Sketch of the Northern Part of Africa: Exhibiting the Geographical Information Collected by The African Association.

Compiled by J. Rennell. 1790.

Published according to Act of Parliament by James Rennell, March 27^th. 1790.

[(Large-size)]

PROCEEDINGS
OF THE
AFRICAN ASSOCIATION.

PROCEEDINGS
OF
THE ASSOCIATION
FOR
PROMOTING THE DISCOVERY
OF THE
INTERIOR PARTS OF AFRICA.

LONDON:
PRINTED BY C. MACRAE, PRINTER TO THE ASSOCIATION.

1790.

LIST OF THE MEMBERS
OF THE
ASSOCIATION.

• A
• THE Countess of Ailesbury
• Rt. Hon. H. Addington, Speaker of the House of Commons
• B
• Duke of Buccleugh
• Earl of Buckinghamshire
• Earl of Bute
• Earl of Bristol
• Sir J. Banks, Bart. P. R. S.
• Lady Belmore
• Robert Barclay, Esq.
• Henry Beaufoy, Esq. M. P.
• Mark Beaufoy, Esq.
• John Beaufoy, Esq.
• Richard Henry Bennet, Esq.
• Isaac H. Browne, Esq. M. P.
• Robert Barclay, Esq. M. P.
• C
• Lord Carysfort
• Earl of Cholmondeley
• Sir H. G. Calthorpe, Bart. M. P.
• General Conway
• John Call, Esq. M. P.
• Mrs. Child
• Thomas Coutts, Esq.
• John Campbell, Esq. M. P.
• D
• Lord Daer
• Sir John Dick, Bart.
• Wm. Drake, Jun. Esq. M. P.
• E
• Earl of Exeter
• G. N. Edwards, Esq. M. P.
• F
• Earl of Fife
• Sir A. Fergusson, Bart. M. P.
• Sir William Fordyce, Bart.
• Colonel Fullarton, M. P.
• G
• Duke of Grafton
• Earl of Gainsborough
• Earl of Galloway
• Edward Gibbon, Esq.
• Dr. Gisborne
• George Gostling, Esq.
• George Gomm, Esq.
• H
• Earl of Huntingdon
• Lord Hawke
• Mr. Professor Harwood
• Sir John Hort, Bart.
• John Hunter, Esq.
• Henry Hoare, Esq.
• Charles Hoare, Esq.
• Henry H. Hoare, Esq.
• K
• Whitshed Keene, Esq. M. P.
• L
• Lord Loughborough
• Bishop of Landaff
• Wilfred Lawson, Esq.
• Dr. Lettsom
• William Ludlam, Esq.
• M
• Earl of Moira
• Lord Middleton
• Sir Charles Middleton, Bart.
• Sir William Musgrave, Bart.
• William Marsden, Esq.
• Rev. Dr. Marton
• Paul Le Mesurier, Esq. M. P.
• Charles Miller, Esq.
• James Martin, Esq. M. P.
• N
• Duke of Northumberland
• Richard Neave, Esq.
• The Hon. F. North
• P
• John Peachy, Esq. M. P.
• W. Pulteney, Esq. M. P.
• Charles A. Pelham, Esq. M. P.
• W. M. Pitt, Esq. M. P.
• John Parke, Esq.
• R
• Earl of Radnor
• Lord Rawdon
• Lieut. Gen. Rainsford
• S
• Lord Sheffield
• Sir John Sinclair, Bart. M. P.
• Sir John Stepney, Bart.
• John Stanley, Esq.
• Mr. Stuart
• Hugh Scott, Esq.
• John Simmons, Esq.
• William Smith, Esq. M. P.
• Richard Stonehewer, Esq.
• Hans Sloane, Esq. M. P.
• T
• Greaves Townley, Esq.
• Robert Thornton, Esq. M. P.
• V
• Benjamin Vaughan, Esq.
• W
• Earl of Wycombe
• Sir Godfrey Webster, Bart.
• William Watson, Esq.
• Samuel Whitebread, Esq. M. P.
• Wm. Wilberforce, Esq. M. P.
• William Winch, Esq.
• Josiah Wedgewood, Esq.
• John Wilkinson, Esq.
• Y
• Philip Yorke, Esq. M. P.

CONTENTS.

ERRATA.

INTRODUCTION.

The Narrative of the Proceedings of the Society that was formed in the year 1788, for the purpose of Promoting the Discovery of the Inland Districts of Africa, was written, at the request of his Colleagues, by one of the Members of the Committee of that Association; and is now printed at the desire, and for the use of the Society: but as it may also be read by persons unacquainted with the Origin and Object of the Undertaking to which it relates, the following Paper, as descriptive of both, is republished for their information.

PLAN
OF THE
ASSOCIATION.

Of the objects of inquiry which engage our attention the most, there are none, perhaps, that so much excite continued curiosity, from childhood to age; none that the learned and unlearned so equally wish to investigate, as the nature and history of those parts of the world, which have not, to our knowledge, been hitherto explored. To this desire the Voyages of the late Captain Cook have so far afforded gratification, that nothing worthy of research by Sea, the Poles themselves excepted, remains to be examined; but by Land, the objects of Discovery are still so vast, as to include at least a third of the habitable surface of the earth: for much of Asia, a still larger proportion of America, and almost the whole of Africa, are unvisited and unknown.

In Asia there are few extensive districts of which we are wholly ignorant; but there are many of which we are imperfectly informed; and to our knowledge of several of these, the expected publication of the Travels of Mr. Forster, in the service of the East India Company, may bring material improvement. For, about three years since, in returning from Hindostan to Europe, he travelled by the way of Laldong, Jummoo, Cashmire, Cabul, Herat, and the Caspian Sea; and though the character of a Moorish Merchant, a disguise which the nature of the journey compelled him to assume, would not permit him to depart so far from the usage of Asia, as to make a draught of the country, or to write any other than short memorandums as he passed, yet, if we may judge from the opportunities he had of information, his Narrative must be important. It will probably shew the manners and customs, and military strength of the populous tribes that inhabit the mountains on the North of Lahore: it promises to gratify the eagerness which all men express to acquire a knowledge of the sequestered and unexplored, though celebrated Country of Cashmire: and there is reason to suppose, that it will also describe the rising Empire of the Seiks, the conquerors of Zabeta Cawn, and the rivals of Abdalla. Should this be the case, we shall learn the history of an Empire that already extends from the river Attok, the western branch of the Indus, to the banks of the Jumma; and possibly too we may also be told the particulars of a Religion, which, according to the accounts received, professes to bring back the Hindoos from the idolatrous veneration of images to the purity of their primitive faith, the worship of One God: a Religion, which is said to ascribe to its Founder, Nanock, who died about 200 years since, a sacred character, by supposing that he was Brimha, and that this was his last appearance upon earth: a Religion, which its Followers, in contradiction to the former uniform practice of the Believers in the Shaster, endeavour to make universal, and, with a zeal which resembles the Mahometan, constantly enforce by the sword.

To our knowledge of America, a large and valuable addition may soon be expected; for several of the inhabitants of Canada had the spirit, about two years since, to send, at their own expence, different persons to traverse that vast continent, from the river St. Lawrence westward to the opposite ocean.

While, in this manner, the circle of our knowledge with respect to Asia and America is gradually extending itself, and advancing towards perfection, some progress has been made in the discovery of particular parts of Africa: for Dr. Sparman’s Narrative has furnished important information, to which will soon be added that of Mr. Patterson, whose account of his Travels and Observations in the Southern Parts of Africa is already in the Press; and if a description of the still more extended Travels of Colonel Gordon, the present Commander of the Dutch Troops at the Cape of Good Hope, should be given to the Public, the southern extremity of the African peninsula may perhaps be justly considered as explored. Mr. Bruce also, it is said, is preparing for the Press an account of the knowledge which he has obtained on the eastern side of that quarter of the globe.

But notwithstanding the progress of discovery on the coasts and borders of that vast continent, the map of its Interior is still but a wide extended blank, on which the Geographer, on the authority of Leo Africanus, and of the Xeriff Edrissi the Nubian Author, has traced, with a hesitating hand, a few names of unexplored rivers and of uncertain nations.

The course of the Niger, the places of its rise and termination, and even its existence as a separate stream, are still undetermined. Nor has our knowledge of the Senegal and Gambia rivers improved upon that of De la Brue and Moore; for though since their time half a century has elapsed, the Falls of Felu on the first of these two rivers, and those of Baraconda on the last, are still the limits of discovery.

Neither have we profited by the information which we have long possessed, that even on the western coasts of Africa, the Mahometan faith is received in many extensive districts, from the Tropic of Cancer southward to the Line. That the Arabic, which the Mussulman Priests of all countries understand, furnishes an easy access to such knowledge as the western Africans are able to supply, is perfectly obvious; as it also is, that those Africans must, from the nature of their Religion, possess, what the Traders to the coast ascribe to them, an intercourse with Mecca. But although these circumstances apparently prove the practicability of exploring the Interior Parts of Africa, and would much facilitate the execution of the Plan, yet no such efforts have hitherto been made. Certain however it is, that, while we continue ignorant of so large a portion of the globe, that ignorance must be considered as a degree of reproach upon the present age.

Sensible of this stigma, and desirous of rescuing the age from a charge of ignorance, which, in other respects, belongs so little to its character, a few Individuals, strongly impressed with a conviction of the practicability and utility of thus enlarging the fund of human knowledge, have formed the Plan of an Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa.

The nature of their Establishment will best appear from the following account of their proceedings.

At an Adjourned Meeting of the Saturday’s Club, at the St. Alban’s Tavern, on the 9th of June, 1788,

PRESENT,

• EARL OF GALLOWAY,
• LORD RAWDON,
• GENERAL CONWAY,
• SIR ADAM FERGUSSON,
• SIR JOSEPH BANKS,
• SIR WILLIAM FORDYCE,
• MR. PULTNEY,
• MR. BEAUFOY,
• MR. STUART:

ABSENT MEMBERS,

• BISHOP OF LANDAFF,
• LORD CARYSFORT,
• SIR JOHN SINCLAIR:

RESOLVED,

That as no species of information is more ardently desired, or more generally useful, than that which improves the science of Geography; and as the vast Continent of Africa, notwithstanding the efforts of the Ancients, and the wishes of the Moderns, is still in a great measure unexplored, the Members of this Club do form themselves into an Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Inland Parts of that Quarter of the World:

That, for the said purpose, each Member do subscribe Five Guineas a year, for three years; and that at, or after that period, any Member, on giving a year’s notice, may withdraw himself from the Association:

That during the first twelve months from the present day, each of the Members of the Club be allowed to recommend, for the approbation of the Club, such of his Friends as he shall think proper to be admitted to the new Association; but that after that time all additional Members be elected by a Ballot of the Association at large:

That a Committee, consisting of a Secretary and Treasurer, and of three Assisting Members, be chosen by Ballot:

That the said Committee do prepare and submit to the consideration of the Members, at their next meeting, such Rules as they shall think requisite for the effectual attainment of the object of the new Institution, and for its good government:

That the Committee be entrusted with the choice of the persons who are to be sent on the Discovery of the Interior Parts of Africa, together with the Society’s Correspondence, and the Management of its Funds:

That the Committee shall not disclose, except to the Members of the Association at large, such intelligence as they shall, from time to time, receive from the persons who shall be sent out on the business of Discovery:

That on the receipt of any interesting intelligence from any of the said persons, the Members of the Association shall be convened by Letters from the Secretary; and that such parts of the said intelligence as, in the opinion of the Committee, may, without endangering the object of their Association, be made public, shall be communicated to the Meeting:

That an Account of all Monies paid and received shall, on the last Saturday in the month of May in each year, be submitted to the consideration of the Society at large, by the Treasurer:

That the Members of the Committee be chosen by Ballot, on the first Saturday in the month of May in each year.

