, we shall see all soon."

A small caravan of Arabs, bringing sheep for the _Ayed_, arrived this morning from Tunis. The route is _via_ Jibel Douerat, and only seven days. If the roads were safe, travelling indeed about North Africa could soon be rendered expeditious. The Arabs report:--"That great military preparations are making at Jerbah, where the Bey of Tunis is expected after the _Ayed_, and whence he will invade Tripoli, all his Arabs being ready to march with him." After this, a caravan of forty slaves arrived from the south, under the conduct of Touaricks. The _ghafalah_ is originally from Bornou, but half left for Fezzan on arriving at Ghat. Was much surprised when Rais told me this evening, after five or six days, he would send a soldier to sleep as a guard in my house. He explained he had received authentic intelligence from Souf, of the Shanbah banditti being on the march, five hundred strong, proceeding in the direction of Ghat and Ghadames, and he expected them near this in the course of ten days.

Their intention is to avenge themselves on the Touaricks for the defeat last year. They are the immemorial enemies of the Touaricks, who have a stake in the commerce of the Desert, but they as professional robbers have none. Besides this, we hear the Sebaah continue their depredations, and have carried off 2,000 sheep from The Mountains: they also threaten an attack on Derge. The whole country, indeed, will soon be full of banditti, unless some energetic measures are adopted, and we shall have no communication between this and Tripoli. All the routes are now considered unsafe. Rais a.s.sured me, he has applied to the Pasha for a few Turkish troops, but His Highness refused, on the plea of expense. The whole force of the Rais is not a hundred Arabs, and poor miserable fellows they are, with two or three horses placed at their disposal. With such inconsiderable means the Pacha presumes to hold in the heart of The Desert this important commercial city, and its dependencies of Seenawan and Derge! The French manage matters very differently in Algeira. Indeed, the united force occupying all Tripoli, with its wide-spread provinces of many hundred miles apart, does not exceed _five_ thousand men of all arms! Compare this to the hundred and thirty thousand men (including native troops) in Algeira, and be astonished at the different effects of the French and Turkish systems. . . . . To add to the Rais's embarra.s.sments, the people are in ill-humour, whilst some hear the news with pleasure, and fancy they see in our present troubles the beginning of the end of Turkish rule in Ghadames.

FOOTNOTES:

[39] This book is said to be eternal as G.o.d himself, even UNCREATED. This is argued metaphysically from all the thoughts and volitions of Deity being eternal and immutable, and therefore the laws of the Koran have no relation to time or creation.

[40] Most of the people here have heard of Scinde; but their knowledge of it is very imperfect.

[41] I afterwards learnt it was--"You see these Christians are eating up all the Mussulman countries."

[42] Strabo mentions the oasis:--"To the south of Atlas lies a vast desert of sand and stones, which, like the spotted skin of a panther, is here and there diversified by oases, or fertile grounds, like isles in the midst of the ocean."

CHAPTER IX.

CONTINUED RESIDENCE IN GHADAMES.

The Ayed (little Festival of Moslems).--Ghadames a City of Marabouts.--Every Accident of Life ascribed to Deity.--Second Day's Feast, Swinging and Amus.e.m.e.nts of the People.--Death of the Sultan of Timbuctoo.--Various Terms employed for denoting Garden.--French Woman in The Desert.--Price of Slaves.--Time required to go round the World.--Stature of the Touaricks.--Oases of Derge.--Reconquest of the World by the Mahometans.--Tibboo Slave-dealer.--Touatee Silversmith and Blacksmith.--a.s.sa.s.sination of Major Laing.--Tibboos compared to Bornouese.--The Touarick Bandit again.--First Encounter with the Giant Touarick.--Water of Ghadames unhealthy.--Manacles for Slaves.--Second Meeting with the Giant.--The Souafah, and Tuggurt.--Visit from the Giant.--Chapter in the Domestic History of Ghadames.--Serpents and Scorpions, the Banditti of The Desert.--Toys Prohibited.--The Wahabites.--How Moslems despise Jews.

_3rd._--THE Ayed ?????, succeeding Ramadan, is ushered in with a cold morning, the first cold morning I have felt in The Desert.

