Chapter I

Arrival of the Expedition at Tripoly; pleasing appearance of the Town from the Sea — Friendly Reception of the Party by the Consul — Interview with the Bashaw, who promises his protection and assistance — Appointment of the Escort — Visits to some of the Mahometan Residents in Tripoly — Sidi Mahommed d’Ghies — Preparations for the journey — Adoption of the Costume of the Country — This precaution recommended on the experience of the party — Visit from the Arab Escort — Description of their principal, Shekh Mahommed el Dúbbah — Sketch of the Shekh’s former Life — Friendly attentions of the European Residents of Tripoly — Arrival of Dr. Oudney and Lieutenant Clapperton.

In the beginning of September the Adventure sailed from Malta, and in a few days we made the African shore, at about the situation assigned to Tripoli Vecchio. Running down to the eastward, we soon discovered the place of our destination, and on the morning of the 11th, cast anchor in the harbour of Tripoly. The town makes a respectable appearance from the sea; it is surrounded by a high wall, strengthened with bastions, above which are distinguished the mosques and the baths, whose white minarets and cupolas form no unpleasing contrast with the dark tints presented by thick groves of palm-trees, rising in varied groups, from the gardens at the back of the town. The different coloured flags which were hoisted to salute us on the castle of the Bashaw, and the houses of the several consuls, floated gaily in the clear atmosphere and bright sunshine of a Mediterranean climate; and the whole together, viewed under favourable impressions, gave to Tripoly an appearance of much more interest and importance than it was afterwards found to have deserved.

The reception which we experienced from Mr. Warrington, the British Consul-General at Tripoly, was friendly and attentive in the extreme; and, on our landing, the consulate was assigned to us as a residence, which he obligingly left at our disposal. The arrival of our party was now signified officially to the Bashaw, who appointed a day to receive us; being at the time indisposed, on account of the operation of _burning_, which he had undergone as a cure for the rheumatism[1]. His Highness was provided with a skilful European physician, who had been for some time attached to his person and to the court; but the prejudices of his country were too strong to be overcome by reason, and the remedies of Dr. Dicheson gave way to the popular superstition.

On the day appointed for the interview, we proceeded to the palace of His Highness, accompanied by the Consul and Captain Smyth. The streets through which we had to pass, on our way to the Castle, were by no means fit approaches to a regal abode; they were encumbered with the rubbish of houses fallen into ruin, and with the superfluous produce of those which were yet standing; while swarms of little naked and dirty children, and numerous groups of hungry, half-starved dogs, almost blocked up the little space which was left for our passage. The dust which was unavoidably raised in our progress, together with the heat of the sun, and the myriads of gnats and flies which assailed us in every direction, were no grateful additions to these inconveniences; and we were heartily glad to find ourselves before the gates of the Castle, where a part of the Bashaw’s guard was drawn out in due form to receive us. After paying our respects to the Kechia[2], (who was seated at the end of the skeefa, or entrance hall,) we were ushered along a dark and narrow passage, so irregular and uneven under foot, that we were in danger of falling at almost every step[3], and having passed at intervals several Tchaouses and soldiers, who were barely discernible through the gloom, we found ourselves at length in a spacious apartment, where a motley crowd of Christians, Turks, Arabs, and Jews, were assembled to wait His Highness’s leisure.

We had not been long here before it was announced to us that the Bashaw was prepared to receive us; and, on approaching the presence, we found His Highness seated, with all due solemnity, at the farther end of the apartment, attended by his third son, Sidy Ali, by Reis Moràt[4], who acted as interpreter, and by other principal officers of the Court. A formidable line of well-armed black soldiers were ranged along the walls of the room, who stood exactly like so many statues, each with a loaded blunderbuss, held with the muzzle pointed downwards; and close to the Bashaw’s person was a trusty black slave, who held in readiness His Highness’s pistols. The introduction of armed soldiers into the presence-chamber of a Sovereign was rather a novel sight to Europeans, and may be taken as an example of the extremely barbarous state in which the Regency of Tripoly, with all its recent improvements, must still be admitted to remain.

The High Admiral, Reis Moràt, in the name of our party, made known to the Bashaw the friendly disposition of the King of England towards His Highness; in testimony of which he was requested to accept the present of four brass field-pieces, with their accoutrements, which we had brought with us on board the Adventure; and he was then requested to extend his protection to our party in their passage through his extensive dominions. Every assistance was freely offered on the part of the Bashaw, who expressed himself, in return, highly satisfied with the friendly assurances of His Majesty; and the necessary preliminaries being satisfactorily arranged, tea[5] and lemonade were served with all due decorum, and our party took leave of His Highness. The guns were brought up the same afternoon, close under the balcony of the palace, and the Bashaw appeared at the window to inspect them, with some of the officers of his court; various manœuvres were gone through to the admiration and astonishment of the spectators, under the direction of the gunner of the Adventure, and the cannoniers acquitted themselves so highly to the satisfaction of His Highness, that he sent a sword to the gunner, in token of his approbation, and a bag of dollars to be divided among the crew.