The preceding Resolutions having been agreed to by all the Members present, they proceeded on the same day, the 9th of June, 1788, in pursuance of their Fourth Resolution, to chuse a Committee by Ballot, and the following persons were elected:

• LORD RAWDON,
• BISHOP OF LANDAFF,
• SIR JOSEPH BANKS,
• MR. BEAUFOY,
• MR. STUART.

CHAPTER I.

Proceedings of the Association from the Time of its Establishment, to that of the Departure of Mr. Ledyard.

The Association for Promoting the Discovery of the Interior Regions of Africa was formed on the 9th of June, in the year 1788; and on the same day a Committee of its Members was invested with the direction of its Funds, the management of its Correspondence, and the choice of the persons to whom the Geographical mission should be assigned.

Naturally anxious for the speedy attainment of the important object thus recommended to their care, an object made doubly interesting by the consideration of its having engaged the attention, and baffled the researches of the most inquisitive and the most powerful nations of antiquity, the Managers proceeded with the utmost ardour to the immediate execution of the Plan.

Two Gentlemen, whose qualifications appeared to be eminent, proposed to undertake the Adventure.

One of them, a Mr. Ledyard, was an American by birth, and seemed from his youth to have felt an invincible desire to make himself acquainted with the unknown, or imperfectly discovered regions of the globe. For several years he had lived with the Indians of America, had studied their manners, and had practised in their school the means of obtaining the protection, and of recommending himself to the favour of Savages. In the humble situation of a Corporal of Marines, to which he submitted rather than relinquish his pursuit, he had made, with Captain Cook, the Voyage of the World; and feeling on his return an anxious desire of penetrating from the North Western Coast of America, which Cook had partly explored, to the Eastern Coast, with which he himself was perfectly familiar, he determined to traverse the vast Continent from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean.

His first Plan for the purpose was that of embarking in a vessel which was then preparing to sail, on a Voyage of Commercial Adventure, to Nootka Sound, on the Western Coast of America; and with this view he expended in sea stores, the greatest part of the money which his chief benefactor Sir Joseph Banks (whose generous conduct the Writer of this Narrative has often heard him acknowledge) had liberally supplied. But the scheme being frustrated by the rapacity of a Custom-house Officer, who had seized and detained the vessel for reasons which on legal inquiry proved to be frivolous, he determined to travel over land to Kamschatka, from whence to the Western coast of America the passage is extremely short. With no more than ten guineas in his purse, which was all that he had left, he crossed the British Channel to Ostend, and by the way of Denmark and the Sound, proceeded to the capital of Sweden, from whence, as it was Winter, he attempted to traverse the Gulph of Bothnia on the ice, in order to reach Kamschatka by the shortest way; but finding, when he came to the middle of the sea, that the water was not frozen, he returned to Stockholm, and taking his course Northward, walked into the Arctic Circle; and passing round the head of the Gulph, descended on its Eastern side to Petersburgh.

There, he was soon noticed as an extraordinary man.—Without stockings, or shoes, and in too much poverty to provide himself with either, he received and accepted an invitation to dine with the Portugueze Ambassador. To this invitation it was probably owing that he was able to obtain the sum of twenty guineas for a bill on Sir Joseph Banks, which he confessed he had no authority to draw, but which, in consideration of the business that he had undertaken, and of the progress that he had made, Sir Joseph, he believed, would not be unwilling to pay. To the Ambassador’s interest it might also be owing that he obtained permission to accompany a detachment of Stores which the Empress had ordered to be sent to Yakutz, for the use of Mr. Billings, an Englishman, at that time in her service.

Thus accommodated, he travelled Eastward through Siberia, six thousand miles, to Yakutz, where he was kindly received by Mr. Billings, whom he remembered on board Captain Cook’s ship, in the situation of the Astronomer’s Servant, but to whom the Empress had now entrusted her schemes of Northern discovery.

From Yakutz he proceeded to Oczakow, on the coast of the Kamschatka sea, from whence he meant to have passed over to that peninsula, and to have embarked on the Eastern side in one of the Russian vessels that trade to the Western shores of America; but finding that the navigation was completely obstructed by the ice, he returned again to Yakutz, in order to wait for the conclusion of the Winter.

Such was his situation, when, in consequence of suspicions not hitherto explained, or resentments for which no reason is assigned, he was seized, in the Empress’s name, by two Russian soldiers, who placed him in a sledge, and conveying him, in the depth of Winter, through the Deserts of the Northern Tartary, left him at last on the Frontiers of the Polish Dominions. As they parted they told him, that if he returned to Russia, he would certainly be hanged, but that if he chose to go back to England, they wished him a pleasant journey.

In the midst of poverty, covered with rags, infested with the usual accompaniments of such cloathing, worn with continued hardship, exhausted by disease, without friends, without credit, unknown, and full of misery, he found his way to Koningsberg.—There, in the hour of his uttermost distress, he resolved once more to have recourse to his old Benefactor, and he luckily found a person who was willing to take his draft for five guineas on the President of the Royal Society.

With this assistance he arrived in England, and immediately waited on Sir Joseph Banks, who told him, knowing his temper, that he believed he could recommend him to an adventure almost as perilous as the one from which he had returned; and then communicated to him the wishes of the Association for Discovering the Inland Countries of Africa.

Ledyard replied, that he had always determined to traverse the Continent of Africa as soon as he had explored the Interior of North America; and as Sir Joseph had offered him a Letter of Introduction, he came directly to the Writer of these Memoirs. Before I had learnt from the note the name and business of my Visitor, I was struck with the manliness of his person, the breadth of his chest, the openness of his countenance, and the inquietude of his eye. I spread the map of Africa before him, and tracing a line from Cairo to Sennar, and from thence Westward in the latitude and supposed direction of the Niger, I told him that was the route, by which I was anxious that Africa might, if possible, be explored. He said, he should think himself singularly fortunate to be entrusted with the Adventure. I asked him when he would set out? “To-morrow morning,” was his answer. I told him I was afraid that we should not be able, in so short a time, to prepare his instructions, and to procure for him the letters that were requisite; but that if the Committee should approve of his proposal, all expedition should be used.

Such is the history, and such were the qualifications of one of the persons whom the Committee engaged in its service.

The other, Mr. Lucas, had been sent, when a boy, to Cadiz, in Spain, for education as a merchant, and having the misfortune on his return to be captured by a Sallee Rover, was brought as a slave to the Imperial Court of Morocco.

Three years of captivity preceded his restoration to freedom, and his consequent departure for Gibraltar; where, at the request of General Cornwallis, he accepted the offices of Vice-Consul and Chargé d’Affaires in the Empire of Morocco; and had the satisfaction to return, as the Delegate of his Sovereign, to the very kingdom in which, for so long a period, he had lived as a slave. At the end of sixteen years he once more revisited England, and was soon appointed Oriental Interpreter to the British Court, in which situation he was when he became known to the Committee, and expressed his willingness, with His Majesty’s permission, to undertake, in the Service of the Association, whatever Journey his knowlege of the Manners, Customs, and Language of the Arabs might enable him to perform. His Majesty, with that liberal attention to the Progress of Knowledge which at all times has distinguished his reign, signified his pleasure, that Mr. Lucas should proceed on the business of the Society; and that his salary as Oriental Interpreter should be continued to him during his absence.

Having thus obtained the assistance of two persons so eminently qualified to facilitate the attainment of its object, the Committee proceeded to prescribe to them their respective routs.

To Mr. Ledyard they assigned, at his own desire, as an enterprize of obvious peril and of difficult success, the task of traversing from East to West, in the latitude attributed to the Niger, the widest part of the Continent of Africa.

To Mr. Lucas, in consideration of the knowledge which he possessed of the Language and Manners of the Arabs, they allotted the passage of the Desert of Zahara, from Tripoli to Fezzan; for they had learned from various information, that with this kingdom, which in some measure is dependent on Tripoli, the traders of Agadez and Tombuctou, and of other towns in the Interior of Africa, had established a frequent and regular intercourse; and their instructions to him were, that he should proceed directly to Fezzan; that he should collect and transmit by the way of Tripoli, whatever intelligence, respecting the Inland Regions of the Continent, the people of Fezzan, or the traders who visited their country, might be able to afford; and that he should afterwards return by the way of the Gambia, or by that of the Coast of Guinea.

One obstacle to the departure of these Geographical Misionaries was still to be removed; and that was, the smallness of the Fund; for the Members of the Association, which had not yet passed the second month of its existence, were extremely few, and the Committee were too conscious of the importance and dignity of their undertaking, to canvass for subscriptions.

In this dilemma, the Committee resolved to advance the money that was requisite; and they accordingly raised among themselves the sum of 430l. which enabled them to provide for their travellers the means of immediate equipment, and the letters of necessary credit.

Mr. Lucas, detained by illness, did not leave England till the 6th of August.

CHAPTER II.

Mr. Ledyard’s Arrival at Cairo. — His Remarks on the Inhabitants, &c. — His Death and Character.

Mr. Ledyard took his departure from London on the 30th of June, 1788; and after a journey of six and thirty days, seven of which were consumed at Paris, and two at Marseilles, arrived in the city of Alexandria.

His Letters of Recommendation to the British Consul secured him from the embarrassments that the want of inns would otherwise have occasioned; and procured for him the necessary instructions for assuming the dress, and adopting the manners that are requisite for an Egyptian Traveller.

Forcibly impressed by the objects which he saw, and naturally led to compare them with those which other Regions of the Globe had presented to his view, he describes with the energy of an original Observer, and exhibits in his Narrative the varied effect of similarity and contrast: but as the travellers who preceded him, have obtained and transmitted to Europe whatever knowledge, either ancient or modern, the Lower Egypt affords, and as the examination of that country was no part of the business which was given him in charge, his descriptions, generally speaking, would add but little to the instruction which other Narratives convey.

The following Extracts from different parts of his Journal are given in his own words.

“A traveller, who should, by just comparisons between things here and in Europe, tell his tale; who, by a mind unbewitched by antecedent descriptions, too strong, too bold, too determined, too honest, to be capable of lying, should speak just as he thought, would, no doubt, be esteemed an arrant fool, and a stupid coxcomb.—For example, an Englishman who had never seen Egypt, would ask me what sort of a woman an Egyptian woman was? If I meant to do the question as much justice by the answer, as I could in my way, I should ask him to take notice of the first company of Gypsies he saw behind a hedge in Essex; and I suppose he would be fool enough to think me a fool.

“August 14th. I left Alexandria at midnight, with a pleasant breeze North; and was, at sun-rise next morning, at the mouth of the Nile, which has a bar of sand across it, and soundings as irregular as the sea, which is raised upon it by the contentions of counter currents and winds.

“The view in sailing up the Nile is very confined, unless from the top of the mast, or some other eminence, and then it is an unbounded plain of excellent land, miserably cultivated, and yet interspersed with a great number of villages, both on its banks and as far along the meadows as one can see in any direction: the river is also filled with boats passing and repassing—boats all of one kind, and navigated in one manner; nearly also of one size, the largest carrying ten or fifteen tons. On board of these boats are seen onions, water-melons, dates, sometimes a horse, a camel, (which lies down in the boat) and sheep and goats, dogs, men and women.—Towards evening and morning they have music.

