Chapter IX (1)

Barren and desolate appearance of the Country in the Neighbourhood of Muktáhr — Sulphur Mines at Kebrīt — Extensive Marsh near Muktáhr — Arrive at Sachrīn, the southernmost Point of the Gulf — Singularly desolate and comfortless Appearance of it — Examination of the Coast from the Heights of Jerīa — Extreme Difference of its Outline from that laid down in modern Charts — Suggested Causes of this Error — Accumulation of Sand on the Beach in this Neighbourhood — Alarm of Signor Della Cella in passing it — Causes of this Accumulation considered — Character of the Country at the Bottom of the Gulf — Observations of Signor Della Cella respecting it — Allusion of the Doctor to the Expedition of the Psylli — Remarks on the Latitude of this part of the Gulf — Monuments of the Philæni — Record of their Patriotism by Sallust — Various Positions of the Philænian Altars by the Ancients — Boreum Promontorium and Oppidum of Cellarius — Suggested Causes of their Position by this Author in the Bottom of the Gulf — Observations on the Nature of the Soil of the Greater Syrtis — Allusion to the March of Cato across it — Island called Bushaifa at the Bottom of the Gulf — Gradual Improvement in the Appearance of the Country — Arrival at Braiga — Remains observed there — Harbour of Braiga — Heaps of Sulphur lying on the Beach there for Embarkation — Salt Lake and Marsh at Braiga below the Level of the Sea — Well-constructed Forts at Braiga — Braiga considered as the Site of Automala — Contest between the Avarice and Conscience of the Dúbbah — Its Termination in Favour of the latter — Arrival at Tabilba — Excavations and Remains there — Tabilba considered as the Maritimæ Stationes of Ptolemy — Arrive at Ain Agàn — Chain of Salt Lakes and Marshes said to extend two Days to the South-eastward — Island of Gàra, probably the Gaia of Ptolemy — Wells of Sweet Water, Two Miles to the North-east of Shiebah — Abduction of a Lamb from an Arab Shepherd by our Party — Consequences of this Measure — Departure of the Dúbbah in search of his Camels — Arrival at Carcora — Two Boat Coves observed there — Springs of Fresh Water within a few feet of a Salt Water Lake — Arrive at Ghimēnes — Forts and Remains there — Excavated Tombs in the Neighbourhood — Change of Weather experienced — Wasted Condition of our Horses from Fatigue and want of Water — Hardy Constitution of the Barbary Horses — Treatment of them by the Arabs — Improved Appearance of the Country in approaching Bengazi — Singular Fences of Stone generally adopted in this part of the Country — Causes of their Erection — Position of Bengazi — Fertile Appearance of the Country about it — Arrival at Bengazi — Friendly Reception of our Party by Signor Rossoni, the British Resident there — Establish ourselves in the Town for the rainy Season.

The country which we travelled over after quitting Linoof was stony and perfectly barren: no living creature made its appearance there, with the exception of a single hyæna, and a species of wild bull which the Arabs call Bograh-wash, both of which ran off on perceiving us. Our route for the last two days had been over the rocky ground a little inland, but the coast between Hudīa and Muktahr is low, with sand-hills here and there almost the whole way; and has many small bays formed between very low rocky flats, which are in most parts not more than a foot above water.

Muktahr is the boundary of the districts of Syrt and Barca, the line being marked by small piles of loose stones; and from here there is a road branching off to some sulphur-mines called Kebrīt, which are situated a day and a half to the southward. The sulphur is brought on camels from these mines to Braiga, where vessels occasionally arrive to receive it; and it is probably from that circumstance that the part of the gulf in this neighbourhood is called by the Arabs, Giun el Kebrit (Gulf of Sulphur). Near Muktahr is a remarkable table-hill called Jebbel Allah, and an extensive salt lake (Esubbah Muktahr), along the edge of which we passed for a few miles, and then crossing a ridge called Jerīa, proceeded on a few miles further to Sachrīn, where we pitched the tents for the night.

We had now arrived at the most southern point of the Gulf of Syrtis, and few parts of the world will be found to present so truly desolate and wretched an appearance as its shores in this neighbourhood exhibit. Marsh, sand, and barren rocks, alone meet the eye; and not a single human being, or a trace of vegetation, are to be met with in any direction. The stillness of the nights which we passed in this dreary tract of country was not even broken by the howlings of our old friends the jackalls and hyænas, which prowled about our tents in other parts of the Syrtis; and it seemed as if all the animated part of creation had agreed in the utter hopelessness of inhabiting it to any advantage[1].

