Fire Arms are unknown to such of the nations on the South of the Niger as the Shereef has visited; and the reason which he assigns for it is, that the Kings in the neighbourhood of the coast, persuaded that if these powerful instruments of war should reach the possession of the populous inland States, their own independence would be lost, have strictly prohibited, and by the wisdom of their measures, have effectually prevented this dangerous merchandize from passing beyond the limit of their dominions. ~CHAPTER IX.~ _General View of the Trade from Fezzan to Tripoli, Bornou, Cashna, and the Countries on the South of the Niger._ * * * * * In the general description of Fezzan, an account was given of the various articles of native produce which supply the wants, or contribute to the trade of its people; but of their _Foreign_ Commerce, for which, like the Dutch in Europe, they are eminently distinguished, the detail was purposely deferred: for till a previous account of the countries to which that commerce is established had been exhibited, no adequate conception of its nature or extent could be easily conveyed. At the latter end of October, when the ardent heat of the Summer months is succeeded by the pleasant mildness and settled serenity of Autumn, the several caravans that are respectively destined for Tripoli and Bornou and Cashna, and the Negro Nations beyond the Niger, take their departure from Mourzouk, the capital of Fezzan. The parties which compose them are generally small; for unless information has been received that the road is infested with robbers, ten or a dozen Merchants, attended by twice as many camels, and by the necessary servants, constitute the usual strength of the caravan; but if an attack is apprehended, an association of forty or fifty men, with muskets for their defence, is formed; and as none of the Africans to the South of Fezzan (the people of Agadez and the nations on the coast excepted) have yet possessed themselves of fire-arms, the collective force of such a number is sufficient to insure their safety. Their store of provisions usually consists of dates; of meal prepared from barley, or from Indian corn, and previously deprived of all its moisture in an oven temperately heated; and of mutton, which is cured for the purpose, by the treble process of being salted and dried in the sun, and afterwards boiled in oil or fat; a process which gives it, even in that climate, a lasting preservation.