“Whenever we stopped at a village, I used to walk into it with my Conductor, who, being a Musselman, and a descendant from Mahommed, wore a green turban, and was therefore respected, and I was sure of safety:—but in truth, dressed as I was in a common Turkish habit, I believe I should have walked as safely without him. I saw no propensity among the inhabitants to incivility. The villages are most miserable assemblages of poor little mud huts, flung very close together without any kind of order, full of dust, lice, fleas, bed-bugs, flies, and all the curses of Moses: people poorly clad, the youths naked; in such respects, they rank infinitely below any Savages I ever saw.

“The common people wear nothing but a shirt and drawers, and they are always blue. Green is the royal or holy colour; none but the descendants of Mahommed, if I am rightly informed, being permitted to wear it.

“August 19th. From the little town where we landed, the distance to Cairo is about a mile and a half, which we rode on asses; for the ass in this country is the Christian’s horse, as he is allowed no other animal to ride upon. Indeed I find the situation of a Christian, or what they more commonly call here a Frank, to be very, very humiliating, ignominious, and distressing: no one, by a combination of any causes, can reason down to such effects as experience teaches us do exist here: it being impossible to conceive, that the enmity I have alluded to could exist between men;—or, in fact, that the same species of beings, from any causes whatever, should ever think and act so differently as the Egyptians and the English do.

“I arrived at Cairo early in the morning, on the 19th of August, and went to the house of the Venetian Consul, Mr. Rosetti, Chargé d’Affaires for the English Consul here.

“After dinner, not being able to find any other lodging, and receiving no very pressing invitation from Mr. Rosetti, to lodge with him, I went to a convent. This convent consists of Missionaries sent by the Pope to propagate the Christian Faith, or at least to give shelter to Christians. The Christians here are principally from Damascus: the convent is governed by the Order of Recollets: a number of English, as well as other European travellers, have lodged there.

“August 21st. It is now about the hottest season of the year here; but I think I have felt it warmer in the City of Philadelphia, in the same month.

“August 26th. This day I was introduced by Rosetti to the Aga Mahommed, the confidential Minister of Ismael, the most powerful of the four ruling Beys: he gave me his hand to kiss, and with it the promise of letters, protection, and support, through Turkish Nubia, and also to some Chiefs far inland. In a subsequent conversation, he told me I should see in my travels a people who had power to transmutate themselves into the forms of different animals. He asked me what I thought of the affair? I did not like to render the ignorance, simplicity, and credulity of the Turk apparent. I told him, that it formed a part of the character of all Savages to be great Necromancers; but that I had never before heard of any so great as those which he had done me the honour to describe; that it had rendered me more anxious to be on my voyage, and if I passed among them, I would, in the letter I promised to write to him, give him a more particular account of them than he had hitherto had.—He asked me how I could travel without the language of the people where I should pass? I told him, with vocabularies:—I might as well have read to him a page of Newton’s Principia. He returned to his fables again. Is it not curious, that the Egyptians (for I speak of the natives of the country as well as of him, when I make the observation) are still such dupes to the arts of sorcery? Was it the same people who built the Pyramids?

“I can’t understand that the Turks have a better opinion of our mental powers than we have of theirs; but they say of us, that we are “a people who carry our minds on our fingers ends:” meaning, that we put them in exercise constantly, and render them subservient to all manner of purposes, and with celerity, dispatch, and ease, do what we do.

“I suspect the Copts to have been the origin of the Negro race: the nose and lips correspond with those of the Negro. The hair, whenever I can see it among the people here, (the Copts) is curled;—not close like the Negros, but like the Mulattoes. I observe a greater variety of colour among the human species here than in any other country; and a greater variety of feature than in any other country not possessing a greater degree of civilization.

“I have seen an Abyssinian woman and a Bengal man—the colour is the same in both; so are their features and persons.

“I have seen a small mummy;—it has what I call wampum work on it. It appears as common here as among the Tartars. Tatowing is as prevalent among the Arabs of this place as among the South Sea Islanders. It is a little curious, that the women here are more generally than in any other part of the world tatowed on the chin, with perpendicular lines descending from the under lip to the chin, like the women on the North West Coast of America. It is also a custom here to stain the nails red, like the Cochin Chinese, and the Northern Tartars. The mask or veil that the women here wear, resembles exactly that worn by the Priests at Otaheite, and those seen at Sandwich Islands.

“I have not yet seen the Arabs make use of a tool like our axe or hatchet; but what they use for such purposes as we do our hatchet and axe, is in the form of an adze, and is a form we found most agreeable to the South Sea Islanders. I see no instance of a tool formed designedly for the use of the right or left hand particularly, as the cotogon is among the Yorkertic Tartars.

“There is certainly a very remarkable affinity between the Russian and Greek dress. The fillet round the temples of the Greek and Russian women, is a circumstance in dress that perhaps would strike nobody as it does me; and so of the wampum work too, which is also found among them both.

“They spin here with the distaff and spindle only, like the French peasantry and others in Europe; and the common Arab loom is upon our principle, though rude.

“I saw to-day (August 10th) an Arab woman white, like the White Indians in the South Sea Islands, Isthmus of Darien, &c. These kind of people all look alike.

“Among the Greek women here, I find the identical Archangel head-dress.

“Their music is instrumental, consisting of a drum and pipe, both which resemble those two instruments in the South Seas: the drum is exactly like the Otaheite drum; the pipe is made of cane, and consists of a long and short tube joined: the music resembles very much the bagpipe, and is pleasant.—All their music is concluded, if not accompanied, by the clapping of hands. I think it singular, that the women here make a noise with their mouths like frogs, and that this frog-music is always made at weddings; and I believe on all other occasions of merriment where there are women.

“It is remarkable, that the dogs here are of just the same species found among the Otaheiteans.

“It is also remarkable, that in one village I saw exactly the same machines used for diversion as in Russia.—I forget the Russian name for it. It is a large kind of wheel, on the extremities of which there are suspended seats, in which people are whirled round over and under each other.

“The women dress their hair behind exactly in the same manner in which the women of the Calmuc Tartars dress theirs.

“In the History of the Kingdom of Benin in Guinea, the Chiefs are called Aree Roee, or Street Kings. Among the Islands in the South Sea, Otaheite, &c. they call the Chiefs Arees, and the great Chiefs Aree le Hoi. I think this curious; and so I do that it is a custom of the Arabs to spread a blanket when they would invite any one to eat or rest with them.—American Indians spread the beaver skins on such occasions.

“The Arabs of the Deserts, like the Tartars, have an invincible attachment to Liberty: no arts will reconcile them to any other life, or form of government, however modified. This is a character given me here of the Arabs.

“It is singular that the Arab Language has no word for Liberty, although it has for Slaves.

“The Arabs, like the New Zealanders, engage with a long strong spear.

“I have made the best inquiries I have been able, since I have been here, of the nature of the country before me; of Sennar, Darfoor, Wangara, of Nubia, Abyssinia, of those named, or unknown by name. I should have been happy to have sent you better information of those places than I am yet able to do. It will appear very singular to you in England, that we in Egypt are so ignorant of countries which we annually visit: the Egyptians know as little of Geography as the generality of the French; and like them, sing, dance, and traffic without it.

“I have the best assurances of a certain and safe conduct by the return of the caravan that is arrived from Sennar; and Mr. Rosetti tells me that the letters I shall have from the Aga here, will insure me of being conveyed, from hand to hand, to my journey’s end.

“The Mahometans in Africa are what the Russians are in Siberia, a trading, enterprizing, superstitious, warlike set of vagabonds, and wherever they are set upon going, they will and do go; but they neither can nor do make voyages merely commercial, or merely religious, across Africa; and where we do not find them in commerce, we find them not at all. They cannot (however vehemently pushed on by religion) afford to cross the Continent without trading by the way.

“October 14th. I went to-day to the market-place, where they vend the Black slaves that come from towards the interior parts of Africa:—there were 200 of them together, dressed and ornamented as in their country. The appearance of a Savage in every region is almost the same!—There were very few men among them: this indicates that they are prisoners of war. They have a great many beads and other ornaments about them that are from the East. I was told by one of them that they came from the West of Sennar, fifty-five days journey, which may be about four or five hundred miles. A Negro Chief said, the Nile had its source in his country. In general they had their hair plaited in a great number of small detached plaits, none exceeding in length six or eight inches—the hair was filled with grease, and dirt purposely daubed on.

“October 16th. I have renewed my visit to-day, and passed it more agreeably than yesterday; for yesterday I was rudely treated. The Franks are prohibited to purchase slaves, and therefore the Turks do not like to see them in the market. Mr. Rosetti favoured me with one of his running Chargé d’Affaires to accompany me: but having observed yesterday among the ornaments of the Negros a variety of beads, and wanting to know from what country they came, I requested Mr. Rosetti, previously to my second visit, to shew me from his store samples of Venetian beads.—He shewed me samples of fifteen hundred different kinds: after this I set out.

“The name of the country these Savages come from is Darfoor, and is well known on account of the Slave Trade, as well as of that in Gum and Elephants teeth.

“The appearance of these Negros declares them to be a people in as savage a state as any people can; but not of so savage a temper, or of that species of countenance that indicates savage intelligence. They appear a harmless, wild people; but they are mostly young women.

“The beads they are ornamented with are Venetian; and they have some Venetian brass medals which the Venetians make for trade. The beads are worked wampum-wise. I know not where they got the marine shells they worked among their beads, nor how they could have seen white men. I asked them if they would use me well in their country, if I should visit it? They said, “Yes:”—and added, that they should make a King of me, and treat me with all the delicacies of their country. Like the Egyptian women, and like most other Savages, they stick on ornaments wherever they can, and wear, like them, a great ring in the nose, either from the cartilage, or from the side: they also rub on some black kind of paint round the eyes, like the Egyptian women. They are a sizeable well-formed people, quite black, with what, I believe, we call the true Guinea face, and with curled short hair; but not more curled or shorter than I have seen it among the Egyptians; but in general these Savages plait it in tassels plaistered with clay or paint. Among some of them the hair is a foot long, and curled, resembling exactly one of our mops. The prevailing colour, where it can be seen, is a black and red mixed. I think it would make any hair curl, even Uncle Toby’s wig, to be plaited and plaistered as this is. This caravan, which I call the Darfoor caravan, is not very rich.—The Sennar is the rich caravan.

“October 19th. I went yesterday to see if more of the Darfoor caravan had arrived; but they were not. I wonder why travellers to Cairo have not visited these slave markets, and conversed with the Jelabs or travelling Merchants of these caravans: both are certainly sources of great information.—The eighth part of the money expended on other accounts, might here answer some good solid purpose. For my part, I have not expended a crown, and I have a better idea of the people of Africa, of its trade, of the position of places, the nature of the country, manner of travelling, &c. than ever I had by any other means; and, I believe, better than any other means would afford me.

“October 25th. I have been again to the slave market; but neither the Jelabs (a name which in this country is given to all travelling Merchants) nor the slaves are yet arrived in town—they will be here to-morrow. I met two or three in the street, and one with a shield and spear.

“I have understood to-day, that the King of Sennar is himself a Merchant, and concerned in the Sennar caravans. The Merchant here who contracts to convey me to Sennar, is Procurer at Cairo to the King of Sennar: this is a good circumstance, and one I knew not of till to-day. Mr. Rosetti informed me of it. He informed me also, that this year the importation of Negro Slaves into Egypt will amount to 20,000.—The caravans from the interior countries of Africa do not arrive here uniformly every year—they are sometimes absent two or three years.

