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
particularly tried, and there is no event to draw out the real passions
of the soul. We are now five days from Ghat; to-morrow being the Ayed
Kebir, we shall make but a short day. Had a little private conversation
with a Souf Arab. There are some fifty families of Jews in Souf, occupied
in commerce. Speaking of the eternal quarrel of the Shânbah and Souafah,
I found him a strong partisan of the Shânbah. "Fine fellows are the
Shânbah, like us the Souafah; one Shânbah would kill five Touaricks," he
exclaimed. Souf is a rich country. This Souf Arab has thirty fine dughla
date-trees, one of finest species. Riches are estimated by the number of
date-trees. He has two brothers now returning from Soudan, bringing
slaves and elephants' teeth for the markets of Algeria.
The notorious Mohammed Sagheer, who slaughtered thirty Frenchmen in cold
blood at Biscara, is now at Tozer, in Tunis. This flight of fugitives
will continue as long as France is in North Africa. It is inevitable.
When a political refugee is quiet his person should be held sacred; and
it was very dastardly on the part of the French to demand to have this
Arab Sheikh given up. But the French mind is incapable of comprehending
what is a political asylum, or even what is constitutional freedom. Local
politics still stick close to our ghafalah, and the people have such
faith in my power and influence, that they really believe I could, if I
would, get Ghadames freed from paying tribute to the Porte. An Arab of
Derge said, "If you return from Soudan, and speak to the English Consul
and English Sultan, you will then serve us in Derge and Ghadames, but if
you don't come back we are all lost." The British Consul of Tripoli
might, indeed, do something for these oppressed people, and save the
Saharan commerce from impending ruin. I quiet the people by telling them,
(and which is the fact,) I have repeatedly written to the English Consul
of Tripoli about their affairs, and to obtain some mitigation of the
oppression of their Government.
The bushes springing out of the sand are but a couple of feet high, and
their dark foliage is covered with crystallized salt. They are a stinted
species of acacia. Nijberten is the first Touarghee name _en route_, and
now we are fairly in the Ghat territory. On our right, a day's journey
over some ranges of hills, are tents and flocks and inhabited districts.
Passed several tumuli of stones raised in the shape of graves. To-day the
stone had a better appearance, a good deal of grey and red marble, and
some isolated blocks of granite. No birds, insects, or animals. Course
south.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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