CHAPTER IV.

TRAVELS IN THE SAHARA, or GREAT DESERT.

General View of the Great Desert.-Adventures of Saugnier. -The Monselemines.-The Mongearts.-Brisson.-The Ouadelim and Labdesseba.

THE Great Desert, or Sahara, comprehends all that extent of land which lies between the narrow stripe of Barbary, and that fertile track stretching across the centre of Africa, which Europeans term Nigritia, and the Africans Soudan and Affnoo. It presents a surface equal in extent to nearly one-half of Europe, containing islands of great fertility and population, from which its different parts derive their names, as the deserts of Barca, Bilma, Bornou Sort, &c. Its western division, contained between Fezzan and the Atlantic, is about 50 caravan journeys, or from 750 to 800 geographical miles in breadth, from north to south, and double that extent in length. Amidst this vast sea of lifeless sand, the islands, or Oases, as they were termed by the ancients, are extremely few, and of small extent; but they are more numerous in the eastern division, where, besides many small ones, there are Fezzan Gadamis, Ta

boo, Ghanat, Agadez, Augela, and Berdoa. The inhabitants of these Oases are sometimes isolated for ages from the rest of mankind. Having never seen any people but their countrymen, nor any other part of the earth except the sands by which they are surrounded, they consider themselves as the only nation in the world, and think the boundary of their land that of the universe. Messrs Saugnier and Brisson, who, in 1784 and 1785, traversed that part of the desert which lies upon the Atlantic, have described the manners, customs, and modes of life of its inhabitants, with greater accuracy than had been done by any other traveller, though, from their peculiar situation, we may expect the picture to be rather overcharged.

M. Saugnier, in a voyage to Senegal, was shipwrecked off the mountains of Wel de Non, in the country of the Mongearts. After being plundered, he and his companions were separated, and enslaved by the Mongearts and Monselemines. He was conducted by some Arabs towards Senegal; but, from the hostilities of some of the interjacent tribes, they found it impossible to proceed beyond Cape Blanco, and were forced to return to that part of the desert which separates the Monselemines from the Mongearts. During this journey, which continued thirty days, his food consisted only of milk mixed with camel's urine,

and a little barley-meal mixed with brackish water, when it could be procured. On the first day his steps were marked with blood; but the Arabs drew out the thorns from his feet, and, having scraped his soles with their daggers, plastered them over with tar and sand, which enabled him to walk without farther pain or difficulty. In that part of the desert which he traversed, he observed much excellent land, that would be very fertile if cultivated. It produced great quantities of truffles, which the Moors, with much humanity, denied to themselves, and gave to M. Saugnier. He was employed, when he resided at the horde, in making butter, by shaking the milk in a goat's skin, and in collecting dead wood; for, though the country was covered with bushes, the Arabs never touched a green stick. M. Saugnier had not remained long in this situation, till he was sold to one of the Moors, who at that period were in rebellion against the Emperor of Marocco, for a barrel of meal, and an iron bar about nine feet in length. During a journey of nine days, he ate nothing but small wild fruits resembling jujubes. After being repeatedly sold, he rescued his master from being assassinated by four Arabs, from which moment his sufferings were at an end, and he was treated as one of the tribe. But, as he refused to renounce his country, he was again sold to the chief of Glimi, who then commanded

the Moors who were in rebellion against the emperor. During his residence in Glimi, having better diet and clothes, he recovered his strength, which had been exhausted in the desert; and relates, that when he asked victuals from the women, he never was refused. The French merchants at Mogadore, having been informed of the distress of their countrymen, with the English merchants resident in that place, employed an Arab to purchase the liberty of as many as could be found. Six were accordingly redeemed; but, upon their arrival at Mogadore, they found themselves exposed to the childish petulance of a barbarian prince. As the Emperor of Marocco, only two months before, had given the most positive orders to his governors of provinces, in the vicinity of the desert, to use every method of extricating them from the wandering Arabs, he was extremely chagrined, that, in his own dominions, Christians had been able to accomplish what he had found impossible to effect. He therefore threatened to burn the first person alive, who from that time should dare to interfere in the redemption of a captive of any nation; and, repaying the money which had been advanced, obliged the merchants to resign M. Saugnier and his companions, and caused them to be conducted to Marocco. Upon their arrival they were treated with unexpected kindness by the emperor, who immediately grant

ed them their liberty, and allowed them to return to France by Tangier, from which they sailed on the 31st of July 1784. The acquaintance with the manners of the Arabs of the desert, which M. Saugnier obtained during his residence in the Sahara, proved afterwards, as we have seen, of the greatest utility in his voyage up the Senegal to Gallam, when one of his vessels was stranded on the territory of the Trasarts, a Moorish tribe, and enabled him to preserve his property.

M. DE BRISSON, after having made several voyages to Africa, was wrecked a little to the north of Cape Blanco, and fell into the hands of the Labdesseba Arabs. After escaping the shoals, his companions and he ascended the rocks on the shore, from the summits of which they saw the country expand in an immense plain, covered with white sand, over which were thinly scattered a few creeping plants resembling branches of coral. The seed of these plants was similar in form to that of mustard, but extremely small. The Arabs, who collect it to form an edible paste, term it avezoud. The distant hills, covered with wild fern, presented the appearance of an extensive forest. Proceeding towards some camels which they observed, they were discovered by some children tending the goats, and the alarm was soon spread to the tents of the Arabs,