Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Volume 2: Under the Orders and at the Expense of Her Majesty's GovernmentRichardson, James
History
Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Volume 2: Under the Orders and at the Expense of Her Majesty's Government
Richardson, James
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, North -- Description and travel; Richardson, James, 1806-1851
A circular letter arrived to-day from Aghadez, addressed to all the
Tuaricks, written by Mustapha Bey of Mourzuk, recommending them to
render us all necessary protection. It is dated back two months.
Probably this letter was written on account of the unfavourable
intelligence which reached Mourzuk respecting us. To-morrow, please God,
we start for Soudan.
_12th._--Thank God! we left our encampment of Chintagawna this morning.
And oh, most gracious God! give us a prosperous journey, and may we be
useful to ourselves and our fellow-creatures.
We started about eleven o'clock, and went on about three hours and
a-half. The day was very cool; the thermometer in the morning, at
sunrise, being only three degrees above the freezing-point. We expect to
see the water freeze on the high plains through which we are about to
pass, before arriving at Damerghou. Our encampment is a pleasant wady,
under a conical-formed rock of considerable elevation, perhaps 1500
feet. We are also in a high situation, some 1000 or more feet above the
level of the sea. There is near this rock a lower one of an oblong form,
its sides fluted with pillars; these columnar masses are basalt. Dr.
Overweg examined the rocks, and found the outer crust a new species of
rock, a sort of trachite or brachite; and the interior a sort of basalt,
or volcanic substance. The large rock is also of the same formation. Dr.
Barth ascended the large rock.
I am now told that I made a great mistake about the wording of the
circular letter of Mustapha Bey. This letter begins by thanking the
Tuaricks of Aheer for exterminating the Walad Suleiman! It then hints
broadly at the necessity for the Turks in Mourzuk and the Tuaricks of
Aheer being friends; and to maintain this friendship one important
condition is required--that they, the Tuaricks of Aheer, shall protect
all the merchants or other travellers passing through their country, and
coming from Mourzuk. In the event of their committing a bad action, the
Bey says he may be compelled to make reprisals; so it is quite clear the
letter is written entirely on our account, and perhaps is a preliminary
measure to making reprisals. _Nous verrons._ This letter is only
addressed to the people of Aheer.
If water be the sustaining and even the generative force of vegetation
in the desert, it is also the destruction of trees and herbage; for
along the line of the current of the wady are seen immense numbers of
dead and overthrown trees, torn from their roots by the force of the
water in the rainy season. En-Noor paid me a visit this afternoon, and
took a nap in my tent.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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