Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa, Vol. 1 (of 5) : $b being a journal of an expedition undertaken under the auspices of H.B.M.'s Government, in the years 1849-1855Barth, Heinrich
History
Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa, Vol. 1 (of 5) : $b being a journal of an expedition undertaken under the auspices of H.B.M.'s Government, in the years 1849-1855
Barth, Heinrich
Africa, Central -- Description and travel; Africa, North -- Description and travel
Soon after starting, we emerged from the palm-groves which constitute
the charm of Tripoli, and continued our march over the rocky ground.
Being a little in advance with the shoush, I halted to wait for the
rest, when a very peculiar cry, that issued from the old Roman building
on the road-side, called “Kasr el Jahalíyeh,” perplexed us for a moment.
But we soon learnt, to our great surprise, not unmixed with regret, that
it was our kind friend Frederic Warrington, who had been waiting for us
here the whole night. From the top of the ruin, which stands on an
isolated rock left purposely in the midst of a quarry, there is a widely
extensive view. It appears that, before the Arabs built the castle, this
site was occupied by Roman sepulchres. A little further on we passed the
stone of Sidi ʿArífa. This stone had fallen upon the head of a workman
who was digging a well. The workman, so runs the legend, escaped unhurt;
and at Sidi ʿArífa’s word the stone once more sprung to the surface.
Further on, near the sea-shore, we passed the chapel of Sidi Salah, who
is said to have drawn by magic to his feet, from the bottom of the sea,
a quantity of fish ready dressed.
From this point our kind friend Mr. Frederic Warrington returned with
his followers to the town, and we were left to ourselves. We then turned
off from the road, and entered the fine date-plantation of Zenzúr,
celebrated in the fourteenth century, as one of the finest districts of
Barbary, by the Sheikh e’ Tijáni, passing by a great magazine of corn,
and a mouldering clay-built castle, in which were quartered a body of
horsemen of the Urshefāna. Fine olive-trees pleasingly alternated with
the palm-grove, while the borders of the broad sandy paths were neatly
fenced with the _Cactus opuntia_. Having passed our former place of
encampment in Sayáda, we were agreeably surprised to see at the western
end of the plantation a few new gardens in course of formation; for
there is a tax, levied not on the produce of the tree, but on the tree
itself, which naturally stands in the way of new plantations.
Having halted for a short time at noon near the little oasis of Sidi
Ghár, where the ground was beautifully adorned with a profusion of
lilies; and having passed Jedaim, we encamped towards evening in the
wide courtyard of the Kasr Gamúda, where we were kindly received by the
Kaimakám Mustapha Bey, whom I was providentially destined to meet twice
again, viz. on my outset from, and on my final return to, Fezzan. The
whole plantation of Zawíya, of which Gamúda forms a part, is said to
contain a hundred and thirty thousand palm-trees.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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