“Among a dozen of Sennar slaves, I saw three personable men, of a good bright olive colour, of vivacious and intelligent countenances; but they had all three (which fist attracted my notice) heads uncommonly formed: the forehead was the narrowest, the longest, and most protuberant I ever saw. Many of these slaves speak a few words of the Arab language; but whether they learned them before or since their captivity I cannot tell.

“A caravan goes from here (Cairo) to Fezzan, which they call a journey of fifty days; and from Fezzan to Tombuctou, which they call a journey of ninety days. The caravans travel about twenty miles a day, which makes the distance on the road from here to Fezzan, one thousand miles; and from Fezzan to Tombuctou, one thousand eight hundred miles. From here to Sennar is reckoned six hundred miles.

“I have been waiting several days to have an interview with the Jelabs who go from hence to Sennar. I am told that they carry, in general, trinkets; but among other things, soap, antimony, red linen, razors, scissars, mirrors, beads; and, as far as I can yet learn, they bring from Sennar elephants teeth, the gum called here gum Sennar, camels, ostrich feathers, and slaves.

“Wangara is talked of here as a place producing much gold, and as a kingdom: all accounts, and there are many, agree in this. The King of Wangara (whom I hope to see in about three months after leaving this) is said to dispose of just what quantity he pleases of his gold—sometimes a great deal, and sometimes little or none; and this, it is said, he does to prevent strangers knowing how rich he is, and that he may live in peace.”

Such are the most material of those remarks on the people of Africa, which Mr. Ledyard was enabled, by his residence at Cairo, to send to the Committee.—The views which they opened were interesting and instructive; but they derived their principal importance from the proofs which they afforded of the ardent spirit of inquiry, the unwearied attention, the persevering research, and the laborious, indefatigable, anxious zeal with which their Author pursued the object of his Mission.

Already informed that his next dispatch would be dated from Sennar; that letters of earnest recommendation had been given him by the Aga; that the terms of his passage had been settled; and that the day of his departure was appointed—the Committee expected with impatience the description of his journey. Great was therefore their concern, and severe their disappointment, when letters from Egypt announced to them the melancholy tidings of his death. A bilious complaint, the consequence of vexatious delays in the promised departure of the caravan, had induced him to try the effect of too powerful a dose of the acid of vitriol; and the sudden uneasiness and burning pain which followed the incautious draught, impelled him to seek relief from the violent action of the strongest Tartar emetic. A continued discharge of blood discovered the danger of his situation, and summoned to his aid the generous friendship of the Venetian Consul, and the ineffectual skill of the most approved physicians of Cairo.

He was decently interred in the neighbourhood of such of the English as had ended their days in the capital of Egypt.

The bilious complaint with which he was seized has been attributed to the frowardness of a childish impatience—Much more natural is the conjecture, that his unexpected detention, week after week, and month after month, at Cairo, (a detention which consumed his finances, which therefore exposed to additional hazard the success of his favourite enterprize, and which consequently tended to bring into question his honour to the Society) had troubled his spirits, had preyed upon his peace, and subjected him at last to the disease that proved in its consequences the means of dragging him to his grave.

Of his attachment to the Society, and of his zeal for their service, the following Extracts from his Letters are remarkably expressive:

“Money! it is a vile slave!—I have at present an œconomy of a more exalted kind to observe. I have the eyes of some of the first men of the first kingdom on earth turned upon me. I am engaged by those very men, in the most important object that any private individual can be engaged in: I have their approbation to acquire, or to lose; and their esteem also, which I prize beyond every thing, except the independent idea of serving mankind. Should rashness or desperation carry me through, whatever fame the vain and injudicious might bestow, I should not accept of it;—it is the good and great I look to: fame from them bestowed is altogether different, and is closely allied to a well-done from God: but rashness will not be likely to carry me through any more than timid caution. To find the necessary medium of conduct, to vary and apply it to contingencies, is the œconomy I allude to; and if I succeed by such means, men of sense in any succeeding epoch will not blush to follow me, and perfect those Discoveries I have only abilities to trace out roughly, or, a disposition to attempt.

“A Turkish sopha has no charms for me: if it had, I could soon obtain one here. I could to-morrow take the command of the best armament of Ishmael Bey.—I should be sure of success, and its consequential honours. Believe me, a single well-done from your Association has more worth in it to me, than all the trappings of the East; and what is still more precious, is, the pleasure I have in the justification of my own conduct at the tribunal of my own heart.”

To those who have never seen Mr. Ledyard, it may not, perhaps, be uninteresting to know, that his person, though scarcely exceeding the middle size, was remarkably expressive of activity and strength; and that his manners, though unpolished, were neither uncivil nor unpleasing. Little attentive to difference of rank, he seemed to consider all men as his equals, and as such he respected them. His genius, though uncultivated and irregular, was original and comprehensive. Ardent in his wishes, yet calm in his deliberations; daring in his purposes, but guarded in his measures; impatient of controul, yet capable of strong endurance; adventurous beyond the conception of ordinary men, yet wary and considerate, and attentive to all precautions, he appeared to be formed by Nature for atchievements of hardihood and peril.

They who compare the extent of his pilgrimage through the vast regions of Tartary with the scantiness of his funds, will naturally ask, by what means he obtained a subsistence on the road? All that I have ever learned from him on the subject, was, that his sufferings were excessive, and that more than once he owed his life to the compassionate temper of the women. This last remark is strongly confirmed by the following Extract from his account of his Siberian Tour:

“I have always remarked, that women, in all countries, are civil, obliging, tender, and humane; that they are ever inclined to be gay and chearful, timorous and modest; and that they do not hesitate, like men, to perform a generous action.—Not haughty, not arrogant, not supercilious, they are full of courtesy, and fond of society: more liable, in general, to err than man; but in general, also, more virtuous, and performing more good actions than he. To a woman, whether civilized or savage, I never addressed myself in the language of decency and friendship, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. With man it has often been otherwise.

“In wandering over the barren plains of inhospitable Denmark, through honest Sweden, and frozen Lapland, rude and churlish Finland, unprincipled Russia, and the wide spread regions of the wandering Tartar, if hungry, dry, cold, wet, or sick, the women have ever been friendly to me, and uniformly so; and to add to this virtue, (so worthy the appellation of benevolence) these actions have been performed in so free, and so kind a manner, that if I was dry, I drank the sweetest draught, and if hungry, I eat the coarse morsel with a double relish.”

But though the native benevolence, which even among Savages distinguishes and adorns the female character, might sometimes soften the severity of his sufferings, yet at others he seems to have endured the utmost pressure of distress.

“I am accustomed—(said he, in our last conversation—’twas on the morning of his departure for Africa)—I am accustomed to hardships. I have known both hunger and nakedness to the utmost extremity of human suffering. I have known what it is to have food given me as charity to a madman; and I have at times been obliged to shelter myself under the miseries of that character to avoid a heavier calamity. My distresses have been greater than I have ever owned, or ever will own to any man. Such evils are terrible to bear; but they never yet had power to turn me from my purpose. If I live, I will faithfully perform, in its utmost extent, my engagement to the Society; and if I perish in the attempt, my honour will still be safe, for death cancels all bonds.”

CHAPTER III.

Arrival of Mr. Lucas at Tripoli. — His Reception by the Bashaw. — His Journey to Mesurata with the Shereefs Fouwad and Imhammed. — His Mode of obtaining from the latter an Account of his Travels in the Interior Countries of Africa. — His Return to England.

Mr. Lucas, having taken his passage at Marseilles, on board the St. Jean Baptiste, a small vessel belonging to that port, embarked on the 18th of October, 1788; and on the 25th of the same month arrived in the harbour of Tripoli.

The date trees, which spread themselves like a forest behind the town, and the hills beyond them, which bound the prospect on the South, are interesting objects; but the town itself is built in too low a situation to compose a part of the general scene: for it is scarcely visible at the distance of a mile.

The first appearance of Tripoli may disappoint, by its meanness, the expectations of the traveller; but if he reflects on the nature of a despotic government, ever incompatible with permanent prosperity, he will not be surprized when he finds, on a nearer view, that the city, though the capital of an empire, exhibits through all its extent, the marks of a rapid decay; that its scanty limits, though scarcely four miles in circumference, are too great for its present population; and that its antient castle, though once the pride, and still the residence, of the reigning family, is now a mouldering ruin.

The expected ceremonial of announcing to the Bashaw, which is the title of the Sovereign, and to the Consul of the State, to whom the vessel belongs, her arrival in the harbour, having been regularly observed, Mr. Lucas, accompanied by Mr. Tully, the British Resident, waited on Hadgee Abdrahaman, the Tripoline Minister for Foreign Affairs, who had formerly resided in England as Ambassador from the Bashaw; and having known Mr. Lucas there, received him now with the joy of an old acquaintance, and the cordiality of an intimate friend. Encouraged by this kindness, Mr. Lucas explained to him the object of his mission, and requested that he would present and recommend him to the Bashaw, and to the Prince, his eldest son, who is distinguished by the title of the Bey. The Minister consented; and the next morning was, accordingly, appointed by the Bashaw for the first of these audiences: the morning after was fixed on by the Bey for the latter.

The Bashaw, a short and robust old man, of a fair complexion, a pleasing countenance, and an affable, joyous disposition, received Mr. Lucas with great complacency, and accepted, with much satisfaction, his present of a pair of double-barrelled pistols, mounted with silver; but expressed his surprize, when leave was asked to visit his kingdom of Fezzan: for the journey, he said, had never been attempted by a Christian. Mr. Lucas replied, that he was led to undertake it by the report which he had heard of various Roman antiquities in different parts of the kingdom, and by the hope of collecting a variety of medicinal plants that are not to be found in Europe. The Bashaw appeared to be satisfied, and promised that, on the first opportunity of a safe conveyance, he would give him such aids for the journey as his countenance and protection could afford.

On the next morning Mr. Lucas was presented to the Bey, the Bashaw’s eldest son, a tall and well shaped, but dark complexioned man, in the middle period of life; and was received by him with the engaging politeness for which he is eminently distinguished. The present that was made to him, except that its value was inferior, was similar to that which had been given to his father; and the assurances of the protection and friendship, which he offered in return, were the same in effect with those which the Bashaw had expressed.

Soon after his presentation at Court, Mr. Lucas was informed that some of the principal Tribes of the tributary Arabs had lately revolted from the Government, and were then in actual rebellion; that all the frontiers of Tripoli, on the side of the Desert, were infested by their inroads; that a caravan from the inland country had lately been attacked, and that a Spanish Merchant had been plundered within a few miles of the Capital. Mr. Lucas was also informed, that the Bashaw, who has no regular forces, was preparing to raise, on this occasion, an army of 2,000 men; that as soon as the grass should be high enough to afford the necessary forage for the cattle, which it would be in the month of December, they would begin their march to the frontier, where they would be joined by the troops of such of the Arabs as continued faithful to the Government.

With this army, the collective numbers of which were expected to amount to five or six thousand men, it was hoped that the Bey, by the usual enforcements of predatory war, would be able to reduce the rebellious Tribes to their antient obedience, and to the payment of the customary tribute.

