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
_23rd._--Bought a camel this morning, a _nagah_, ناقه, or
"she-camel," for 25 dollars. Rais would have the honour of choosing
the camel, but it was scarcely worth the money. I hired another
camel to carry a portion of the baggage. Rais told me the Pasha had
offered to the Touaricks to equip an expedition, in conjunction with
them, against the Shânbah, but the Touaricks would not accept of the
aid, being determined to fight their own battles in their own way.
They might have thought that after the Pasha had destroyed the
Shânbah, he would have turned his arms against them.
_24th._--We are all confusion in getting off. It is late in the
afternoon. I have loaded the nagah, and disposed of my baggage; I have
bid a hundred people farewell, shaking them by the hands. We are
surrounded with the whole male population of the city, and half-caste
women. Rais is galloping about to see the people off. But a group of
people is now seen forming rapidly round a man and a boy, and a camel
just come in from The Desert with a load of wood, "What's the matter?"
"The Shânbah! the Shânbah!" people shout from detachment to detachment of
the ghafalah. The confusion of parting is succeeded by the terror and
rushing back of the people. The advanced party abruptly returns upon the
party immediately behind it, and all rush back to the gates of the city,
one running over the other. Rais appears amongst them to calm the
consternation. "What's the matter?" His Excellency is too much agitated
to answer the question. I find Sheik Makouran. "What's the matter?" "The
man and the boy just come in saw twenty-five Shânbah mounted on camels,
and the ghafalah cannot go. Rais is going to send out a scout, a
_Senawanee_, to see if it be the Shânbah, and then all the people are to
arm and go out against the robbers." A pretty kettle of fish, thought I.
The Governor then sent a man down to me, to come and sleep for the night
in his house. All the merchants return, but the camels and a few men
remain outside, close by the gate. A number of soldiers are sent round
the city, and the _Senawanee_ mounted on a maharee, goes off in the
direction where the Shânbah had been seen, the Rais accompanying him a
short distance. On his return, the Rais bitterly complained of the
merchants not furnishing him immediately with camels. It was some time
before he could get the scout off. I went up a mound outside of the city
to see the scout "out of sight." As the white form of the maharee was
disappearing in the glare of the sand, I admired the bravery of the
Senawanee, who thus defied single-handed a troop of robbers, bearding
them in their very ambush.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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