Sachrīn may be said to be the bottom of the gulf, and it was here more particularly desirable to ascertain the exact form assumed by the coast in terminating this extensive bay. We proceeded therefore, early on the morning after our arrival here, to the high land which we have mentioned at Jerīa, for the purpose of comparing the actual form of the gulf at this point with that which is assigned to it by the geographers who have hitherto described it. A thick mist for some time concealed every part, but it cleared off before noon, and we had then an extensive view of the whole line of coast. We had the various charts before us, and the opportunity which now offered itself was as favourable as could possibly be wished. But how different was the form which now presented itself to our observation, from that which appeared in the authorities which we were enabled to compare with it. Instead of the narrow and cuneiform inlet in which the gulf has in modern charts been made to terminate, we saw a wide extent of coast, sweeping due east and west, with as little variation as possible; and in the place of the numerous ports and sinuosities which appeared in the maps before us, we saw a shore but very slightly indented, which offered no possible security to vessels of any description.

The chart ascribed to Ptolemy is the only one we are acquainted with which approaches to something like the actual form of the coast; and every step which modern geographers have receded from this outline has been a step farther from the truth.

It is difficult to say on what authorities the narrow inlet was originally introduced which terminates the gulf in the charts above mentioned; unless, indeed, the terms which have been used by ancient geographers, in describing this part of the Greater Syrtis, may be supposed to have occasioned the idea. The castle of Automala is mentioned by Strabo as situated in the _innermost recess_ of the gulf[2]. And Pliny speaks of the coast inhabited by the Lotophagi (which he places in the Greater Syrtis) as being equally in the _innermost_ part of the bay[3]. It may be possible that these terms have induced the more recent geographers to consider the gulf as terminating in an inlet, and to hazard, on their authority, the introduction of that which is now in question in the absence of any accurate survey. If such meaning can be supposed to have been extracted from the term used by Strabo, his authority might certainly have been safely relied upon by those who employed it on this occasion without any reproach to their caution; since this geographer himself visited the coast in a vessel, and may therefore be supposed to have seen what he described. However this may be, we can positively assert that no inlet whatever exists in the Gulf of Syrtis; and that the direction of the coast at the bottom of the gulf is, as nearly as possible, due east and west for a whole day’s journey together; turning afterwards to the northward so slightly, that this difference is scarcely perceptible to the eye. A large tract of quick sand is also laid down by many in this part of the Gulf of Syrtis; but we have traversed the sand and the sand-hills which are found here, on horseback, in almost every direction, and may safely affirm that they afford as good a footing as any dry sand or sand heaps can be supposed to present. If any other authority may be acceptable in proof of the extreme dryness of the sand in this neighbourhood, we have only to cite that of Doctor Della Cella to put everything like scepticism on this point at rest. “Woe be to us,” exclaims this gentleman, (in describing the sandy tract here alluded to) “if a sirocco, or southerly wind, had unhappily overtaken us in this place, the whole army would have been buried beneath the sands which the action of the winds here raised up in waves no less formidable than those of the sea!” Now if anything like moisture had really existed in the formidable particles which caused the Doctor such alarm, he might have looked in defiance at every point of the compass, without anticipating, with so much well-described horror, the fatal consequences which would have resulted to himself and the whole army, had the wind been unfortunately to the southward.

The anticipation of this premature burial was occasioned by the passage of Signor Della Cella and the army over a long range of sand-hills thrown up on the beach in this neighbourhood; and which are supposed by the Doctor to have been blown there from the Great Desert to the southward. Of this latter circumstance we have certainly some doubt; and can more readily imagine the “seven hours and a half of real misery” endured by our traveller, “under the influence of a burning sun,” in passing the sand-hills here mentioned, than we can suppose these unwelcome impediments themselves to have travelled from the desert in the interior. For all the sand-hills which encumber the beach in these parts, as well as all others which we recollect to have seen in the Syrtis, are, in our opinion, blown up from the beach itself, and not from the desert to the southward.

The tract of country, at the same time, which intervenes between these sand-hills and the desert is perfectly clear from any encumbrance of the kind; which could scarcely be the case if the masses on the beach had passed over it in their passage from the Sahara; but Signor Della Cella is further confirmed in his opinion by the circumstance of his not having been able to perceive, though he looked, he says, very attentively, any chain of high land in the interior, between the sand-hills which he mentions and the desert[4]. “In the tract of country which lies at the bottom of the gulf” he saw nothing whatever but sand, and no hills whatever but[5] sand-hills.