But while, from this expectation, Mr. Lucas waited with impatience for the departure of the army, he was informed that two Shereefs from Fezzan, who were both, as their title announces, descended from the Prophet, and one of whom had married the daughter of the King, were arrived in Tripoli. They came there as Merchants, and brought with them, for sale, a variety of articles, of which slaves and senna were the chief; and as the reverence in which the descendants of Mahomet are held secures their persons from violence, and their property from plunder, they did not think that the restoration of peace was requisite for the safety of their return. It was, therefore, with much satisfaction that the Minister, whose intimate acquaintance they were, received from them an assurance, that if Mr. Lucas could bear the fatigue of the journey, they would take him under their protection, and would be answerable for his safe arrival in Fezzan.

The next morning, in consequence of this conversation, the Shereefs waited upon Mr. Lucas. One of them, whose rank as son-in-law to the King, entitled him to the first consideration, was a tall, thin, copper complexioned man, of too slender a frame for his height, which was nearly six feet, but of an appearance that was expressive of dignity: to this appearance the sedateness of his manners, and the fewness, but solidity of his words were particularly suited. His age was seemingly about thirty-five years, and his name was Mohammed Bensein Hassen Fouwad. The other Shereef was a lively old man, short and thin, and dark coloured, almost to blackness; affable, free, and entertaining in his conversation, and much respected by his companion, to whom he was related. His name was Imhammed, and his age about fifty years.

After many compliments, for which their countrymen are famous, they expressed to Mr. Lucas the pleasure they should feel in presenting him to their King, who had never seen a Christian Traveller, and would be highly gratified by so new a visit. They assured him of every accommodation which their country could afford, and of every proof which they themselves could give of the kindest good will, and of the sincerest friendship. The conference was concluded by a present from Mr. Lucas of a pair of pistols to each, with a suitable quantity of powder and ball, and flints.

The Bashaw, being informed by the Minister of the proposal and promises of the Shereefs, expressed his approbation of the scheme, and sent, from his own stables, as a present to Mr. Lucas, a handsome mule for the journey. The Bey, too, was no sooner acquainted with the arrangements, than he gave directions to a Jew taylor, who had been employed in making, and had just finished his own tent, to wait upon Mr. Lucas, and take his orders for such a tent as would be requisite for his journey.

But while in this manner Mr. Lucas was preparing for his departure, and had bespoke a Turkish dress for himself, and a magnificent robe, as a present, for the King of Fezzan, an apprehension arose in the mind of the Bashaw, that if Mr. Lucas should be taken prisoner by the Rebels, he himself should be reduced to the distressing dilemma of either concluding a disadvantageous peace, or of abandoning the Interpreter of the King of Great Britain to all the insults, and to all the cruelties which those Barbarians might be disposed to inflict.

For this reason, the force of which will be much more apparent, if the respect in which the office of Interpreter in a Mahometan Government is usually held, be considered, he expressed his desire (and in this desire his eldest son, the Bey, entirely concurred) that Mr. Lucas would defer his intended journey till the revolted Arabs should be reduced to obedience, and the peace of the Desert be restored. A few days after this requisition, the Bey began his march with an army of 300 horse and 1500 foot.

The Shereefs were no sooner informed of the obstacle which had arisen to the journey of their intended fellow-traveller, than they expressed as much chagrin and disappointment as Mr. Lucas himself could feel; for they said, that they had already sent word to their Sovereign, that they should soon have the pleasure to present to him a Christian, who had travelled from his native land, (a journey of many moons) with no other view than to gratify his wish to visit him, and to see his kingdom of Fezzan:—that his anger would fall heavily on them, to whom he would attribute the disappointment; and would probably lead him to inflict on them the greatest indignity that Shereefs can endure, that of having dust heaped upon their heads.

Impressed with these apprehensions, the Shereefs waited upon the Bashaw, and offered to be responsible with their lives for the safety of the Christian.

In this unfavourable state of Mr. Lucas’s prospects, an old man of the class of Maraboots (a name which is given to persons of distinguished sanctity) informed the Minister, with whom he had been long acquainted, that he meant, in a few days, to take his departure for Fezzan; and that as the Rebels, in consequence of the march of the Bashaw’s forces, had removed from that part of the country through which he intended to pass, he would engage that, under his conduct, Mr. Lucas should travel in safety.

With this proposal Mr. Lucas, by the advice of the Minister, and with the consent of the Bashaw, had determined to comply, though against his own opinion, for the countenance and behaviour of the Maraboot had suggested suspicions of his sincerity; but while he was preparing for his departure, which was fixed for the Monday following, the Bashaw, on further reflection, concluded that the plan which the Shereefs had proposed would, on the whole, be attended with the smallest hazard.

The scheme of the journey being thus finally settled, the Bashaw, at the request of the Minister, presented Mr. Lucas with a letter of recommendation to the King of Fezzan, of which the following is a translation.

TRANSLATION OF THE BASHAW OF TRIPOLI’S RECOMMENDATION OF M^R. LUCAS TO THE KING OF FEZZAN.

“Praise be unto the Almighty God, and unto our Lord his Prophet Mahommed, whose protection and mercy we crave, and resign ourselves to his holy will: to our Son Sydy Hamed Benmohamed, the great and just ruler over his beloved people; may his days be long and happy. Amen.

“Peace, and the protection and blessing of God, be with you, and preserve you from evil.

“We have to acquaint you, our son, that our friend, the English King, hath sent one of his Interpreters unto us, and desired we would procure him a safe conveyance to Fezzan, where he goes for his own amusement and pleasure; and as we have found a person whom we esteem, and who has promised us to take great care of him, we have consented to let the said Interpreter and his friends[1] go with him to Fezzan. We have to desire that you will shew him and his friends every kindness in your power, and comply with all his wishes; and should he be inclined to go to any other place, you will send proper people to conduct him, and to protect him in every thing; for he is a man of sense, and much esteemed by us; wherefore we recommend him to your care and protection. Peace and the blessing of God be with you: from the Slave of God, Ally Benkaramaly, whose greatness is under the protection of God. Dated in the Moon of Rabeah thénee 1203”—(which corresponds with the month of January, 1789.)

To this rout by Mesurata, though not so direct as the antient passage by the way of the Mountains of Guariano, the Merchants who trade to Fezzan have lately given the preference: for in the first place, they avoid the oppressive contributions, which, even in time of peace, the rapacious tribes of Hooled Bensoliman and Benioleed, who inhabit those hills, have often levied on travellers; and in the next place, they have not only the advantage of sending their heavy merchandize to Mesurata by sea, but have also an opportunity of hiring there, at a much lower rate than at Tripoli, the camels for which they have occasion.

On Sunday the first of February, 1789, at half an hour after eight in the morning, the Shereefs, accompanied by Mr. Lucas, took their departure from the suburbs of Tripoli, where, in a garden which is situated at the distance of three miles from the town, and which belonged to a Tripoline Merchant, who was travelling with them to Fezzan, they and their attendants had slept the evening before.

The caravan was composed of the Shereef Fouwad, and of three other Merchants, on horseback, all of them well armed; of the little old Shereef, who rode upon an ass; of Mr. Lucas, who was mounted on the mule which the Bashaw had given him; of Mr. Lucas’s black servant, well armed, upon a camel; of twelve Fezzaners on foot, but armed; of three Negros and their wives, who had been slaves at Tripoli, but having obtained their freedom, were now travelling to Fezzan on their return to their native country; and of twenty-one camels, with fifteen drivers, each of whom was armed with a musket and a pistol.

That so few camels were requisite in this part of the journey, was owing to the expedient which the Shereefs, with great œconomy, had adopted, of sending their heavy merchandize by sea to Mesurata.

At twelve o’clock, the caravan, whose course was E.S.E. passed through the town of Tajarah, a miserable collection of clay-walled huts, of which some were covered with terrace, and the rest with roofs of thatch: but wretched as the buildings are, the country around them abounds with date trees, among which a few of the olive are intermixed.

At five the caravan encamped for the night upon a sandy eminence. No sooner were the camels unburthened of their loads, than their drivers turned them loose to feed on the stubble of the valleys, and on the brambles of the adjacent hills; but though their freedom is thus given them, they never stray to a greater distance than that of two or three hundred paces from the camp.

The loads in the mean time are piled in a circle, and, except at the narrow opening which forms the entrance, are stowed as close as possible to each other. Within this circle the Merchants and drivers and servants spread their mats and carpets. Here, also, they light their fires and dress their victuals; and without any other covering than their alhaiques or blankets (for very few are furnished with a tent) lie down amidst the heavy dews and occasional storms of rain that fall upon the coast, and sleep as soundly as in a bed: for the wetness of their cloaths, which is often the consequence of this exposure, is little regarded, and from the salubrity of the climate, is attended with little inconvenience.

Mr. Lucas’s tent being spread, the two Shereefs, with three of their friends, took up their quarters with him: and on the first appearance of supper, which was served in a large wooden dish, and consisted of dried meat, and of flour formed into balls, and dressed in steam, they all sat down with the familiarity of near relations, and dipping their right hands into the dish, without either spoons or forks or knives, devoured, with a voracious and disgusting haste, the whole that was set before them.

The conclusion of the meal was followed by the ceremony of washing, which consisted in each man’s dipping his right hand into the same water which his companions had used. Coffee being then brought in, they lighted their pipes, and each of them having drank three or four dishes as he smoaked, they laid themselves down in their cloaths, upon the bare sand, and conversed together till they talked themselves to sleep.

February 2d. The next morning, at day-break, the drivers began to re-load the camels: at eight o’clock the caravan was again in motion; from which time till half an hour after four, they travelled amidst dreary hills of loose and barren sand, where they saw neither man nor beast, neither wood nor water.

A small valley between the hills, from which, to their great annoyance, the shifting sand was continually blown down upon them, was the place of their encampment; a place entirely destitute of water, but from this circumstance they felt no sort of inconvenience, as they had brought with them, in goat skins, an ample store.

February 3d. At half an hour after seven in the morning, they proceeded on their journey, and having emerged from the sand hills about two in the afternoon, were charmed with the sight of olive and of date trees, of large quantities of white thorn, and of the Spanish broom; yet the soil is dry and stoney, and the few fields of grain which present themselves here and there to the eye, exhibit in their scanty and meagre appearance, the marks of an ungracious and sullen vegetation.

On the right or S.E. of their road, at the distance of about twenty miles, the mountains of Guariano and Misselata rise upon the view.—A sight that recals to the mind of the experienced Traveller, and leads him to relate to the stranger, the beauty of the vales, the richness of the lands, abounding in corn and oil, and the fierce inhospitable disposition of the inhabitants, that compels the caravan to turn from their dominions, its direct and antient road, and to take its course among the desolate hills, and dreary wastes of the sandy and barren coast.[2]

A request from the Shereef Fouwad was now made to Mr. Lucas for his consent to encamp that evening in the neighbourhood of an old Arab, his particular friend, with whom he had business to transact, but whose residence was two hours march to the South of their road. They accordingly turned to the South, and about five o’clock, after a tedious and difficult passage among rocky hills, they approached the tents of the Arab. The old gentleman, accompanied by his two sons and a few attendants, came forward to meet them; and after expressing great satisfaction at the sight of his friend, the Shereef, he ordered a tent to be cleared for their reception, and in the mean time conducted them to a mat and carpet, which his servants had spread for them under a hedge; for, notwithstanding the season of the year, the heat was already troublesome. They had not been seated long when their host invited them to their tent, in which a number of mats and carpets were neatly laid.—A sheep was killed, and sent to be dressed for their suppers; bowls of buttermilk were brought for their present refreshment, and barley in abundance was given to such of their cattle as were accustomed to that kind of food; while the camels, as usual, were sent to feed among the hills.

