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
_9th._--Rose as the day broke, and started with the first rays of the
sun. Continued through the same kind of country, with an addition of a
little sand here and there, for five hours, until we arrived at the well
of Nijberten, to our great joy, for it is a well of deliciously sweet
water. Around the well, I was pleased with the sight of several dark
bushes scattered upon the small sand-hills. Anything in the shape of a
tree now gladdens the heart. I observe again, that vegetation often
springs out of the sand in preference to the hard or even softer earth in
The Sahara. A little sand, scattered over the hard earth, and oftener
solid rock, enables vegetation to spring up, when the mould of Sahara
produces nothing. But there is little or no herbage for camels. Give my
nagah the barley which I provided for my own use. People ridicule the
choice of Rais Mustapha in the purchase of the camel, and say she will
never carry me to Soudan.
I'm now writing the journal of yesterday. I can't write every day.
Sometimes several days elapse. Often wonder how Denham could write his
journal every day, as he asserts. The wind is high and is scattering sand
in every direction. Certainly I require no supply of sand when turning
over my sheet wet with the ink.
Before we get to the water, we are obliged to scoop out the sand as at
Mislah. Many pits in Sahara are in this predicament. But we are
infinitely more repaid for our pains, for we find most refreshing
nectar-like water, as good as the last was bad. I imagine I drank off a
full gallon at once. I was praying night and day for this water, and was
obliged to go from tent to tent, begging a drop of the water which was
left of Nather well, until all the skins were empty of that water. Some
of the merchants kept a little in a small skin as a luxury. But I must do
our people justice, for seeing I could not drink the Mislah water, they
gave me often their sweet water and themselves drank the brackish. I must
add, I see no striking moral difference between the people of this Desert
caravan, and the people who fill an English mail-coach or a French
diligence. Mankind are morally much the same everywhere. The last sixteen
centuries have added little or nothing to discovery and amendment in
morals, however orthodox we may all have become. Our Christendom has been
chiefly occupied in resisting the worst features of the Mosaic economy as
engrafted by the corruptions of the Church on the Christian system. The
commission to Moses, "to extirpate the Canaanitish tribes," has been the
universal war-cry of the dominant party in the Church to burn and empale
heretics. There are still many divinity professors who think it right to
kill heretics and infidels. The society of the nineteenth century is
still eaten up by the most rancorous bigotry, and morality is
proportionably at a low ebb. Nevertheless, with all our present Desert
hardships, we are an easy journeying caravan; the patience of no one is
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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