From this circumstance the Doctor derives a new proof that the sand-hills have travelled from the southward; and in further proof of the non-existence of any chain of hills in this quarter, he has instanced the passage of northerly winds from the Mediterranean, to find their equilibrium in the southern regions of Africa; which passage they could not have effected, he supposes, if they had had a chain of hills to get over in their journey! The Doctor then proceeds to relate the expedition of the Psylli, as recorded by Herodotus, in further support of his position[6]; but in telling us that when these unfortunate gentlemen arrived on the confines of the desert, they were all of them buried in the sands which there assailed them, he does not express the surprise which might be expected at their not having met with a similar accident long before they arrived at that point; for this misfortune might assuredly have happened with equal probability before they set out on their journey to the southward, if the whole of the country, as we are informed by the Doctor, consisted of nothing else, from the desert to the sea, but the formidable red sand which at last put an end to them. The fact is, however, that the “ampia depressione” which is stated by Signor Della Cella to exist between the bottom of the gulf and the great desert, is unfortunately interrupted by a chain of hills, a little inland, of at least four or five hundred feet in height; and we will venture to assert that, in the whole of the tract which has here been described by the Doctor, there is no part where high land does not intervene between the sand-hills and the desert alluded to. We are sorry to place so substantial an impediment in the way of the northerly wind, which the Doctor imagines could not go to the southward to gain its equilibrium if such a bar were placed in its route; but if the whole country from the sea to the Niger were never again to be refreshed with this desirable breeze, we must still be obliged to leave our hills where we saw them in spite of so severe a misfortune. In stating that the level supposed to exist between the bottom of the Gulf of Syrtis and the great desert is not uninterrupted by hills, we must also observe that these hills are not of sand, and that a great portion of marshy and stony land is mingled with the sand which the Doctor states to be exclusively found there. We must at the same time remark, that the only part where the sand is red is in the neighbourhood of the sulphur mines; and this peculiarity may be considered as wholly occasioned by the nature of the soil where it is found. It is besides of so fine a texture as to partake more of the nature of dust than of desert sand, which is neither so red nor so light. It is not raised up in large heaps like the sand on the beach, but scattered over the surface in little hillocks, on which a scanty vegetation is occasionally observable. In fact this substance has no resemblance whatever either to the sand on the beach or to that of the desert, and it ceases altogether with the soil which occasions it. How Signor Della Cella could have confounded it with the sand heaps thrown up on the beach we are at a loss to imagine; for these are considerably whiter than the desert sand, while the light powder in question is considerably redder. Besides, the sand-hills continue long after this substance has ceased to appear; and in the parts where they are found in the greatest masses there is not a particle of red sand to be seen. At the same time that we differ on this point with Signor Della Cella, we must also confess that his conjecture with respect to the extension of the gulf to the southward is not better founded than his remarks on the extension of the sand. For it is somewhat remarkable, that while the shape of the bottom of the gulf has been so very incorrectly laid down in modern charts as it is found to have been, the latitude which has been assigned to it by the same authorities is as near the truth as possible; and we may safely affirm that the most southern part of the Gulf of Syrtis does not approach at all nearer to the desert than it is made to do in the charts alluded to by Signor Della Cella, notwithstanding the confidence with which the Doctor maintains a contrary opinion, on the authority of his friend Captain Lautier[7].

It is somewhere at the bottom of the Syrtis[8] that we must have looked for the monuments erected to the Philæni, had they still been in existence; it appears however, as we have before mentioned, on the authority of Strabo, that they were no longer extant in the time of that geographer. But if the pillars have disappeared which marked the spot where the brothers were interred, the record of their patriotism still exists in the pages of history; and the account which has been given of this disinterested sacrifice by Sallust may not perhaps be unacceptable to the reader[9]. “At the time (says that historian) when the Carthaginians ruled over a great part of Africa, the people of Cyrene were also powerful and opulent. A sandy plain was on the frontiers of the two countries, the surface of which was uniform and unbroken, and neither mountain nor river appeared in it, by which the boundary of these kingdoms might be determined; a circumstance which occasioned many frequent and bloody wars between them. After various alternate successes and defeats, they entered into the following agreement; that certain persons deputed by each state should leave their home on an appointed day, and that the place where the parties might meet should be considered as the boundary of the kingdoms.”

“Two brothers, named Philæni, were appointed on the part of Carthage, who contrived to travel faster than the deputies from Cyrene, but whether this was occasioned by accident, or the indolence of the Cyreneans, I have not been able (says the historian) to ascertain.”

“Stormy weather (he adds) might undoubtedly occasion delays in such a country, as well as it is known to do at sea: for when violent winds prevail in level and barren tracts, the sand which is raised by them is driven so forcibly into the faces and eyes of those who cross them, that their progress is considerably impeded. So soon as the people of Cyrene were aware of the ground which they had lost, and reflected on the punishment which would await them, in consequence, on their return, they began to accuse the Carthaginians of having set out before the appointed time; and when a dispute arose on the subject, they determined to brave everything rather than return home defeated. In this state of affairs, the Carthaginians desired the Greeks to name some conditions of accommodation; and when the latter proposed that the deputies from Carthage should either be buried on the spot which they claimed as the boundary, or allow them to advance as far as they chose on the same conditions, the Philæni immediately accepted the terms, and giving themselves up to the service of their country, were buried alive on the spot where the dispute had occurred. On the same spot two altars were consecrated to their memory by the people of Carthage, and other honours were also decreed to them at home[10].”