In our interview with the Bashaw it had been finally arranged that our party should be escorted as far as Bengazi, by an Arab Shekh who presided over the district of Syrt, and was called Shekh Mahommed el Dúbbah; at Bengazi we were to be consigned to Hadood, Shekh of Barka, who was to conduct us as far as Bomba, beyond which his authority ceased. As Bomba, or its immediate vicinity, may be considered as the eastern limit of the Regency, we were informed that, in our progress from that place to Alexandria, we must depend upon the protection of the Bashaw of Egypt. We had foreseen this circumstance before our arrival in Tripoly, and a letter had been written from Malta to Mr. Salt, His Majesty’s Consul-General in Egypt, requesting him, in the name of the British Government, to make the necessary arrangements with His Highness the Viceroy for our passing from Derna to Alexandria; and we afterwards received a firman from Mahommed Ali, which he considered would be sufficient to ensure our advance.

These preliminaries settled we began to make preparations for our journey, and consulted with the most intelligent natives in Tripoly on the best means of forwarding the objects of the Expedition.

We found them on all occasions particularly obliging, and always ready to afford us every information in their power. From Sidi Mahommed D’Ghies, in particular, the same well-informed native who had been of great service to Mr. Ritchie and Captain Lyon, as well as from his son[6], a most excellent young man, we received at various times much useful advice, and always the most friendly and cordial reception.

At the house of Sidi Mahommed, we were one day introduced to one of the most respectable Mahometan traders to Timbuctoo; who offered to ensure our arrival at that place, and our return in perfect safety to Tripoly, provided we would place ourselves entirely under his directions; allowing, of course, for ill health, as well as for such accidents as could not be foreseen, and may happen to any one in travelling across the desert. As Timbuctoo, however, formed no part of the object of our mission, this offer was naturally declined; and we merely mention it here as one which may be worth consideration, should any future traveller decide upon attempting this journey by way of Tripoly.

Our next care was to provide ourselves with the dress of the country, which was strongly recommended to us by our Mahometan friends, and which, indeed, on the former experience of one of our party, we had before proposed to adopt. The opinion of Colonel Warrington was in favour of the European costume; but as we supposed it to have been founded on the experience of journeys in the neighbourhood of Tripoly only, within the immediate range of the Bashaw’s authority, and in places where the natives are more accustomed to the dress; we thought it most advisable to adopt the advice of our Turkish friends, which we knew to be formed on an extensive acquaintance with the prejudices, manners, and customs of the Arabs: this opinion, besides, had the additional recommendation of being quite in unison with our own; and it is probably not unknown to some of our readers that a similar coincidence has usually its weight in decisions of much more importance. The experience of our journey through the Syrtis and Cyrenaica confirmed us still more decidedly in our former opinion; and as the propriety of adopting the Turkish costume has occasionally been questioned and denied, we will venture to add our testimony in its favour to that of all the most experienced travellers in Mahometan countries with whom we have ever been acquainted; so far, at least, as the adoption of it is in question, in places where the principal persons in power, and the bulk of the population are Mussulmen. If it were only on the score of convenience, we should in most cases recommend it; and it is certainly the best calculated to prevent interruption, and all the numerous annoyances arising from idle curiosity and the prejudices of an ignorant people.

On our return, one morning, from a visit to the Bazar, where we had been making some purchases necessary for our journey, we found our apartment occupied by the Bedouin Arabs who had been appointed by the Bashaw to attend us to Bengazi. They had been ranged by our servant on chairs round the room, on which they did not appear to sit much at their ease; and some of them had relinquished their exalted situation for the more convenient level which the chairs themselves occupied, that safe and comfortable position, the ground: here they squatted themselves down with true Arab dignity, and soon found themselves much more at home. There was little in the dress of these swarthy personages by which one might be distinguished from the rest. An ample baracàn, fastened in the usual Arab manner, partially displayed the large, loose sleeves of a cotton shirt, more remarkable than usual for its whiteness; a piece of distinction which is, by Arabs, considered necessary only in towns, and on visits of more than ordinary ceremony: from a leathern belt was suspended a case of the same material, containing a brace of long pistols, near which hung a leathern pouch for powder and ball, and a smaller one which served as a pocket or purse. A red, or white cap, (for some had one, some the other,) and sandals of camel’s hide, fastened with thongs of leather, completed the whole costume. One only wore a turban; and, on closer investigation, the pistol-cases and pistols of the person so distinguished appeared to be in better order than those of his companions. But no difference of attire was necessary to mark out Shekh Mahommed el Dúbbah from those who accompanied him. A venerable length of beard, in which white was partially blended with gray, gave an air of patriarchal respectability to his appearance; and a singular mixture of energy and complacency displayed the wild and daring spirit which animated him half subdued by the composure of age, and the decorum which it was necessary to observe on the occasion: a well-acted smile was playing on his lips, with which his voice and his manner, when he addressed us, corresponded; but his large full eye, though its lustre was dimmed by age, was never for a moment at rest; and wandered unceasingly from object to object, with a wildness and rapidity very different from the vacant stare of curiosity so conspicuous in the faces of most of his party.