At eight o’clock the supper was brought to the tent, and was placed before them in two large wooden dishes. Of these the first contained the mutton, which was boiled, and cut into small pieces: the other was filled with a boiled paste of dried barley meal, made up in the form of an English pudding, and surrounded with a great quantity of oil. This dish, which was intended as an accompaniment to the mutton, and which is in much estimation at Tripoli, is called bazeen.

While Mr. Lucas tasted of the last, and eat with pleasure of the first of these dishes, and the Fezzaners, with their usual dispatch, were devouring the contents of both, the old man and his sons stood by to supply them with water and buttermilk; for the rules of the Arab hospitality require, that during their meals the master of the house should wait upon his guests.

Feb. 4th. The next morning, at seven o’clock, the entertainment was repeated, with the same marks of a kind and liberal welcome; for the old man is rich in corn and cattle, and having obtained the character of a Musselman Saint, or Maraboot, is, on that account, exempted from the payment of taxes.

After a march of three hours, during which the rout was perplexed, and the eye fatigued by a continued succession of rocky hills, the caravan arrived at the entrance of an extensive and beautiful plain, that every where exhibited a luxuriant growth of olive trees, intermixed with dates.

The next two hours brought them to the sea coast, and to all that now exists of the town of Lebida, where, in the ruins of a temple, and in the much more perfect remains of several triumphal arches, the Traveller contemplates the magnificence of an antient Roman colony; and discovers, in the beauty and fertile appearance of the adjoining plain, the reasons which led them to chuse, for a sea-port town, a situation that furnishes no natural harbour.

Eastward of the ruins, for about five and twenty miles, the soil, though entirely unaided by the poor Arabs who inhabit it, exhibits the same luxuriant vegetation; and the scene is rendered still more interesting by the remains of a stupendous aqueduct, which formerly conveyed to Lebida the water of a distant hill.

At half an hour after five, and in the neighbourhood of a miserable village, the caravan encamped for the night.

Feb. 5th. The next day’s journey, which was attended with nothing remarkable, and during which they followed the line of the coast, brought them to Zuleteen, an inconsiderable town, where they found that a boat, to which a part of their baggage was intrusted, had been compelled by a storm to deposit her cargo. From this circumstance, and the necessity which followed it, of hiring six additional camels for their goods, the departure of the caravan on the next day (February 6th) was retarded till two o’clock in the afternoon. At the end of the first hour’s march, they were informed by some friendly Arabs, who were moving their tents and cattle, for the sake of protection, to the suburbs of the town, that on the preceding afternoon a party of the rebel tribe of Hooled Bensoliman, from the neighbouring hills, had attacked a small caravan belonging to Mesurata, and after killing four of the people, had carried off the camels and baggage:—and they were also informed, that on that very morning two men, who were going from Mesurata to the market, which is held at some distance from the town, were robbed and killed by the same party. At this news a Council was summoned to determine on the prudence of attempting to proceed; for the Shereefs began to distrust the sufficiency of that title to an exemption from the violence of war, on which, when the danger was distant, they had so confidently relied. The opinion of Mr. Lucas being asked, he observed, that as the party which committed the depredations were described as not more than forty or fifty in number, and were consequently much too weak to resist the detachment that, they must be sure, would be sent from Mesurata to revenge the violences of which they had been guilty, he had not the smallest doubt of their being already returned to the refuge of their mountains; but that at any rate, their own numbers, considering how well they were armed, were amply sufficient to defend them from the attacks of such petty marauders. Pleased with an opinion which gave them the prospect of but little danger, they fresh primed their muskets and pistols, and singing as they went, drove merrily on.

At six o’clock they encamped upon a hill directly opposite to the enemy’s mountains, that were now within twelve or fifteen miles; and having lighted, by Mr. Lucas’s advice, about seventy fires, for which the dry brush-wood that was near them furnished the means, they had soon the satisfaction of observing, that the fires of the enemy, who probably mistook them for the troops of Mesurata, were all extinguished.

Feb. 7th. The next morning at day-break, in the midst of a storm from the S.W. of violent rain and wind, they left the hill; and after a tempestuous march of four hours, they discerned through the heavy atmosphere, which now began to clear, a party of fifty or sixty Arabs upon a rising ground, at a distance, to the left.—That more were concealed behind the hill, they had not the smallest doubt; but as escape was impossible, and consultation useless, they resolved unanimously to make rather than receive the attack. The Shereef Fouwad took the command, and having given the charge of the camels to the three Negros and their wives, with orders to drive them slowly, and keep them close together, led on the rest of the party. The horse, with the Shereef at their head, formed the van, while those on foot were mixed together in a croud, dancing, and shouting, and twirling their muskets over their heads, and running round each other like madmen, till they came within shot of their antagonists, when they suddenly dispersed, and each man squatted down behind a bush, to shelter himself and take a surer aim. The horse were now close upon the enemy, and were levelling their pieces at the foremost, when one of the latter laid down his musket, and called to them not to fire, for they were friends.

A moment’s pause was followed by a mutual recollection, and they exhibited, on both sides, the most extravagant marks of joy. They ran round each other like a flock of frighted sheep, and danced, and shouted, and twirled their guns over their heads, till they were tired, when they sat down and began a reciprocal congratulation on their safety. The strangers said that they were herdsmen belonging to Mesurata; that for want of pasturage near the town, they had brought their flocks to feed upon these hills; that they were 200 armed men, and that they did not fear the enemy.

After this information, and the exchange of civilities, the caravan continued its journey, and at six in the evening arrived at Mesurata.

The Governor, whose politeness and natural good sense had been improved by a long residence in Italy, received Mr. Lucas with marks of the greatest attention; but expressed his fear that, while the war continued, the Shereefs would not be able to obtain from the Rebel Arabs, who alone could furnish them, the 120 camels which were requisite for the conveyance of their goods: and that, as the prospect of peace was at present remote, and the sultry season would soon commence, he saw but little chance of their reaching Fezzan before the following Winter.

Feb. 9th. Information was now received at Mesurata, that the Bey’s army, which consisted of 1,500 horse and 6,000 foot, was encamped within five hours march of the Rebels, whose force was composed of 600 horse and 10,000 foot, and was commanded by a powerful Chief of the name of Séife Bennazar.

It was also said, that the Tribes of the friendly Arabs, who formed the principal part of the Tripoline army, were too closely connected, by intermarriages and the force of antient alliance, with many of the Rebel Clans, to bring with them to the battle that sort of zeal which Government could safely trust.

Feb. 10th. Such was the situation of affairs when the Shereef Fouwad requested from the Governor, to whom he was strongly recommended by the Minister, a public and formal declaration, that if the hostile Arabs would send to Mesurata 120 camels, with their drivers, for the conveyance of the merchandize of the Shereefs to Fezzan, both they and their cattle should be perfectly secure. The Governor replied, that by his own authority alone he could not, with either prudence or effect, announce to the Rebel Arabs such a stipulation; but that he would summon a Council of the Chiefs of the town, and would propose the business to them; though he himself was persuaded, that should they consent to the Shereef’s requisition, as he hoped they would, the Rebel Arabs were much too cautious to rely on the good faith of such an engagement.

Feb. 11th. The next morning, a Council of six of the principal inhabitants, with the Governor as President, assembled in Mr. Lucas’s tent, (for the Governor’s own house was near the sea, at the distance of six miles from Mesurata) and unanimously agreed that a letter should be written by the Governor, and signed by himself and by all the Members of the Council, to assure the hostile Arabs, that such of their camels and of their people, as they might send at the request of the Shereef, should neither be detained or molested within the jurisdiction of Mesurata. This letter, accompanied by one from the Shereef, in which he desired to be furnished with 120 camels for the carriage of his goods, was accordingly sent on that very day, by an express, to a rebel province, in which he had many friends, and which is called Gouady.

Feb. 14th. In three days from the time of his departure, the express returned, and brought with him a reply, in which the Arabs observed that, as the country was in arms, they could not with prudence trust their camels from under their own protection, much less could they spare their people.

Notwithstanding this answer, the Shereef Fouwad conceived that the refusal of the Arabs was solely dictated by a distrust of the sort of security which was offered by the Governor and Council of Mesurata; for independently of the doubts which the Arabs might entertain of their good faith, it was evident, that without the sanction of the Bey, who commanded the army, their engagement, at the utmost, could not extend beyond their own jurisdiction. But if the Bey himself would guaranty the safety of the camels and their drivers, by granting them a pass, the Shereef concluded that the real objections of the Arabs would be entirely removed. With this view, on the 27th of February, the Shereef and two of his countrymen set out for the camp, which they reached on the second day, as it was not far from Mesurata; but their trouble was fruitless, for the Bey could not be prevailed on to assent to their proposal.

All hopes of obtaining, before the conclusion of the war, a sufficient conveyance for the goods being thus at an end, the Council resolved that, until peace should be established, the Shereefs and the other Merchants of the caravan should be at liberty to warehouse their packages in the public store-rooms of the Governor.

Deprived, in this manner, of all prospect of arriving this year at Fezzan, and doubtful if the state of the country would encourage, or his own situation permit the attempt in the Winter, Mr. Lucas resolved to avail himself to the utmost of such means of information as the knowledge of his fellow-travellers enabled them to afford.

He had already discovered that the little old Shereef Imhammed had been often employed by the King of Fezzan as his Factor in the Slave Trade; and in that capacity had travelled to Bornou and different parts of Nigritia; and he now determined to cultivate his friendship with double solicitude, and by occasional presents and frequent conversation, to draw from him an account of the countries which he had seen. With this view he, one evening, took from his pocket his map of Africa, and after satisfying the Shereef’s curiosity as to its nature and use, told him that he once intended it as a present to the King of Fezzan; but, that having discovered in it several mistakes, he now proposed to draw another that should be more correct. The Shereef replied, that the King would be highly gratified with such a present. Mr. Lucas said, that if he would assist him with an account of the distances from place to place, in such parts of the country as he had visited, and with their names in Arabic, and would also satisfy him as to such questions as he should ask, he would prepare two corrected copies of the map, and would give one of them to the King and the other to himself. The Shereef was delighted with the proposal; and they immediately retired to a sand hill at some distance from the tent, that their conversation might be unreserved and uninterrupted. Many successive days were employed in the same manner; and as Mr. Lucas wrote down, at the time, the information which he obtained, he was soon possessed of such an account of Fezzan, Bornou, and Nigritia, especially of the two former, as much diminished the chagrin of his own disappointment.

One afternoon, as they sat together on the customary hill, they were suddenly disturbed by the loud screams and dismal howlings of all the women of Mesurata—a mode of alarming and collecting the men, which is always practised among the Arabs, on the approach of thieves, or of an invading enemy.

In a few minutes the townsmen were under arms, and together with the Shereef Fouwad, the other Fezzaners, and Mr. Lucas’s Black, went hastily on to the place where the Rebels were said to have appeared:—there they found that the women had been deceived. It seems an ass had strayed into a field of barley; and as the owner of the corn, who was armed, and happened to pass by at the time, went into the field to drive out the animal, the women mistook him for one of the Rebels, and conceiving that many more were concealed, (for they often come down from the mountains to steal the cattle) had given the usual alarm.

In a few minutes, Mr. Lucas and the old Shereef, who had both continued on the hill, observed the Fezzaners coming sulkily back, and cursing the women for so foolish a disturbance, whilst the townsmen, on the contrary, fired their pieces, and rejoiced in their disappointment as much as if they had conquered an army.