In the old map of Peutinger (as we have stated above) we find the Philænean altars placed much farther to the westward in the neighbourhood of the little Syrtis; but the authorities of Ptolemy[11], Strabo, Pliny, and Mela, are sufficient to fix them in the Greater Syrtis; and as they are expressly stated by Strabo (lib. 17) to have occurred before Automala[12], in passing from west to east, we must suppose them to have existed somewhere in the tract of country just described, since the fortress of Automala is laid down by that geographer in the bottom of the gulf[13]. There is a difficulty in reconciling the accounts of Pliny and Mela on this point; for the Philænean altars are mentioned by the former of these writers as placed on the eastern boundary of the country of the Lotophagi, which he lays down in the bottom of the gulf[14]. Mela may be understood to assign the same position to the altars (although something appears wanting in the text in this part to connect the two sentences together)[15]; but then he makes the country of the Lotophagi commence at the Borion (Boreum) Promontorium, and finish at the promontory of Phycus (answering to Ras Sem), and this will place the Lotophagi far in the Cyrenaica, and out of the Gulf of Syrtis altogether, which finishes at the Boreum Promontorium.

It seems to be with the intention of reconciling these accounts in some degree, that Cellarius has placed a Boreum Promontorium and Oppidum in the bottom of the gulf. And he is indeed somewhat justified in doing so, by the position assigned to a city called Boreum (βοριον) by Procopius, which is mentioned by that writer as the most western city of the Pentapolis, and distant about four days from Augila. This is the city which we have mentioned, in speaking of Hudīa, as having been inhabited by Jews of the Cyrenaica; it was exempt from the payment of tribute and duties, and was fortified at the same time with the adjacent country, by the command of the emperor Justinian[16]. But the Borion Promontorium is at the same time mentioned by Pliny as the eastern extremity of the Gulf of Syrtis, as which it is also considered by Ptolemy and Strabo; so that except we may allow that there were two places of this name, we can see no mode of reconciling so many contradictory statements. This accommodation, as we have mentioned above, appears to have been intended by Cellarius, who has marked one of his promontories at the eastern boundary of the gulf, and placed the other at the bottom of it.

We cannot quit this subject without observing that the idea which appears to have been entertained by the ancients of the soil of the Greater Syrtis, is not confirmed by an inspection of the country in question. Cato is described by Strabo as having marched his army across the Syrtis through deep and burning sands[17], and Lucan has given so exaggerated an account of the same march, as to make his description almost wholly poetical[18]. Sallust also, in his account of the Philæni, describes the “level and sandy plain, in which these monuments were erected, without either river or mountain by which they might be distinguished[19]”. But there is no sandy plain of this description in the bottom of the Syrtis; and, although there is no river, there are certainly mountains, if hills of solid stone, of from four to six hundred feet in height, may be entitled to that distinction.

It is true that the chain of hills at the bottom of the gulf run in an east and westerly direction, and might not, on that account, be well calculated for objects by which limits in the same direction might be ascertained; but the account given by Sallust would lead us to imagine (as it seems to have done Signor Della Cella) that the place was without any inequalities of this nature whatever.

Again, if it be true that Cato marched his army over the sand-hills which appear to have been so laboriously traversed by the army which the doctor accompanied, it was certainly no very good proof of the patriot’s generalship; for, with the exception of one place, where the passage is occasionally impeded by marshy ground, reaching close up to the foot of the sand-hills on the beach, there could have been no occasion for crossing the sand at all, since the country to the southward of it is clear [20]. The same may be said of the whole tract of country in general, where sand-hills are found in the Syrtis and Cyrenaica; the sand-heaps being confined to the beach alone, and not overspreading the whole face of the soil. Indeed, after passing the bottom of the gulf, the country at the back of the sand-hills becomes very capable of cultivation, and affords, in many places, an excellent pasturage. So that if we should consider the Syrtis in general as a large unbroken body of sand, which the ancients seem mostly to have done, we should certainly form a very wrong idea of the nature of the country in question.

North-west of Sachreen, which may be considered as the bottom of the gulf, at about a mile and a quarter from the shore, is a small islet called Bushaifa, with breakers east and west of it; and to the southward is a large marsh, with a ruin on a small rising ground inland of it: from here a valley extends eastward between the high land to the southward and some sand-hills on the coast. The road lies tolerably close along the sides of these sand-heaps, which in some places rise abruptly from the edge of the marsh, leaving a very narrow path between the two. It was probably here that Signor Della Cella and the army which he accompanied chose the passage over the sand-hills in preference to that along the marsh at the foot of them; or it may be possible that the water of the marsh reached too close to the sand-hills when they passed, to allow of any choice of road at all. We however found the path at the foot of the sand-hills very practicable, although we were occasionally obliged to pass singly along it. Had these sand-hills been capable of suddenly detaching large masses from their summits or sides, we might occasionally perhaps have been buried _pro tempore_ under their weight, and might, in some places, have experienced considerable difficulty in extricating ourselves at all; but we must confess that we did not anticipate any very fatal effects from the action of southerly winds; nor did we believe it very probable that an avalanche of sand would seize the precise moment in which we were passing under it to precipitate itself upon our heads. Two hours, we should imagine, would fully suffice for the accomplishment of the passage between the marsh and the sand-hills, at any season in which it might be practicable; and if double that time be allowed for the passage over the hills in question, when that below might be impassable from the rise of the water in the marsh, we should conclude it would be amply sufficient. As there is no other part of the gulf in which it could, at any time, be absolutely necessary to pass over the sand-hills at all, we are at a loss to imagine why the army of the Bey, and that of his Roman predecessor, should have given themselves so much trouble in crossing them. Immediately after the marsh commences pasture land, and after five hours’ journey from Sachreen, we arrived at a place called Gartubbah, where we found some Arab tents, and established ourselves for the night.

