Chapter 25

The Oasis of Fezzan--Population--Ten Districts--Their Denomination and Condition--Sockna--Honn--Worm of the Natron Lakes--Zoueelah--Mixed Race--Improvements in Mourzuk--Heavy Ottoman Yoke--Results of the Census--Amount of Revenue--Military Force--Arab Cavaliers--Barracks--Method of Recruiting--Turkish System superior to French--Razzias--Population of Mourzuk--Annual Market--Articles of Traffic--Acting-Governor and his Coadjutors--Story of a faithless Woman--Transit Duties in Fezzan--Slave Trade--Sulphur in the Syrtis--Proposed Colony from Malta.

The Pashalic of Fezzan, although it occupies a considerable space upon the map--advancing like a peninsula from the line of Barbary countries into the Sahara--is in reality a very insignificant province. From all that I can learn, its entire population does not exceed twenty-six thousand souls, scattered about in little oases over a vast extent of country. It is, in fact, a portion of the Sahara, in which fertile valleys occur a little more frequently than in the other portions. Immense deserts, sometimes perfectly arid, but at others slightly sprinkled with herbage, separate these valleys; and are periodically traversed by caravans, great and small, which in the course of time have covered the country with a perfect network of tracks.

Fezzan is divided into ten districts, of which the principal is El-Hofrah, containing the capital, Mourzuk, and several smaller towns. It is here and there besprinkled with beautiful gardens, in which are cultivated, besides the date-palm, several of the choicest fruits that grow on the coast--as figs, grapes, peaches, pomegranates, and melons. In these gardens, as in most of the oases of the desert, the fruit trees that require most protection from the sun are planted between the palms, which make a kind of roof with their long leaves. Abd-el-Galeel destroyed many of these groves to punish their owners, refractory to his authority.

Two crops are obtained in the year: in the spring, barley and wheat are reaped; and in the summer and autumn, Indian corn, ghaseb, and other kinds of grain. All the culture is carried on by means of irrigation, the water being thrown over the fields by means of runnels of various dimensions twice in the day; that is, once early in the morning, and once late in the afternoon until dark.

Wady Ghudwah is a single town with gardens, and the other features common to all the Fezzan oases.

Sebha includes two towns, having a considerable population, with gardens and date-palms.

Bouanees includes three towns, well peopled, and has immense numbers of date-palms.

El-Jofrah contains the second capital or large town of the pashalic, Sockna, built of stones and mud, with nine or ten smaller towns, all tolerably populous.

Sockna is situated midway between Mourzuk and Tripoli, and is about fourteen days from the former. The inhabitants are Moors, and, besides Arabic, speak a Berber dialect. Sockna is celebrated for its fine sweet dates, called kothraee; and there is abundance of every kind of this fruit. A considerable quantity of grain is sown--wheat and barley--and the gardens abound with peaches. The town of Honn, distant about two hours from this place, is nearly as large, and also surrounded with gardens.

Wady Gharby, and Es-Shaty, have already been described. In the sands between these two places are situated the celebrated natron lakes, in which that miraculous dud ("worm") spontaneously appears at certain seasons of the year, and is eaten as people in Europe eat sardines--to sharpen the appetite. The natron is also a source of profitable exportation. Wady Sharky almost exactly resembles Wady Gharby, in population and natural features.

Sharkeeah, besides some insignificant places, includes the interesting ancient capital called Zoueelah, whence the name of Zoilah is given by the Tibboos to all Fezzan. Half the population of this place consists of Shereefs, and there are indeed great and increasing numbers of this class of persons throughout the whole country.

Ghatroun includes, with Tajerby the most southern place of Fezzan, three small towns. The inhabitants are all black, speaking the Tibbooese and Bornouese languages, and very little Arabic. The other nine districts above enumerated contain a mixed race, like the population of Mourzuk; but some of the northern towns are inhabited by people of purer blood, with comparatively fair complexions.

Mourzuk itself, the seat of the Pashalic,--distant about four hundred and twenty miles from Tripoli, in a straight line, and five hundred, counting the sinuosities of the road, _viâ_ Benioleed, Bonjem, and Sockna,--is a rising town, becoming daily more salubrious by the improvements made since the residence of the Turks here, and the subjection of the inhabitants to a more orderly and powerful government than they had been accustomed to. The British Consul, Mr. Gagliuffi, has rendered important aid to the administration, in embellishing the appearance of Mourzuk, and giving it the air and character of a Turkish city of the coast. Our camel-drivers pretend that it is already superior to Tripoli. At the Consul's suggestion a colonnade has been built in the main street, in front of the shops, affording shelter from the fiery rays of the summer sun, as well as being an agreeable place for the natives to lounge under and make their purchases. He was also the principal promoter of the erection of new barracks for the troops, and the appropriation of a large house as a hospital for the poor. His last improvement is the plantation of a garden of the choice fruit-trees and vegetables of the coast; and his example has been imitated by the Bim Bashaw, commandant of the troops, who is now laying out a garden in a conspicuous part of the city.

