Chapter IV

AFTER spending four days very pleasantly at Tripoli, we reluctantly took leave of Colonel and Mrs. Herman, and started for Benghazi, in the _Boxer_, on the 25th. There being little coal to spare, we went under sail, and as the winds were light and variable, we did not reach Benghazi till noon of the 30th.

Shortly after we had anchored, the late Mr. Frederick Crowe, H.M.’s Vice-Consul, came on board, and most kindly invited us to take up our quarters at his house. Our original intention was to have gone on to Derna, and made it the starting-point of our journey to Cyrene, as the distance from that place was much less than from Benghazi. By Mr. Crowe’s advice, however, we gave up this idea, and resolved to adopt Benghazi as our “base of operations.” He told us that as there was not at that time a single European at Derna to assist us, we should have great difficulty in forming a caravan, and making the necessary arrangements for our journey. We were therefore easily induced to accept his kind offers of hospitality and assistance.

At the landing-place we were received by some officers sent by the Kaimakam, who informed us that rooms had been prepared for our accommodation at the Castle. Saddle-horses also were in waiting, out of compliment rather than for use, the distance to the Castle being only some fifty yards. After the exchange of the usual salutations and fine speeches, the ceremonial reception came to an end, and the officers retired. Immediately afterwards we were happy to find ourselves under the hospitable roof of Mr. Crowe. The following day the _Boxer_ left to return to Malta.

Benghazi, built on the site of the ancient Hesperides or Berenice, occupies the point of a narrow strip of land between the sea and a shallow salt lake or lagoon. A belt of palm-trees behind the town, and the solitary minaret of a mosque, are the only objects that rise above the monotonous level of the surrounding country, and give any distinctive character to the scene. We must, however, except some half- dozen bent and melancholy-looking palms on Juliana Point, on the opposite side of the entrance to the harbour. For upwards of twenty miles inland from Benghazi, the country is an unvaried undulating plain, with hardly a single feature to mark one part of it from another. A few juniper and baturne shrubs grow here and there. The sketch we have given is taken from the northward of the town near the meat-market, and a few yards in front of the only windmill in the country.

The streets and houses in the town are wretched in the extreme. The houses, if such they may be called, are all built of small stones plastered and held together with mud. The consequence is, that the town is half laid in ruins every winter by the rain, and as but few of the fallen houses are ever rebuilt, the miserable appearance of the streets may easily be imagined. Whitewash, so liberally used by the Turks, and which gives such an air of comfort and cleanliness to many of their villages, is here unknown. The streets, encumbered with the ruins of fallen houses, are, moreover, filthy to a degree unknown in the worst of European cities.

No account of Benghazi would be complete without mentioning the plague of flies, to which it is at nearly all seasons subject. During meals, a partial escape from their persecution may be effected by darkening the room, and thereby inducing them to settle on the ceiling. Even then, however, they are perpetually crawling into the cups and plates, notwithstanding the efforts of a servant “told off” for the very purpose of driving them away. It is almost unnecessary to add that fleas abound, as in other Eastern places.

BENGHAZI

E. A. Porcher, delt., T. Picken, lith.

London. Published July 1st. 1864 by Day & Son, Lithographers to the Queen &c., Gate Street Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

Day & Son, Lithrs. to the Queen]

The following graphic and accurate description of the Benghazi flies is given by Beechey:—“On account of the filth and rubbish and the stagnant pools in the town, Benghazi is proverbial for flies, and every part of the town, both within and without the houses, may truly be said to swarm with them. Among the various annoyances with which the place abounds these are perhaps the most serious of any, or, at all events, they are those from which it is least possible to escape; there is, in fact, no chance of avoiding them. They follow you everywhere from place to place, settle on every part of the arms, legs, and body, which the heat of the weather obliges you to leave uncovered; creep obstinately into the corners of the eyes and up the nostrils, into the hollows of the ears and the corners of the mouth when it is closed; and often fly down the throat, nearly choking you, when it is open. At meals, every part of the dishes and their contents are covered as soon as they are produced, and every fluid becomes a trap for as many of these insects as can crowd over its surface. In short, there is literally no riding or walking, no reading or writing, no eating or resting one’s self in any part of Benghazi in comfort for them; and if at night they take up their accustomed position on the ceiling, and give place to the fleas and mosquitoes, the first dawn of morning finds them on the wing, and all alive to recommence their operations.”

The Castle, which stands on one side of the entrance to the harbour, consists of a number of houses enclosed by a quadrangular wall with round flanking towers at the corners. The masonry is very little superior to that of the rest of the town; in fact, the walls are so badly built that they would soon collapse under the concussion of the fire of their own guns. One range of houses is used as a barrack for the wing of an infantry regiment, another as the prison, and the remaining buildings as the residence and council-chamber of the Kaimakam.