The next morning we proceeded on to Braiga, where we were led to expect, from the report of our Arab guides, that we should find a harbour full as good as that of Tripoly. Braiga has been a strongly-fortified post, as appears from the remains of several well-constructed and spacious castles which have been erected there. On the western point of the bay which constitutes the mersa (or harbour) is some tolerably high land, on which one of the forts has formerly stood; but which is now so much destroyed and encumbered with rubbish, as to offer little interest on examination. Along the same range of hills are other remains of building, originally connected with this fort, part of which we were induced to excavate, but found the chamber which we cleared to have been merely a storehouse for grain, or a reservoir for preserving water. It had been excavated in the rock, on the top of the range, and may be considered as offering an excellent example of the durable quality of the cement employed by the Romans in its formation[21]: for the stone in which it had been excavated had crumbled away, and left the cement with which the interior had been coated standing upright in its original position, in defiance of the storms of wind and rain which must have frequently assailed it from the sea.

We found some Greek and Roman characters traced in the interior, and the representation of a ship and a palm-tree, of which copies will be found annexed, together with plans of the forts and of the chamber excavated. The surface of the cement on which these objects had been sketched was as smooth and as perfect as it could have been at any time, and we were in hopes, when we first saw the drawings, that others would be found on further excavation, and probably some inscription in Greek or Latin, by which we might have dated these productions. No other drawings or letters however were found, and we were obliged to content ourselves with taking copies of those described, and in making the plan of the chamber.

The ground about this excavation, and, indeed, along the whole range, was strewed with fragments of pottery and glass, among which we found a brass coin of Augustus Cæsar in a very tolerable state of preservation. While the excavations were going on in this quarter (for the outer wall of one of the forts was also cleared a few feet, in order to obtain the measurements of the gateway by which it had been entered) the plan of the harbour had been completed, as far as it was possible without boats, and the reefs were set down by bearings and estimated distance. The best landing for boats was found to be under the high point which we have mentioned to the westward, on which the fort excavated had been built; and on the beach at this angle were several heaps of sulphur, collected in equal-sized masses for embarkation, which had been brought on camels from the mines to the southward, and were said to belong to Mahommed Ali, the Pasha of Egypt. South-west of this point there is a large salt lake and marsh, which are evidently below the level of the sea, as we perceived a stream of salt water oozing from out a porous part of the rock on the sea-side, about eight feet above the level of the lake, and running into it. The land at the east and western extremities of the lake is so low, as to render it very probable that it may once have communicated with the sea, and that the point on which the fort stands may have been an island. If there should prove to be sufficient water in the harbour of Braiga, it is probable that good anchorage would be found there, with all winds, behind reefs of breakers extending across the mouth of it: it may be easily distinguished by the very high sand-hills at the back of it, and by the ruin on the rocky point mentioned at its western extremity. Among these sand-hills are some wells, in which the water, though several hundred feet above the level of the sea, is perfectly brackish. Beyond them to the southward is a hilly country covered with verdure, in which a number of camels were feeding, and numerous flocks of sheep and goats; but although we found ourselves in the midst of such plenty, we were unable to purchase a single sheep, in consequence of our friend the Dúbbah’s manœuvres. At Gartubbah, which possessed the same advantages, we were equally unable to succeed in a similar attempt. Among the green hills just mentioned are several ruins of forts, of the same quadrangular form as usual, and which have been built with large stones very regularly shaped; so that Braiga may be considered as a military station, and must have certainly been one of importance[22]. If it be necessary to give it an ancient name, we should consider it as the site of Automala, which was also a military station, according to the account of Strabo[23].

Automala, it is true, has been laid down by this geographer at the innermost part of the gulf, which must be taken as the most southern point of it; and the coast had already begun to bend to the northward before we arrived at Braiga. But a place which would answer to the description here given of Automala, could scarcely have disappeared altogether; and there is no place of any kind at the bottom of the gulf before the occurrence of Braiga. The coin of Augustus, which was found among the ruins of Braiga, would afford some proof of its having existed in the time of that emperor, and the form and solidity of the buildings which are found there sufficiently point it out as a fortified position. No fortified place is however mentioned to have existed in this neighbourhood, except Automala; and if Braiga may not be considered as the remains of that fortress, it has been wholly overlooked by the ancient authorities, and we know of no name which can be properly bestowed upon it.