Since the departure of Abd-el-Galeel with his Arab followers, the Walad Suleiman, for the neighbourhood of Bornou, the province of Fezzan has certainly enjoyed profound tranquillity. But on account of heavy taxation, high customs' dues, and other clogs to free commerce, the people are sinking deeper and deeper into poverty and wretchedness, and, except in the capital, there is a general retrograde movement. The Ottoman yoke is a peculiarly heavy one; it keeps the people in order, but it crushes them; and perhaps the Fezzanees may now regret somewhat the wholesome anarchy that distinguished the Arab chieftain's reign.

As I have said, the entire population of the ten districts of Fezzan is, according to the last Turkish census, only about twenty-six thousand souls, of whom about eleven thousand are males, including the children. The disproportion of the sexes arises in part from the number of female slaves, in part from the emigration of the men to the commercial countries of the interior, either for temporary gain, or permanently to escape from the grinding weight of taxation.

The whole amount of revenue collected by the Government is estimated at fifty thousand mahboubs per annum. Twenty-three thousand of these are raised by direct taxation, whilst the remainder is produced by customs' dues and the date-palm groves, which are the property of Government.

The military force by which the Turks hold possession of this vast but thinly-peopled territory--stretching north and south twenty-one days' journey, or about three hundred miles--is the very inconsiderable number of six hundred and thirty men. The garrison of Mourzuk itself consists of four hundred and thirty men, of whom about one-half are Fezzanees, twenty or thirty Turks, and the residue Arabs or Moors. The remaining three hundred are Arab cavaliers, living chiefly on their own means, and changed every year, who serve as a flying corps, or mounted police, for all the districts of Fezzan. The rate of pay for this latter class is one kail of wheat and half a mahboub per month for those who have no horses, and one kail of dates additional for those who are mounted. This division, however, is fastidious at present, as all those on service in Fezzan are now possessed of horses. In the whole regency of Tripoli there are but six hundred and sixty of these Arab soldiers; but in Bonjem and the Syrtis they are not cavalry, and the detachment at Ghadamez is mixed.[3] I am afraid these janissaries are obliged to commit spoliations in the towns and districts where they are stationed to avoid starvation.

[3] The distribution of the corps is as follows:--

In Gibel 150 Fezzan 200 The Syrtis 150 Bonjem 60 Ghadamez 100

I visited the barracks of Mourzuk, and found them to be commodious, and apparently salubrious. The good living of these stationary troops surprised me. They have meat and excellent soup everyday, with rice and biscuit. The Fezzanee is never so well fed and well clothed and lodged as when he is a soldier. Indeed the men seem too well off, in comparison with their former state and with the rest of the population. Nevertheless, they are glad to escape when the time of their service expires. The people all dread being made soldiers: so that Government is compelled to resort to the most paltry tricks to get recruits. Men are often unjustly charged with theft or debt, and put in prison, and then let out as a favour to be enlisted, or sometimes are clapped into the ranks at once. Youths have been seized as soldiers for kicking up the dust in front of a sentinel and dirtying his clothes. I remarked the number of soldiers that were black, and the Bim Bashaw observed that he hoped the time would come when there would not be a white private left in Mourzuk. The Turks manage to do with twenty or thirty of their own people, mostly officers, in this garrison; but, by one method or another, get as many Fezzanee recruits as they want.

The Turkish system is vastly superior to the French in this important matter of garrisoning their possessions in Northern Africa. The latter require one hundred men where the Turks are content with one to hold the country. Perhaps one of the chief reasons may be the difference of religion. The Arabs and other natives of North Africa cannot endure the sight of a ruler of another faith. Something, however, may be attributed to the immense and sacred authority of the Ottoman Sultan, the great chief of the Mussulmans of the East, as the Shereefan Emperor of Morocco is the chief of the Mussulmans of the West. We may add, also, the tremendous severity of the Turkish criminal law, or, rather, the inexorable justice with which a crime committed against a Turkish functionary is visited. The French make their razzias and strike off heads enough; but their criminal code in Algeria is perhaps not so summary and sanguinary as that of the Turks. Possibly one of the chief reasons of this curious contrast may be the fact that the French soldier is scarcely to be depended on when isolated. He acts well in masses, but considers himself deserted and betrayed when left comparatively alone. At any rate, the fact is that the Turks hold Tripoli with a handful of men, whilst the French, with a military force nearly as large as the whole British army, can scarcely maintain a feverish and uncertain possession of Algeria.

The population of Mourzuk numbers two thousand souls. It is very much mixed, and the people vary greatly in colour, so that there is no general character. There are more women than children, the greater portion of the females belonging to the members of the great winter caravans. Contrary to what I had been told, these women seem to be rather remarkable for modesty and virtue than otherwise. It is worth observing, that Fatamah, the proper name of Mahomet's daughter, is here used, by excess of delicacy, to describe the softer sex, more especially ladies.