A few days afterwards, a second alarm was given, and with much more reason than the first; for a party of the Rebel Arabs, some on horseback, and others on foot, had suddenly appeared within two miles of the town, and after killing two herdsmen, and seizing three Black slaves, their assistants, had carried off sixty goats, fourteen cows, and three camels.

The attack was made at a time when most of the townsmen were at the market, which is held at the distance of three miles from Mesurata; and to add to their indignation, it was made in a place which hitherto had been deemed inviolable; for the land on which the cattle were feeding was considered as under the immediate protection of a departed Saint, whose remains were buried there, and whose sanctuary, it was thought, no Musselman, however accustomed to robbery and blood, could venture to profane.

March 13th. Letters by express from the camp were now received by the Governor, which announced, that in consequence of the Bey’s having entered the country of the Rebels, and turned his cattle to pasture in their corn, an engagement, which soon became general, had ensued; that after a loss of 150 men, the Rebels had retired to the mountains; and that the Bey, at the expence in killed and wounded, of not more than twenty-six horse and seventy or eighty foot, had obtained possession of ten or twelve thousand sheep, and of three hundred camels.

Mr. Lucas congratulated the Governor on the victory, who thanked him; but “I fear,” said he, shaking his head, “that the news requires confirmation. There was a time, indeed, when the people of Tripoli knew how to conquer, and the Arabs trembled at the sight of an encampment.”

March 15th. On the next day but one, accounts were brought by different persons who arrived from the camp, that there had indeed been a skirmish, in their relation of which they varied much from each other; but they all agreed that the Bey had lost a greater number of men, and that the only cattle which he had obtained, were a few camels and some sheep that the straggling parties from the camp had seized.

Wearied with fruitless expectations of a peace, disappointed in their expedients, and warned by the increasing heat, that the season for a journey to Fezzan was already past, the Shereefs now resolved to proceed to the intended places of their Summer residence.

The Shereef Fouwad retired to Wadan, his native town; and the Shereef Imhammed, with tears in his eyes, and an earnest prayer that he might see his friend Mr. Lucas again in November, retired to the mountains, where he had many acquaintance, and could live at a small expence.

March 20th. A few days afterwards, Mr. Lucas took leave of the Governor, to whose civilities he had been much indebted, and having accompanied a small caravan as far as Lebida, embarked in a coasting vessel at the neighbouring village of Legatah, and went by sea to Tripoli, where the Bashaw, upon whom he waited, and to whom with many acknowledgments he returned the mule, not only received him with great kindness, but expressed his hope that better fortune would attend him another year.

April 6th. From Tripoli he sailed for Malta, and after a tedious quarantine, which the suspicion of the plague at Mesurata had much prolonged, he took his departure for Marseilles, and on the 26th of July arrived in England.

INTRODUCTION
TO
CHAPTER IV.

An account has already been given of the opportunity which the length of his residence in Mesurata afforded to Mr. Lucas, of obtaining from the Shereef Imhammed a description of the Kingdom of Fezzan, and of such of the countries beyond it to the South as the Shereef himself had visited.

But though this intelligent stranger had no discoverable motive for deception, yet as the solitary evidence of any individual excites but a dubious belief, Mr. Lucas was anxious to learn from the Governor of Mesurata, who had formerly travelled to Fezzan, his idea of the truth of the Narrative. With this view he asked and received the Governor’s permission to read to him the memorandums that the repeated conversations of Imhammed had enabled him to make.

“The Shereef’s Account of Fezzan,” said the Governor, “my own knowledge confirms; and many of the particulars which he relates of Bornou and Cashna I have heard from the report of others. His countrymen say that he is better acquainted with both than any other individual among them; and such is the opinion which the King himself entertains of his probity, knowledge, and talents, that to his management is always entrusted whatever business in either of those empires his Sovereign has to transact.”

But while Mr. Lucas, with a prudent and laudable caution, was thus endeavouring to ascertain the truth of the Shereef’s account, another, and perhaps more decisive test of its value was fortunately obtained in England.—For, before the return of Mr. Lucas, or the arrival of his papers, the Committee of the Association, assisted by Mr. Dodsworth, (whose residence of fourteen years in Barbary had given him a competent knowledge of Arabic) had procured from Ben Alli, a native of Morocco, at that time in London, an account of all those countries to the South of the Desart of Zahara, which, in the course of his extensive Travels as a Merchant, he had formerly visited: and though his remarks appear to be those of a superficial Observer, who possesses activity of spirit rather than energy of mind, and whose remembrance of what he saw is impaired by the lapse of near twenty years; yet, (as will be seen in the following pages) the general conformity of his description of Bornou to that which the Shereef has given, has an obvious tendency to strengthen the credit of the latter.

This short account of the nature of the only external evidence that has yet been obtained in support of the following Narrative seemed to be due from the Committee; but in what degree that evidence is impressive of belief, or what internal marks of authenticity the Work itself may afford, the judgment of others must decide; for on these points, it is evident that each individual must determine for himself. In forming his opinion, however, it is requisite he should know, that while the most anxious attention has been given to the faithful preservation of the sense of the Original, an entire change has been made in its language and arrangement; a change which, the obvious advantage of methodizing conversations, as desultory as they were numerous, of separating the blended accounts of unconnected objects, and of uniting a variety of broken and detached descriptions of the same thing, has unavoidably occasioned.

CHAPTER IV.

Rout from Mesurata — Enumeration of the principal Towns of Fezzan — Account of its Climate and principal Productions — Description of the Manners, Religion, and Government of its People, their Revenue, Administration of Justice, and Military Force.

Fezzan, whose small and circular domain is placed in the vast Wilderness, as an island in the midst of the ocean, is situated to the South of Mesurata. A journey of eight days, through districts but little inhabited or improved, though naturally not unfertile, conducts the Traveller to the town of Wadan, where every requisite for the refreshment of the caravan is found.—From thence, in five hours, he arrives at the forlorn village of Houn, on the edge of the Desart of Soudah, on whose black and obdurate soil, the basis of which is a soft stone, no vegetable but the Talk is seen to grow. To this tree, which is of the size of the small Olive, and bears a sprig of yellow flowers, the husbandman of Fezzan is indebted for the hard and lemon-coloured wood of which he forms the handles of his tools, and the frames of his larger instruments. Having crossed the Desart, which furnishes no water, and for the passage of which four days are requisite, the Traveller accepts the refreshments of a miserable village that affords him nothing but dates of the worst quality, some brackish water, and a small supply of Indian corn, of the species called Gassób. From Zéghen, by which name the village is distinguished, a single day conducts him to the town of Sebbah, where the large remains of an antient castle, built upon a hill, and other venerable ruins, that in point of extent are compared to those of Lebida, impress on his mind the melancholy idea of departed greatness; while, on the other hand, the humble dwellings of the modern inhabitants, and the rich vegetation of their neighbouring fields, present to his eye an ample store of all that is requisite for the sustenance of man.—Dates, barley, Indian corn, pompions, cucumbers, fig trees, pomegranates, and apricots, and for meaner purposes, the white thorn and Spanish broom are described as but a part of the numerous vegetables that reward the industry of the people. The animals in which they most abound are said to be the common fowl, and the brown long-haired and broad-tailed sheep.

From Sebbah a journey of two days transports the Traveller to Goddoua, a small town of similar produce; and from thence, in two days more, he arrives at Mourzouk, the capital of the kingdom of Fezzan.

This city[3] is surrounded by a high wall, which not only furnishes the means of defence, but affords to the Government an opportunity of collecting, at its three gates, a tax on all goods (though provisions are exempted) that are brought for the supply of its people. Its distance from Mesurata, which borders on the coast, and with respect to which its situation is nearly South, is about[4] 390 miles.

Eastward of Mourzouk, and situated in a district of remarkable fertility, is the town of Zuéela, in which the remnants of antient buildings, the number and size of the cisterns, and the construction of the vaulted caves, intended perhaps as repositories for corn, exhibit such vestiges of antient splendour, as will probably attract, and may highly reward the attention of the future Traveller.

To the South of Zuéela, and nearly at the same distance from the capital, is the town of Jermah, which, like Zuéela, is distinguished by the numerous herds, especially of sheep and goats, that are seen around it; by the various and abundant produce of its adjacent fields; and by numerous and majestic ruins, that exhibit to the ignorant inhabitants of its clay-built cottages inscriptions of which they know not the meaning, and vestiges of greatness to which they are perfectly indifferent.

Tessouwa, a considerable town, is also situated to the Eastward of the capital; but seems to have no claim to particular attention. Near this town, a river which the Shereef describes as overwhelmed in the moving sands, but which he remembers a deep and rapid stream, had formerly its course.

More remote from Mourzouk, being distant from it in a N.E. direction, about 120 miles, is the large town of Temmissa. Here the caravan of Pilgrims from Bornou and Nigritia, which takes its departure from Mourzouk, and travels by the way of Cairo to Mecca, usually provides the stores of corn and dates, and dried meat, that are requisite for its dreary passage.

S.E. from the capital, and distant from it about sixty miles, is the small town of Kattrón, which seems to be remarkable for nothing but the quantity which it breeds of the common fowl, and for the abundant crops of Indian corn which the neighbouring lands afford.

Very differently distinguished is the town, or rather the province, of Mendrah, for though much of its land is a continued level of hard and barren soil, the quantity of Trona, a species of fossil alkali that floats on the surface, or settles on the banks of its numerous smoaking lakes, has given it a higher importance than that of the most fertile districts.

Of this valuable produce great quantities are annually brought by the Merchants of Fezzan to Tripoli, from whence it is shipped for Turkey and Tunis, and the dominions of the Emperor of Morocco. The people of the latter employ it as an ingredient in the red dye of the leather, for which they are famous, and in that of the woollen caps that are worn by the Arabs and the Moors as the basis of their turbans.

The situation of Mendrah is nearly South from the capital, and is distant from it about sixty miles.

To the account which has been given of the principal towns of Fezzan, that of Tegérhy alone remains to be added. It is but a small town, is situated S.W. of the capital, about eighty miles, and collects from its lands but little other produce than dates and Indian corn. The territory of Fezzan, to the Westward of the capital, appears to extend but a little way; for on that side, the sullen barrenness of the Desart, more effectually than the strongest human power, prescribes a limit to the pursuits of Avarice and to the efforts of Ambition.

Of the smaller towns of Fezzan, and of its scattered villages, the number of which, including that of the towns, is said to be little less than one hundred, the Shereef has given no particular description.

The towns themselves appear to be chiefly inhabited by husbandmen and shepherds; for, though they also contain the Merchants, the Artificers, the Ministers of Religion, and the Officers of the Executive Government; yet, the business of agriculture and pasturage seems to be the principal occupation of the natives of Fezzan.

In every town a market for butcher’s meat, and corn, and fruit, and garden vegetables, is regularly held. Mutton and goats flesh are sold by the quarter, without being weighed; the usual price of a quarter of a goat or sheep is from thirty-two to forty grains of gold dust, or from four to five shillings of English money. The flesh of the camel, which is much more highly valued, is commonly sold at a dearer rate, and is divided into smaller lots.

The houses, like those of the little villages in the neighbourhood of Tripoli, are built of clay, and are covered with a flat roof, that is composed of the boughs and branches of trees, on which a quantity of earth is laid. Inartificial and defective as this covering appears, it is suited to the climate: for as rain is never known in Fezzan, the principal requisites of a roof are shelter from the dews, and protection from the sun.