We should be the more inclined to consider the fortifications of Braiga as those which are mentioned at Automala, from the circumstance of their vicinity to other remains, which answer extremely well to those of the _maritimæ stationes_ laid down in the map of Ptolemy. In this map, the stations are placed a little to the northward of Automala, with no other place intervening; and the position of Braiga with regard to Tabilba, which answers precisely to the _maritimæ stationes_, is exactly that assigned to Automala in the order here adopted by Ptolemy.

Sachreen may undoubtedly be considered as the extremity of the gulf in its present state; but a place which was only twenty miles distant from it might well have been said to be situated in this recess, by a person who viewed it from the sea, particularly when the outline of this part of the gulf is considered at the same time. Braiga, from the sea, must have, besides, been at all times very conspicuous; and we can scarcely imagine that the fort which stands so high above the beach there would have been unnoticed by Strabo, had it existed in his time, which we may suppose with probability that it did. He has, however, noticed only Automala; and it remains to be considered how far we are really authorized in assuming these places as the same, upon the data already before the reader[24].

Before we left Braiga, one of the Arabs of the place brought a present of five lambs to the tents, and gave them in charge to Shekh Mahommed el Dúbbah, who, thinking that this would prove a most excellent opportunity of showing his generosity to the best advantage, as well as his extraordinary influence with the Arabs of the place, in being able to procure sheep when we could not purchase them at all, made his appearance with great ceremony at the entrance of our tent, with two of the lambs above mentioned. After many compliments and professions of service, he offered the two lambs as a present from himself, and begged we would do him the favour to accept them. As we had lately found reason to be much dissatisfied with the Dúbbah’s conduct, we did not choose to be under an obligation to him; and having given him to understand the reason of our refusal, declined accepting the lambs as a present, but offered at the same time to purchase them. The old Shekh looked disconcerted, as we intended he should be, and slowly retired from the tent. And now began a parley between his avarice and his conscience, which terminated at length in favour of the latter; for, though not very tender on most occasions, this inward monitor of our worthy conductor would not allow him to receive money for what he knew was already our own, although it did not object to let him take the credit of presenting it to us. The result was, that he soon after paid us a second visit, bringing with him the two lambs as before, but which he now acknowledged were intended as presents to us, instead of to himself, as he assured us he had imagined: he informed us, at the same time, that the Arab who brought them was a shepherd belonging to the Bashaw, who wished to shew us what attentions were in his power, and had presented us with the best that he had. The other three lambs, he said, were really intended for him; but we afterwards found, from the shepherd in question, that the whole number had been presented to us. We also discovered that the reason why we could not, on many occasions, procure sheep or goats from the Arab tents which we passed on our journey, at which we had often been surprised, was because two of our party, followers of the Dúbbah, had usually gone before on pretence of reconnoitring, and had strictly enjoined the Arabs not to sell us anything whatever. We afterwards recollected, in confirmation of this manœuvre, that the only times when we had been able to purchase sheep were those at which we had accidentally been in advance of this worthy couple; and the Arabs we chanced to meet seldom failed on these occasions to ask us, of their own accord, whether we did not want a sheep or a goat, some butter, manteca, or other articles of provision, which they would have been able to furnish us with, and which they would, in fact, have been glad to dispose of. We could assign no other motive for this conduct on the part of our Arab guides, than the wish of making us as dependent as possible upon themselves, that they might either have an opportunity of showing their influence, or of planning with more effect some scheme to impose upon us. Yet the very same people who would take so much trouble to forward their own interested views, at the expense of another, would in all probability consider themselves greatly to blame, or at any rate highly disgraced, if they suffered a hungry traveller, of whatever creed or nation, to leave their own tents unsatisfied, should he apply to them for relief. But such is the inconsistency of Arab character; and it may perhaps be said, that he who should consider them as a generous nation, because they practised this species of hospitality, would be as much deceived in his opinion of them, as he would be who should imagine that they have no liberal feelings, because they are well skilled in selfish tricks and manœuvres.

On leaving Braiga, we travelled over a hilly country to the eastward, and passed two interesting ruins of ancient forts, of which we contrived to obtain plans. About noon we halted near a bold rocky promontory, called by the Arabs Tabilba, on which are the remains of a castle. On a hill just above it are the ruins of a very strong fortification, which was connected with the castle by a wall of five feet in thickness carried quite round the precipice on which it stood. This was defended on the inland side by a fosse of thirty feet in width excavated in the solid rock; and the rubbish extracted from it was piled up to form a bank on the outer side. On the beach are the remains of a wall remarkably well constructed, or it never could so long have resisted the violence of the surf which beats against it. It appears to have formed part of a landing-place or quay which has originally been built in its immediate neighbourhood. The interior of the rock on which the castle stands has been excavated into numerous galleries and chambers, which seem to have answered the purpose of barracks. Some of these are very spacious and very well finished; but the dash of the sea, which now washes through the exterior chambers, has completely destroyed their surface, and has left them in parts so little foundation as to render it very dangerous to enter them. In fact, the base of the rock in which these excavations have been made is perforated like a honeycomb by the continual action of the sea, which now washes through the hollows with a roar which may be heard at a considerable distance, and must in stormy weather be tremendous. In one of the chambers were several Greek inscriptions which have been written with ink on the walls; but they are now so indistinct, that we could not succeed in copying more than a few words of one of them.