From October to January, as at Ghât, there is a large annual souk, or market, at Mourzuk. One general caravan comes from Bornou and Soudan, every year during the winter season, and small bodies of merchants also go up and down to Soudan in the summer; whilst to Bornou there is no intermediate trade. Caravans also congregate here from Egypt, Bengazi, Tripoli, Ghadamez, Ghât, and Tuat. From forty thousand to sixty thousand Spanish dollars is the value of the merchandise that usually changes hands during the great mart. The principal articles of traffic from the interior are slaves, senna, and ivory. This is the first year that a hundred and fifty cantars of elephants' teeth have been brought from Bornou; sixty or seventy of these were consigned to one merchant, forty were on account of the Vizier of Bornou, and the remainder belonged to Arab traders. This export of elephants' teeth direct _viâ_ Fezzan has only lately been opened. Some manufactured cottons are likewise brought from Soudan, and sell easily in this part of the Sahara, especially amongst the Tuaricks. Besides, there are exported bullocks' and goats' skins, and a small quantity of ostrich feathers. The gum trade has lately been introduced into Fezzan by the British Consul, and one hundred cantars per annum are already collected from the tholukh-trees.

The acting Governor of Fezzan always resides at Mourzuk. His principal coadjutors in the despatch of affairs are a Kady with two secretaries, a Sheikh or mayor of the city, some respectable men who act as privy councillors, the Wakeels of Bengazi, Augila, Sokna, &c.

A little story may find its place here, as an apt illustration of the state of society and manners in this out-of-the-way capital. A married woman preferred another man to her husband, and frankly confessed that her affections had strayed. Her lord, instead of flying into a passion, and killing her on the spot, thought a moment, and said,--

"I will consent to divorce you, if you will promise one thing."

"What is that?" inquired the delighted wife.

"You must looloo to me only when I pass on the day of the celebration of your nuptials with the other man."

Now it is, the custom for women, under such circumstances, to looloo (that is, salute with a peculiar cry) any handsome male passer-by. However, the woman promised, the divorce took place, and the lover was soon promoted into a second husband. On the day of the wedding, however, the man who had exacted the promise passed by the camel on which the bride was riding, and saluted her, as is the custom, with the discharge of his firelock. Upon this she remembered, and looloed to him. The new bridegroom, enraged at this marked preference, noticing that she had not greeted any one else, and thinking possibly that he was playing the part of a dupe, instantly fell upon his bride and slew her. He had scarcely done so when the brothers of the woman came up and shot him down; so that the first husband compassed ample vengeance without endangering himself in the slightest degree. This is an instance of Arab cunning.

A subject of considerable importance was brought under my attention at Mourzuk. It appears that whilst the objects of legitimate commerce, in being exported from the interior to Fezzan and Tripoli, pay double duties--that is, twelve and a-half per cent in each place--slaves pay no transit duty whatever in this regency of Barbary if they are destined for the Constantinople market, and even if sold in Tripoli or Fezzan only pay once a duty of ten mahboubs per head. It frequently happens besides that the Turkish merchants, who embark with their slaves for Constantinople, sell a considerable number on the way. On arriving at their destination, they pretend that such as are missing from their register have died; and in this manner they contrive to evade the payment of all duty whatever. It has been attempted to get the impost of ten mahboubs paid in Mourzuk, and likewise to force all the caravans to take that route. This would have acted as a check upon the slave-trade; but the influence of the Gadamsee merchants was too great to allow the measure to be carried out. It is most important that the legitimate trade should not be burdened with double custom-dues, and it is to be hoped that the influence of the British Government will be used to bring about some reform in this matter. We should bear in mind, that as most of the goods and merchandise passing through Fezzan are only in transit, they are therefore legally subject to a duty of no more than three per cent.

I have paid as much attention to this subject of the encouragement of the legitimate trade as my time and other occupations would allow me. It will be as well to make a note here on another point, though it may seem out of place,--the existence of sulphur in the Syrtis. There appears no doubt that this substance can be procured at the foot of a mountain called Gebel Sinoube, about six miles from the sea at the innermost point of the Syrtis. A considerable quantity is obtained by the Arabs near this mountain, about eighteen camel-hours south-west from a place on the coast called Maktar, the eastern limits of the district Syrt. There is also good sulphur found in the Gebel-Harouj, five or six days east from Sokna. But what is really the per-centage of pure sulphur on the rough masses of the mines is not ascertained; nor is the quality precisely known, except that of the Harouj mountain. Accurate information could only be procured by despatching a trustworthy Sicilian miner to make a report. Perhaps these mines could only be brought into profitable working in the event of the stoppage of a supply from Sicily. It has been proposed to establish a colony of Maltese at Zafran, on the shore of the Syrtis. If this idea were carried out, the sulphur mines might by this means be brought into play.