With regard to commerce, the condition of Múrzuk is very different from that of Ghadámes. The latter is the residence of wealthy merchants, who embark all their capital in commercial enterprises, and bring home their own merchandise. But Múrzuk is rather the thoroughfare than the seat of a considerable commerce, the whole annual value of imports and exports amounting, in a round sum, to 100,000 Spanish dollars; and the place, therefore, is usually in great want of money, the foreign merchants, when they have sold their merchandise, carrying away its price in specie,—the Mejábera to Jálo, the Tébu to Bílma and Bórnu, the people of Tawát and Ghadámes to their respective homes. Few of the principal merchants of Múrzuk are natives of the place. The western or Sudán route is more favourable to commerce than the route to Bórnu. On the latter the Tawárek are always ready to furnish any number of camels to carry merchandise, and to guarantee their safety, while the road to Bórnu, which is the nearest for Múrzuk, is in such a precarious state, that the merchant who selects it must convey his merchandise on his own camels and at his own risk. As for the routes through Fezzán, the Hotmán, the Zwáya, and the Megésha are the general carriers of the merchandise; while, on the route to Sudán, the conveyance at present is wholly in the hands of the Tinýlkum. As soon as Gagliuffi learned distinctly the plan of our expedition, he made an agreement with these people to take our things as far as Selúfiet; and they were anxious to be off. After much procrastination, they fixed upon the 6th of June for taking away the merchandise with which we had been provided here. We were to follow on the 12th; but the luggage not being ready at an early hour, our final departure was fixed for the 13th. [Footnote 56: I will here only remark, that the degree of heat observed here by Captain Lyon, which has astonished and perplexed all scientific men, is not the real state of the atmosphere, but evidently depended upon the peculiar character of the locality where that enterprising and meritorious traveller had placed his thermometer.] [Illustration: DR. BARTH’S TRAVELS IN NORTH AND CENTRAL AFRICA Sheet No. 4. MAP OF THE ROUTE FROM MÚRZUK TO WÁDÍ FALÉSSELEZ 13. June to 5. August 1850. Constructed and drawn by A. Petermann. Engraved by E. Weller, _Duke Strt. Bloomsbury._ _London, Longman & Co._] CHAP. VIII. THE DESERT. — TASÁWA. — EXACTIONS OF THE ESCORT. — DELAY AT ELÁWEN. [Sidenote: Thursday, June 13th.]