They are written in what may be called the running-hand of the Greeks of the Roman Empire, and it is probable that one much accustomed to this character might succeed, with the assistance of a strong and steady light, and the frequent application of water to the inscriptions, in making out more than we were able to do with the little time we had at our disposal, and the light we were able to procure. In other parts of the rock were excavated tombs, some of which were entered by a quadrangular well, in the manner of those common in Egypt. We found nothing in any of them but scattered bones, from which we were not able to ascertain the mode of burial adopted. There can be no doubt that great part of the rock just described has already been washed away by the sea, which has here gained considerably on the land; and several wells are now observable some feet under water, which were of course originally above its level.

In the wall fronting the south, we observed part of an arch protruding itself from among the rubbish which encumbered it; and found, on clearing it, that it had been constructed without a key-stone, of square blocks, arranged so as to touch each other at the bottom, and having the interstices above filled up with good cement, which appeared to be more durable than the stone. We found other examples of arches so constructed in different parts of the Syrtis and Cyrenaica. The appearance of the top of the arch just described had given us hopes of discovering an entrance to some part of the fortification through the wall in which it was formed; but we found to our disappointment, on clearing it from the rubbish, that what we thought would prove the entrance extended no more than three feet from the external surface; and that all farther advance was prevented by a solid wall built across it, which appeared to be part of the original structure. Among the rubbish we found a silver coin, and several copper ones, so corroded that it was impossible to ascertain their antiquity.

We should willingly have given a much longer time to the examination of the ruins at Tabilba than the few hours we were enabled to bestow upon it; but the lateness of the season left us no choice on the subject, and we had already spent more time at Braiga than we could well afford to employ in such researches. It must however be confessed, that if we had doubted the probability of being able to return and examine them with greater minuteness, we might have been tempted to stay longer at many places in the Syrtis than we should perhaps have been authorized in doing.

We have no hesitation in supposing Tabilba to be the site of the _maritimæ stationes_ of Ptolemy. Its position corresponds so well with that assigned to the naval stations in question, and its remains are so well calculated to induce the belief that they have originally been appropriated to the defence and accommodation of a considerable number of men, that we cannot be sceptical on the occasion. On either side of the promontory on which the castle has been built is a small sandy bay, neither of which at present affords any shelter for vessels, but from which the galleys of the ancients might have been easily drawn up on the beach, when it might not have been practicable for them to keep the sea.

This mode of sheltering their vessels was common to the Greeks and Romans, to whom a port, such as in our days would be considered a good one, appears to have been by no means necessary. We are told indeed by Strabo, that this part of the coast was very sparingly provided with ports and watering-places[25], and the harbour which he calls the best in the Syrtis is now no harbour at all[26]. Mersa Braiga is in fact the only port in the gulf which can at all be considered as such, in our estimation of the term; and here the shelter is only afforded by breakers, and could not prevent the small vessels of the ancients from being driven on shore in stormy weather.

On the day after our arrival at Tabilba we continued our journey along the coast, and proceeded to Ain Agàn, passing two ruins of forts conspicuously situated on the hills. The beach in this neighbourhood presents a very dreary prospect; but the scene is much improved after passing the wady, and the country then begins to be cultivated. Many flocks of sheep and goats soon presented themselves to our view, and tents were scattered about in all directions. We procured from the Arabs here a scanty supply of corn for our horses, of which the poor animals stood very much in need; but we were obliged to apply for it in a more decided tone than we had hitherto found it necessary to assume on such occasions, as the Arabs, though they had plenty, were not very willing to part with it. There are some wells of brackish water at Ain Agàn, which is however the best that this neighbourhood affords, and we were glad to fill all our water-skins with it before we proceeded any farther.

A few miles from Ain Agàn is a remarkable hill, called Aàlum Limàrish, the summit of which overlooks an extensive tract of country, and Mersa Braiga may be plainly distinguished from it. To the southward of Aàlum Limàrish we observed a chain of lakes and swamps, which the Chaous informed us extended two days to the south-eastward. They communicated with the wady at Ain Agàn, and might once have joined the sea; the water in them is quite brackish.