The heats of the Summer, which begins in April and continues till November, are so intense, that, from nine in the morning till sun-set, the streets are frequented only by the labouring people, and even in the houses respiration would be difficult, if the expedient of wetting the apartments did not furnish its salutary aid. Of this torrid clime the fierceness is chiefly felt from the month of May to the latter end of August; during which period, the course of the wind is usually from the E. the S.E. the S. or the S.W. and though from the two latter points it blows with violence, the heat is often such as to threaten instant suffocation; but if it happens to change, as, for a few days, it sometimes does, to the W. or N.W. a reviving freshness immediately succeeds.

The dress of the inhabitants of Fezzan is similar to that of the Moors of Barbary. The immediate covering of the body consists of a pair of large trowsers, of linen or cloth, which descends to the small of the leg, and of a shirt, which is wide in the sleeves, but close at the breast, and the skirts of which hang over and conceal the upper part of the trowsers. Next to the shirt is worn a kind of waistcoat, which in shape resembles the shirt, except that it has no sleeves, and that it reaches no lower than the waist; and to the waistcoat is superadded a jacket, with tight sleeves which extend to the wrist, but which are left unbuttoned and open from the wrist almost to the elbow. Thus far their dress may be said to be similar to that of a British seaman, its colour excepted, and except too, that the shirt is not open at the breast, that the waistcoat is not fastened with buttons, but is put on like the shirt, and that the bottom of the shirt hangs down on the outside of the trowsers.

Over the jacket is worn a loose robe, which reaches below the knee, and the sleeves of which, though wider than those of the jacket, are made in the same form, and, like them, are left open at the wrist.

A girdle of crimson silk binds the robe to the waist; and a long cloth (called a barakan or alhaique) of the shape of a Highlander’s plaid, and worn in the same way, is thrown over the whole. The legs, as far as the calves, to which the trowsers descend, are covered with a kind of short stockings, which are made of leather, and are laced like the half boot of an Englishman. The feet are accommodated with slippers; and the head is protected by a red woollen cap, which is incircled by the folds of a silk or muslin turban.

Ample as this cloathing may appear, the further provision of a long cloak with a large hood is often considered as requisite. It is called a burnoose, and in fine weather is usually carried on the shoulder.

Such, when complete, is the dress of the inhabitants of Fezzan. But in the Summer months the common people have no other covering than the drawers, which decency requires; and the caps, which protect their heads from the immediate action of the sun, for in other respects their bodies are compleatly naked.

Nature and custom have formed their constitutions to such high degrees of heat, that any approach to the common temperament of Europe entirely destroys their comfort; for Mr. Lucas often observed, in his journey to Mesurata, that when the scorching heat of the noon-day beams had compelled him to seek the shade, his fellow-travellers, especially if the wind was in the North, laid themselves down, upon the sand in the open sun, in order to receive a double portion of his warmth; and when, as their custom was, they enquired after his health, they, almost always, concluded with the expression, “Heack m’andick berd,” we hope you are not cold.

The Diseases that are most frequent in Fezzan are those of the inflammatory, and those of the putrid kind.

The small-pox is common among the inhabitants; violent head-achs attack them in the Summer; and they are often afflicted with rheumatic pains.

Their old women are their principal physicians. For pains in the head they prescribe cupping and bleeding; for pains in the limbs they send their patients to bathe in the hot lakes, which produce the trona; and for obstinate achs and strains, and long continued stiffness in the muscles, they have recourse, like the horse-doctors of Europe and the physicians of Barbary, to the application of a burning iron.

The use of the strongest oils, and of the most powerful herbs, is also frequent among them.

To the nature of their climate the greatest part of their diseases is probably owing; and to this cause they are certainly indebted for the extraordinary multitude of noxious and of loathsome animals that infest their country. Adders, snakes, scorpions, and toads, are the constant inhabitants of their fields, their gardens, and their houses. The air is crowded with mosquitos; and persons of every rank are over-run with all the different kinds of vermin that attack the beggars of Europe; and though in the Summer the fleas entirely disappear, the inhabitants are scarcely sensible of relief.

In their persons, the natives of Fezzan incline to the Negro much more than to the Arab cast. Those who travelled with Mr. Lucas from Tripoli to Mesurata, and who were fourteen in number, had short curly black hair, thick lips, flat broad noses, and a dark[5] skin, which, either from their habitual nastiness, the vermin with which they are covered, or the natural rankness of their perspiration, emits the most nauseous and fetid effluvia. They are tall, but not strong; well shaped, yet indolent, inactive, and weak; and though the Shereef Fouwad is described as majestic in his appearance, yet his countrymen, in general, are considered at Tripoli as a people of remarkable ugliness.

In their common intercourse with each other all distinctions of rank appear to be forgotten; for the Shereef and the lowest plebeian, the rich and the poor, the master and the man, converse familiarly, and eat and drink together. Generous and eminently hospitable, the Fezzanner, let his fare be scanty or abundant, is ever desirous that others should partake of his meal; and if twenty people should unexpectedly visit his dwelling, they must all participate as far as it will go.

When they settle their money transactions, they squat down upon the ground, and having levelled a spot with their hands, make dots as they reckon; and if they find themselves wrong, they smooth the spot again, and repeat the calculation. All this time the by-standers, though they have nothing to do with the business, are as eager to put in their word, and to correct mistakes, as if the affair was their own. Even in common conversation, if they sit without doors, they level the sand in order to go on with their discourse, and at every sentence mark it with their fingers.

An extensive plain, encompassed by mountains, the irregular circle of which is interrupted on the West, where it seems to communicate with the Desart, composes the Kingdom of Fezzan. To the influence of the neighbouring heights it may possibly be owing, that in Fezzan, as in the Upper Egypt, the situation of which is extremely similar, no rain is ever known to fall.

A light sand constitutes the general soil; and sand hills of various forms are seen in particular districts; but though the character of the surface and the dryness of the Heavens may seem to announce an eternal sterility, yet the springs are so abundant, and so ample a store of subterraneous water is supplied by the adjacent heights, that few regions in the North of Africa exhibit a richer vegetation. From wells of eight or ten feet deep, with several of which every garden and every field are furnished, the husbandman waters, at sun-rise, the natural or artificial productions of his land. Of these the principal are,

The Talk, a tree that in size resembles the small Olive. It flowers in yellow sprigs, and supplies the hard and lemon-coloured wood, from which the handles and frames of the Fezzanner’s instruments of husbandry are made:

The White Thorn:

A kind of brushwood that resembles the Spanish broom:

The Date tree, which is common:

The Olive and the Lime, which are described as scarce; the Apricot, the Pomegranate, and the Fig:

Indian corn and barley, the two favourite objects of the Fezzanner’s cultivation:

Wheat, of which but little is raised:

Pompions or calabash, carrots, cucumbers, onions, and garlick.

Of the tame animals that are raised in Fezzan, the Shereef enumerates,

The Sheep, which is described as of a light brown colour; as having a broad tail, and as cloathed with a species of hair rather than of wool:

The Cow, which does not seem to be common, except in a few districts in which the pasture is excellent:

The Goat, and the Camel:

A species of the domestic fowl of Europe.

The wild animals of the country are,

The Ostrich:

Antelopes of various kinds, one of which is called the Huaddee, and is celebrated for the singular address with which, when chased by the hunter amidst its craggy heights, it plunges from the precipice, and lighting on its hams without danger of pursuit, continues till evening in the vale below:

A species of deer of a smaller size than the common park deer of England. Its head, neck, and back, are of a brownish red; and a pale streak of the same colour, running on a white ground, is continued on each side from the haunch to the hoof: the rest of the body is of a clear and delicate white. Such, if the Fezanners are to be credited, is the cleanliness of its temper, or such, more probably, is its dislike to the chill of a watery soil, that during the autumnal rains, which fall in the Desarts of Zahara, where it chiefly inhabits, no traces of its lying down have ever yet been seen. In the stillness of the night it often ventures to the corn fields of Fezzan, where, in traps prepared for the purpose, it is sometimes taken.

The food of the lower classes of the people consists of the flour of Indian corn, seasoned with oil; of dates, apricots, and pomegranates, and of calabashes, cucumbers, and garden roots.

Persons of a superior rank are also supplied with wheat bread, which is baked in their own houses; with mutton, goats flesh, the flesh of the camel, and that of the antelope; and with a great variety of fruits, and of garden vegetables.

Fezzan produces a sufficiency of salt for the consumption of its own inhabitants.

The water in general has a mineral taste; yet some of the springs are pure; but the favourite beverage consists of a liquor which the date tree, like the palm, affords. At first it possesses the mild flavour and cooling quality of orgeat; but acquires, when fermented, an acescent taste and intoxicating strength that are still more highly valued.

To the palm the loss of so large a proportion of its sap is generally fatal; but the hardier date tree recovers from its wound, and in the course of two or three years regains its former health.

In their Religion the people of Fezzan are rigid Mahometans; not intolerant to the opinions of others, but strict and superstitious in the observance of their own.

The Government of Fezzan is purely monarchical; but its powers, which seem to be restricted by the influence of opinion, are administered with such paternal regard to the happiness of the people, the rights of property are so much revered, the taxes are so moderate, and the course of justice is directed by so firm, and yet so temperate a hand, that the inhabitants of Fezzan (as far as a judgment can be formed from the feelings of those who travelled with Mr. Lucas) are affectionately and ardently attached to their Sovereign.[6]

The present King, Mohammed Ben Mohammed, is descended from one of the Shereefs of Tafilet, in the kingdom of Morrocco, who was related to the Regal Family of that empire, and who, about 400 years since, obtained possession of the Crown of Fezzan.

From that period to the middle of the present century, the kingdom maintained its Independence; but at the latter æra, the Bashaw of Tripoli invaded it with a powerful force, laid siege to the capital, defeated, and took captive the King, and carried him a prisoner to Tripoli. For two years the unfortunate Monarch was detained in bondage, but at the end of that period, on the condition of an annual tribute of fifty slaves and ten pounds of gold dust, the Bashaw restored him to his Crown.

Till the accession of the present King of Fezzan, this tribute was faithfully transmitted; but the reigning Sovereign, conscious of the declining power of Tripoli, and of the internal strength which the affection and confidence of his people had given to his Kingdom, has gradually diminished the amount, and altered the nature of the acknowledgement; for it now consists in an occasional present of a few slaves, and of a pound or two of gold dust, and is rather the compliment of a trading State to the Kingdom in which its principal commodities are sold, than a proof of political dependence. Still, however, the expression of my Kingdom of Fezzan is in frequent use with the reigning Bashaw of Tripoli, who is the grandson of the Conqueror; nor has the dependence of the former State on the latter been ever directly renounced.[7]

In Fezzan, as in all the Countries in which the Mahometan Faith is established, the descendants of the Prophet are considered as a distinct and highly privileged order. Their property is sacred; their persons are inviolable; and while the colour of their turbans, and the revered title of Shereef, announce to the people the august dignity which they bear, they derive from the hereditary nature of their privileges a high degree of permanent influence, and sometimes of dangerous power.[8]

Among the privileges of their rank may be numbered an exemption from certain punishments, and that sort of general indulgence which the prevalent dread of shedding the blood of the Prophet unavoidably creates.

To these circumstances of distinction it is owing that, like the Nobility of other States, they are sometimes subjected to, and feel a particular apprehension of the penalty of dishonour, especially of that of having dust thrown upon their heads.