The English Consulate, and a few two-storied houses lately built close by it, give a respectable appearance to the part of the town near the Castle. When we were at Benghazi, some missionaries from the Propaganda at Rome were building in this quarter a good substantial house and chapel, which promised to become by far the finest structure in the town. The object of this mission is not so much to attempt the conversion of the native Arabs, as to attend to the spiritual wants of the Christians of the place, who are almost all Maltese. The mission consists of one priest and two or three lay brethren, all of the Capuchin order of friars.

_From a Photograph._]

One of the first things we had to attend to at Benghazi was the question of escort. By order of the Pacha, the Kaimakam was required to furnish us with an adequate one; but Mr. Crowe advised us to go as independently of the Turkish authorities as possible; as he thought rightly, that all the soldiers the Kaimakam could send with us could afford little assistance if the Arabs actually turned against us, and would, probably, by their very presence, only provoke hostility. We therefore declined the Kaimakam’s offers of protection in this respect, and contented ourselves with a circular letter addressed to his subordinates, the Mudirs of Merdj, Ghegheb, and Derna. Meantime, Mr. Crowe sent for some of the principal sheikhs of the tribes on our proposed route, in order, if possible, to enlist them in our favour. Some of them fortunately happened to come to Benghazi a few days afterwards, when Mr. Crowe asked them to pay him a visit at the Consulate. When they came, he told them of our intended journey to Cyrene, and said that we should prefer their protection to that of the military escort offered by the Kaimakam. They replied that they were very happy to be able to do anything in return for the benefits he had conferred on them, and especially for the restraint which his presence exercised upon the unlawful and oppressive conduct of the Pachas. They then gave us letters to the sheikhs of the principal tribes on our route, and ordered an Arab from the neighbourhood of Cyrene to accompany us on our journey, and remain with us afterwards. This man, Amor Bon Abdi Seyat, proved in the end of the greatest service. He is shown on the left of the annexed sketch, and the other was one of our friends at Cyrene, Sheikh Bochlega.

The question of escort settled, the next thing to be attended to was our equipment for the journey. In this, as in all our arrangements, we were greatly assisted by Mr. Crowe. We were also much indebted to Mr. Cesareo, a merchant of Benghazi, who afterwards accompanied us to Cyrene, at Mr. Crowe’s request. The Kaimakam undertook to procure as many camels for hire as we required. Our horses we bought at an auction, which is worthy of some notice, as it was conducted on rather a curious principle. The auctioneer walks about the bazaar, showing whatever is for sale, and calling out the last bid for it. When no one will bid more, the article is “knocked down” to the highest bidder, not at the sum offered by himself, but at the next highest. In bidding, therefore, against other people, the best plan is to allow them to run the price up till it has nearly reached the sum one is willing to pay, and then to offer a much larger price. This, of course, deters them from offering more; and the article is obtained at the smaller sum which they had bid for it. Our two horses bought in this way cost £14.

A great many necessaries for the journey had to be got, which, had we been left entirely to ourselves, we might have forgotten. Among the most important of these were skins for carrying water, called “girbehs,” and a leather bucket for drawing it. The _girbeh_ is a whole goat-skin tanned inside, with the hair left on outside. To our stock of provisions we added another bag of biscuit and a large bag of onions. We also bought a dozen Barbary mats, which added greatly to our comfort, both on the journey, and afterwards during our stay at Cyrene. They make an excellent covering for the floor of a tent, for which purpose they are much to be preferred to rugs or carpets. Being made of thin strips of reed, they are not injured by the rain, and can be dried at once by simply rubbing them with a cloth. Their special excellence, however, is that they afford very little harbour for fleas.

We laid in a good stock of coarse-grained powder to be used as “bakshish,” or presents. As the importation and sale of gunpowder are prohibited, it is smuggled on shore by the traders of Benghazi, who charge the Arabs a price proportionate to the risk they run in procuring it, or the sum they expend in bribing the officers of the Custom-house. For this reason, powder is often more useful to the traveller than money itself. By Mr. Crowe’s advice, we also took for “bakshish” some printed cotton handkerchiefs, and some leaf tobacco for chewing. Somewhat to our surprise, we found smoking almost unknown, and the habit of chewing tobacco very prevalent among the Arabs. They use with it a kind of saltpetre, called “natron,” obtained, as we were told, from the salt lakes of Fezzan.

Of the ancient city very few remains are now visible. At the back of the Castle, where the ground rises a little, the sea has washed away the soil, and thereby formed a steep face or escarp, in which some foundations may be seen cropping out; but, unfortunately, the tomb of a Marābut or saint, and the surrounding public burial-ground, prevent any excavation being made.