To seaward we observed an island about a mile in length, with breakers east and west of it extending a considerable distance; from which we may infer that it was once much larger. The Arab name for this island (which is Gàra) too much resembles that of Gaia, one of those laid down by Ptolemy, to leave much doubt of their being the same. Gàra is situated farther to the north eastward than the island which we allude to in the map of Ptolemy, and is besides nearer the coast; but the similarity of the names cannot here be overlooked, and we do not hesitate to identify it with Gaia. At about a mile from the shore, nearly opposite Aàlum Limarish, is a remarkably white rock, about forty feet high, and steep on all sides; it has breakers scattered about it, and should not be closely approached till better known: beyond this rock, which is called Ishaifa, we perceived the sea breaking heavily over another rock, as much as four miles from the shore, which extends itself in reefs towards Gàra. There are two other islands laid down by Ptolemy in the Gulf of the Greater Syrtis; but one of these is placed in the neighbourhood of Aspis, where we could perceive nothing whatever like an island, and the other is laid down so far in the centre of the Gulf, that we could not certainly have seen it had it been still in existence. On coming abreast of Gàra, which lies about six miles off shore, we had a good opportunity of observing it with our glasses; it appeared to be covered with verdure, and we thought we perceived some appearances of building upon it; it rises in white cliffs from the sea, in some parts very abruptly, but the table-land on their summits was green when we passed it. It was in vain that we longed for some means of crossing over to this island, for there is not a boat or a vessel of any description to be found from one end of the Gulf of Syrtis to the other; but we consoled ourselves with the idea that it would be visited by the officers of the Adventure, which we afterwards found to have been the case. In passing by Ain Agàn, the Shekh of the place paid us a visit; but as we found that we could obtain no information from him, and he soon discovered that there was little chance of getting any bàkshis from us, the visit was not of very long duration. From Aàlum Limàrish to Sheibah, the country is much encumbered with sand-hills, which are however partially covered with vegetation; and finding we made but little progress in passing among them, we kept along the beach, which is hard and level as far as Rhout el Assoud, so called from its dark colour. Near Sheibah we found the water tasted very strong of sulphur, besides being brackish and stinking, but among some sand-hills two miles beyond it there were several wells of sweet water; a circumstance which it is essential to know, as the water of Sheibah can scarcely be called drinkable, and there is no other but that just alluded to at less than two days from the place.

On our way to Rhout el Assoud we passed several flocks of sheep, but could not persuade the shepherd to part with a single one. As we were now heartily tired of being so often refused what there seemed to be no sufficient reason for withholding, we told the man that we should act as the Bashaw’s people would on similar occasions, if he did not think more considerately on the subject; which was as much as to say, that if he would not part with his sheep voluntarily, we should certainly make bold to take it without his leave; the only difference being, that His Highness’s people would have taken the animal without paying for it, while we were quite ready to pay the full price of it. But the Arab, who had evidently been tampered with by the Dúbbah, was steady in his decided refusal; and we were too hungry to wait very long in endeavouring to reason him out of his obstinacy. Besides, we had already proposed an alternative, and could not with credit avoid putting our threat in execution. As neither our dignity, therefore, nor our appetites, would allow us to discuss with our obstinate Arab friend the propriety or impropriety of eating his mutton against his will, we judged it better to dispense with all such logical minutiæ on a subject where the parties were not likely to agree, and, dropping the argument, we took up the sheep, and tendered the money we had offered for it. Our opponent, however, was still as obstinate as before in refusing to take our piastres, though he saw a fat sheep take its departure from his flock, and occupy a position upon our Chaous’s shoulders, while nothing remained to him in lieu of it. We had no doubt, on our leaving him, that he would change his mind before long, and told him, in consequence, where we meant to pitch our tents, that he might come for his money at his own leisure and convenience. But the sheep was killed and eat, at least a good part of it, and still no shepherd appeared; and we went to sleep in full assurance that he would come the next morning before the camels were loaded. During the night our Arab watch-dog kept up a continual barking, very much to the annoyance of old Shekh Mahommed, who was always rejoiced to have any opportunity of finding fault with poor Morzouk, whom he frequently honoured with the titles of useless cur, noisy rascal, and other equally flattering appellations. Our whole party, however, were too much tired with the day’s exertions to pay any particular attention to this warning; and indeed it must be said that our shaggy young guardian was too much in the habit of employing his nights in barking merely for his private amusement, to render any further notice of him absolutely necessary, than that of lifting up occasionally the canvass of the tent to throw a stick or a stone at him, accompanied in general with some little verbal admonition. No one, however, was kept awake on this occasion, so far as we have been able to learn, but old Shekh Mahommed el Dúbbah; and we have reason to believe that his opinion of Morzouk’s sagacity was not quite so indifferent after this night’s alarm, as it had been before its occurrence; for the first thing which he discovered on turning out in the morning, which he usually did very early, was that three of his camels were missing; and on summoning his people, and searching everywhere in the neighbourhood, no traces whatever could be seen of them, but the track of their footsteps in the sand, with those of a man in their company.