Shekh Mahommed was at this time nearly sixty years of age, and had early been very formidable as a robber in the district of Syrt. The circumstance of his being the head of a Maràbut tribe, joined to the natural intrepidity of his character, had given him great influence over the Arabs of his neighbourhood; and the daring character of his exploits soon obtained for him the appellation of El Dúbbah, or the Hyæna.

At a more advanced period, when the rigorous measures of the Bashaw seemed likely to reduce the Arab tribes to subjection, Mahommed, finding it probably more to his interest, went over to His Highness’s party; and from his knowledge of the country, and the interest which he possessed, was enabled to render him very essential service: he was in consequence established as Shekh of Syrt, a district of more than two hundred miles in extent. We were glad to find that Shekh Mahommed was as eager as ourselves for an early departure from Tripoly; he soon began to enumerate all the various disadvantages which were to be expected from travelling in the rainy season over the low and swampy regions of the Syrtis; and drew such pictures of them as would have determined us to set out immediately had our movements depended upon ourselves. But the delays of the tradesmen, who furnished our supplies, and many others, which could neither be foreseen nor prevented, retarded the movements of the Expedition; and it was not till the morning of the 5th of November that we were able to set out on our journey. It may well be imagined that the attractions of Tripoly are neither very great nor very numerous; and our stay there had been attended with a good deal of trouble and vexation in making the necessary arrangements for our departure: but the friendly attentions which we had invariably received from many of its principal European inhabitants, as well as from several of its Mahometan residents, greatly contributed to enliven the monotony of a Moorish town; and it was not without feelings of sincere regret that we took leave of our little circle of acquaintance. This had latterly been increased by the arrival of Dr. Oudney and Lieutenant Clapperton, of the navy, who were commissioned by Government to make researches in the interior of Africa; and who were to proceed to Bornou, by way of Morzouk, as soon as the preparations could be completed which were necessary for so tedious a journey.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: The practice of cautery is well known to be generally adopted, and confidently depended upon, by the Arabs and Moors, as an effectual remedy for almost every disorder. The custom may be traced to a very remote period, and is alluded to by Herodotus, (Melpomene, 187,) as peculiar to the Libyan Nomades, the early inhabitants of a considerable part of the coast of Northern Africa. The remedy is indeed too indiscriminately applied, but is not, however, unfrequently productive of good effects. We were assured by a man at Bengazi, that he had been cured three times of the plague by the mere application of a hot iron to the tumours which attend the disease; and if we might judge from the dreadful scars which remained, his attacks were by no means slight ones.]

[Footnote 2: This officer holds the second place in the Regency, and is invested with the supreme power whenever His Highness is absent.]

[Footnote 3: Tully observes, “We entered these gloomy passages, which always seem as if they led to some dreadful abode for the purpose of entombing the living.”]

[Footnote 4: Reis Moràt, we believe, is a Scotchman, and was formerly mate of a merchant vessel; but having embraced the Mahometan faith, and entered the service of the Bashaw, has now, through his naval skill and abilities, arrived at the head of his profession, and is much considered by His Highness.]

[Footnote 5: Tea is very generally used by the higher classes throughout the Regency of Tripoly, and coffee but rarely.]

[Footnote 6: This young man, who is the second son of Sidi Mahommed d’Ghies, and is also named Mahommed, is an admirable example of true devotion to the religion of his country, united with the more extended and liberal feelings of Europeans. He daily visits the public school where young boys are taught to read the Koran; and superintends the charitable distribution of food which the bounty of Sidi Mahommed provides for the poor who daily present themselves at his gate. Besides his acquaintance with the English and French languages, he is able to converse with the slaves of the family in several languages of the interior of Africa; and when it is considered that Mahometans in general seldom trouble themselves to speak any language but their own, this proficiency is greatly to his credit; we should rather, perhaps, say, to the credit of his father, under whose eye he has been hitherto brought up, and who is himself well acquainted with the French, and we believe with several other languages. The elder son of Sidi Mohammed was in England while we were at Tripoly, and must be remembered by many of the first circles in London.]