During the twelve days that we remained at Benghazi, we made several excursions with Mr. Crowe in the neighbourhood. The most interesting locality is at the head of the shallow lagoon about two miles from the town. Here a succession of mounds and other irregularities in the surface of the ground mark the position of the ancient cemetery. About eleven years ago, some rather extensive excavations were made here by M. de Bourville, French Vice-Consul at Benghazi. His labours were rewarded by finding a number of valuable vases, and some sculptures of later date, all of which are now deposited in the Louvre. Judging from the appearance of a tomb which Mr. Crowe had recently opened, the necropolis seems to have consisted of tombs built underground. His attention was attracted to the spot in which this tomb was afterwards discovered by noticing the hollow sound of his horse’s footsteps when riding over it. After digging two or three days, his workmen found the entrance in the end wall, only a few feet below the surface. The interior resembled, in plan, many of the rock sepulchres at Cyrene and elsewhere, consisting of an oblong centre chamber with lateral recesses for the sarcophagi. It was built throughout of isodomous masonry, without mortar. Besides a large plain marble sarcophagus, it contained two small ones, also of marble, and highly ornamented with figures in bas-relief. These were afterwards sent by Mr. Crowe to the British Museum, where they may be seen among the sculptures from Cyrene.

There is an old Arab at Benghazi, formerly employed by M. de Bourville both there and at Teuchira, who now spends his time in digging in the cemetery. His operations are, of course, on a very limited scale; but by digging small holes at random all over the place, he has found a great many vases, terra-cotta figures, &c., which he sells to the Maltese merchants in the town. We were inclined to engage him to go with us to Cyrene; but as he considered himself entitled to about as much pay as a dozen workmen, we had to dispense with his services.

Beyond the cemetery, in the extensive plain of Benghazi, there are numerous natural hollows or chasms, with steep rocky sides, some of which still bear the marks of having been used as quarries. Moistened by the drainage of the surrounding ground, the soil at the bottom of many of them is covered with a luxuriant vegetation. One of them, about four miles from Benghazi, known as the “Garden of Osman,” is pretty fairly cultivated, and contains a well of excellent water. The verdure of these spots, resembling, as they do, oases in a desert, has given rise to the conjecture that they are the gardens of the Hesperides.

We also visited a remarkable place, supposed, with a greater degree of probability, to be an entrance to the subterranean river Lathon, which has usually been identified with the Lethe. About a mile from the Garden of Osman we were conducted to the edge of an abrupt ravine, about 100 feet deep, with a dark-looking cavern at the bottom. Leaving our horses above, we descended the ravine, and entered the cave. At the entrance it was low and narrow; but after descending a few yards, it suddenly expanded to a height of fifteen and a width of about forty feet. Some thirty yards from the entrance we came to the margin of a sheet of water, which extended as far as the eye could reach. One of our Arab attendants waded in with a lighted torch, but was obliged to return on account of the depth of water, after going about fifty yards. Whether the water is really a river, or only a large subterranean pool, it is difficult to say. We wished to explore it further, but could not get a boat at Benghazi small enough to be portable. Some years ago, it was determined to sink a shaft to the cavern some distance from the mouth, for the purpose, probably, of making the large supply of water available; but through an error in the bearings taken by the superintending officer, the shaft was sunk in the wrong place, and consequently the water was never reached. The good work was then abandoned as unlucky, and has not since been resumed.

The harbour of Benghazi is very unsafe, and cannot be entered by vessels drawing more than six feet of water. The channel at the entrance is narrow, with a reef of rocks on each side. The outside anchorage is quite open and unsheltered, so that vessels lying there have to put to sea when it blows hard from seaward. Instead of doing anything towards improving the harbour, the authorities do not even prevent vessels from discharging their ballast into it, and thereby making it gradually worse. The day before we left, we saw a brig belonging to Benghazi wrecked on the rocks off the Castle. She had come from Leghorn with a general cargo, and anchored off the harbour during a stiff breeze from the S.W., the pilot thinking it unsafe to attempt to enter until the wind moderated. Her anchors, however, soon gave way, and she drove on the rocks, where she soon became a total wreck. Had the crew and the people on shore exerted themselves, they might have saved the greater part of the cargo; but, with true Mahomedan indifference, they looked on until it was too late to save more than one or two boat-loads.

The water in the wells at Benghazi is very brackish; so much so, that the inhabitants are obliged to bring water from sweet wells at some distance from the town. Some of these are about two miles off, near the end of the belt of palm-trees; but the best water comes from the wells on the opposite side of the lagoon. It is carried in skins, or small breakers, on the backs of camels and donkeys, whose drivers appear to be the only industrious class of the whole community.