Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846Richardson, James
History
Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846
Richardson, James
Sahara -- Description and travel
_10th._--To-day I ran about town to tire myself, in order to sleep at
nights. This morning, one of the two expected ghafalahs of Tripoli,
consisting of 117 camels and twenty traders of Ghadames, arrived; the
other ghafalah will arrive in a few days. The ghafalah has brought goods
only for the interior. The merchants just come report in town, "That
Yâkob (myself) has written to the English Consul of Tripoli, informing
him how _Aaron_ (_Signor Silva_) lends money and goods to the merchants
of Ghadames, with which goods and money to go into the interior, and
traffick in slaves." This is substantially correct; but it was written in
confidence to Colonel Warrington, and to no other person in Tripoli. I
expressly begged Colonel Warrington not to divulge the fact, or my
mention of such a matter, until I was out of the lion's mouth of the
slave-dealing interests of this part of North Africa. The Consul,
however, deemed it his duty to disregard my request, and to divulge or
violate this confidence, and posted up a placard on the door of the
Tripoline Consulate, stating, "That certain merchants, under British
protection, were accused of slave-dealing with the merchants of Ghadames,
and calling upon them to clear themselves from such an imputation." Of
course, as there was nobody else likely to make such an accusation but
myself, being well known as an anti-slavery man in Tripoli, the public
attention was at once directed to me as the accuser. The other merchant
alluded to is Mr. Laby (Levi), a Barbary Jew, and the head of a house in
Tripoli. Mr. Silva is also a Jew, but from Europe. This report,
circulating from mouth to mouth, has created a tremendous sensation in
Ghadames; and the people fancy they see in it not only a blow aimed at
them and the slave-trade, but the final ruin of their commerce, already
sufficiently crippled by the oppression of the Turks. I am, therefore,
obliged to Colonel Warrington, not so much for facilitating my progress
in the interior, as for increasing my difficulties a hundred-fold. I was
astonished that a high functionary, of thirty-three years' experience in
these countries, should have committed such an act of egregious
indiscretion, exposing the life of a fellow countryman to such increased
danger, who was already without any kind of guaranteed protection. If I
had been murdered in The Desert tract from Ghadames to Ghat, it would
have most justly been attributed to the placard placed on the doors of
the Consulate at Tripoli. Justice requires from me, however, that I
should state an indiscretion also on my part. I wrote to the Consul that
I had communicated the charge against Messrs. Silva and Levi to the
Secretary of the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, and did not
add, as I ought perhaps to have done, that I had likewise begged of Mr.
Scoble not to make the charge public for the present. Colonel Warrington
was afraid the charge would be known in London before he had reported
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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