Narrative of travels and discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824Denham, Dixon
History
Narrative of travels and discoveries in Northern and Central Africa, in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824
Denham, Dixon
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, North -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Africa, North
From El Wahr to Meshroo are three very fatiguing days without water,
or a single vestige of verdure. We were not able to reach the well,
and halted short of the Beeban el Meshroo, the pass leading to the
well, nearly four miles. On Sunday, the 8th of November, we arrived
at the well,—watered our weary camels, and our more weary men,
and again pursued our route until night, when we pitched westward
of the well of Omhah; and after one more dreary day, at night
(Nov. 9th) we slept under the palm trees which surround Tegerhy,
the most miserable inhabited spot in Fezzan, nay, in the world,
I might almost say, and yet we hailed it with inexpressible joy,
after the pitiless deserts we had passed.
The fatigue and difficulty of a journey to Bornou is not to
be compared with a return to Fezzan: the nine days from Izhya
to Tegerhy, without either forage or wood, is distressing beyond
description, to both camels and men, at the end of such a journey
as this. The camels, already worn out by the heavy sand-hills,
have the stony desert to pass; the sharp points bruise their feet,
and they totter, and fall under their heavy loads: the people, too,
suffer severely from the scanty portion of provisions, mostly dates,
that can be brought on by these tired animals,—and altogether it is
nine days of great distress and difficulty. There is something about
El Wahr surpassing dreariness itself: the rocks are dark sandstone,
of the most gloomy and barren appearance; the wind whistles through
the narrow fissures, which disdain to afford nourishment even to a
single blade of wild grass; and as the traveller creeps under the
lowering crags, to take shelter for the night, stumbling at each
step over the skeleton of some starved human being, and searching
for level spots on the hard rock, on which to lay his wearied body,
he may fancy himself wandering in the wilds of desolation and despair.
On the day of our making El Wahr, and the two following days, camels
in numbers dropped and died, or were quickly killed, and the meat
brought on by the hungry slaves. Kafilas are obliged to rely on the
chance of Tibboos and Arabs from Mourzuk hearing of their having
passed the desert, and bringing them supplies; should these fail,
many poor creatures must fall a sacrifice for the salvation of the
rest. These bringers of supplies usually sell their dates and corn
to eager buyers, at about four times the price they could obtain
for them in Fezzan; besides which, the merchants gladly hire their
unburthened camels to quicken their passage to a better country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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