Might venture to put on my cloth pantaloons. Happy to feel this invigorating cold. This is the little ayed; the ayed kebir, or ayed Seedna Ibrahim, takes place two months hence, when every family, in imitation of Abraham offering up his son Isaac, kills or sacrifices a lamb. The caravan from Bornou reports the road to be good. It is added, rain has fallen in Ghat as well as in The Sahara, near Tunis and Tripoli, so that the oasis of Ghadames is the only dry spot, for no rain has yet fallen.

Had several visits from persons all dressed out in festival finery, amongst the rest the black dervish. He looked like a dusky Nigritian Sultan. Twenty paras he condescended to take from me, which added to his holiday happiness; sometimes he won't accept of money. Now comes Ben Mousa, my taleb, to pay his respects. Not, as amongst the great unwashed of London, do they shave for a penny and give a gla.s.s of ---- (I shall not say what), in the bargain, here in Ghadames they shave for nothing.

"How is this," I said to my turjeman who had now come in. "This is the custom of the country," he replied, "we always shave one another for friendship." There are several other little things done _gratuitously_ in Ghadames, but shaving the head is the princ.i.p.al one[43]. He who has the sharpest razor is expected to do the most work. They cut and hack one another about most barbarously, some using no soap, only rubbing a little water over their heads. I have seen a score in a row, all sitting on the ground, waiting patiently their turn. Some shave the head every month, others allow several months to elapse. By way of diverting conversation, my taleb had the extreme kindness to tell me that the Touaricks of Aheer and Aghadez (not those of Ghat) killed Christians and Jews on the principle of religion, and would refuse to compound matters, even if I gave them a thousand dollars. He, however, condescended to add, "They are _mahboul_ (foolish)." He then went on to boast of the sanct.i.ty of this city, and said, "Our people are not afraid of the Sebaah and Shanbah, because they are a city of marabouts." The taleb had just come from a full divan of the people, where the Rais, on this festival morning, had been haranguing them and flattering their prejudices. "Be a.s.sured," said the Governor, "if the Bashaw knew that you were a holy city, _a city of dervishes_, a zaweea (or sanctuary), he would write to the Sultan at Constantinople, and the Sultan, hearing of this, would immediately give orders that no 6,000 mahboubs were to be exacted from you, but that, on the contrary, money from the Sultan would be sent to you, holy people." I wondered that a man of the Rais's sense could so commit himself. What would he have done if after the ayed, the people had brought a pet.i.tion to him, addressed to the Sultan, setting forth that they were "_a city of marabouts_," and praying to have their tribute remitted? But the poor people are incapable of taking such an advantage. They were excited by their religious feelings, and believed all the Rais told them. It was certainly a fine compliment for the feast, to men in the situation of the people of Ghadames. And my informant added: "Ahmed Effendi in The Mountains is the rascal and the infidel, and does not tell the Pasha we are a nation of dervishes." Said told me a slave was brought up to day to be bastinadoed, but reprieved till to-morrow on account of the feast.

Said's sympathy is always excited on these occasions, he remembers ancient days. On asking what he had done, he said, "The slave stole some dates because he had nothing to eat." My taleb, occasionally rather free in tongue, took upon himself to call all Negroes _thieves_. I admonished him: "The poor slaves got little from this city of dervishes, now and then a little barley-meal, or lived almost altogether on a few dates. It was not surprising they stole to satisfy the cravings of hunger." Berka the liberated slave of Makouran, and Said's intimate friend, now came in, dressed up in his holiday clothes. He asked for Said. "He is gone to The Desert, run away, for he has broken our cooking-pot; see here are the pieces, here's the meat spoilt; what am I to do for dinner?" I added, "He ought to have a good beating." The poor old negro stared and looked really grieved. At last he muttered, "Why, Christian, that _breaking_ comes from G.o.d, and not Said." "The truth," said the taleb laughing. Said now came in, having borrowed another pot, and Berka was comforted at the return of his friend. In The Desert, every accident of life is ascribed to an ever-present and all-superintending Divinity!