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CLASSICAL JOURNAL;

N°. LVI.

DECEMBER, 1823.

ITINERARY from TRIPOLI (in Barbary) to
TIMBUCTOU. By the SHEIKH L'HAGE KASSEM.
TRANSLATED, AND ILLUSTRATED WITH NOTES,
BY JAMES GREY JACKSON.

The following Itinerary was written at Rabat, in West Barbary, in 1807, and was transmitted by Mr. Delaporte, chancellor of the French consulate, to the French minister for foreign affairs in 1810. It was dictated to the chancellor, by Sheikh L'Hage Kassem, an aged man, who had acted as guide to the caravans of merchants who traded from Tripoli to Timbuctou, and who, all his life, had traded to Tripoli and Gadames (which were his countries) to Timbuctou. Done at Rabat, June 13th, 1807; signed, Delaporte, Chancelier.

1st Journey. From Tripoli to Zawieh. Zawieh is a village that resembles Coraim in Lower Egypt. There are large gardens attached to the houses: there is also a college.

2nd Journey. From Zawich they pass the night at a place called Beer-el-grhanam, a well so called.

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3rd Journey.-From Beer-el-grhanam they rest at Wadletel,

pill sheep.

Beer-el-grhanam; i. e. the sheep-well, or the well of

2 It is impossible to determine the meaning of this word Wadletel, as this itinerary was not written, but delivered or spoken in Arabic: it is as likely I think to be the river of gum-trees, or Wad attolh. I will not however dispute that letel may signify tamarinds, although I never heard the word used in the west of Africa to signify that fruit, but invariably Timur-el-hend, i. e. dates of India; and this is the etymology of the European word tamarind. NO. LVI.

VOL. XXVIII.

CI. JI.

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so named from a river where are seen tamarind trees; the word wadletel signifying the River of Tamarinds.

4th Journey. From Wadletel they travel and rest at Rogeban, the name of a tribe of Arabs who reside there.

5th, 6th, and 7th Journies.-From Rogebau, proceeding on the journey during three days, they reach Dorgy, and pass the night there.

8th Journey-From Dorgy they reach a well called Beertemad, where they pass the night.

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9th-13th Journey.-From Beer-temad they travel five journies in a desert without water, after which they reach the town of Gedâmes, or Gadames; which is the ancient Cadmus. Gadames is a middling-sized town, built by the side of the ancient Cadmus, where are found the remains of interesting ruins. This town is the magazine for the commerce of the interior of Africa. They bring from thence senna, grain, golddust, gums, negroes and negresses bought at Cashna, Bornou, Timbuctou, and which are distributed from hence into the regencies of Barbary, in the Levant, and in Europe, through Marseilles and Leghorn. Gadames, which formerly belonged to the regency of Tunis, is now dependent on Tripoli, which has imposed heavy duties on the merchandise coming from the interior by the caravans, and which has also levied heavy imposts on the inhabitants. The Bashaw, or chief of this regency, has latterly obliged the Gadamesians to take to Tripoli all that commerce which they before carried on more advantageously with Tunis, for the purpose of improving the revenue of the former government. From Gadames they take dates to Fazzan, the ancient Phazania. Gadames is surrounded with gardens of palm, date, and other trees, watered by one spring, the water of which is legally divided. The government of the town is in the hands of the three most ancient sheikhs of the country, who watch over the police, administer justice, and superintend the distribution of the water. The women of the Gadamesians never walk in the streets, they visit one another over the terraces of the houses, which have all the same elevation. Gadames has sustained many sieges against the regency of Tunis, from the yoke of which she delivered herself, to submit to the still harder one of the regency of Tripoli,

13th-15th Journey.-From Gadames they proceed on

1 Beer-temad, i. e. the warm well; the term temad designates that degree of warmth which milk has, coming from the camel (or cow).

their journey three days, after which they go and repose themselves at the wells called Ten-yakken.

16th-18th Journey.-From Ten-yakken, which signifies, in the language of the country, the Wells of Yakken, they march on three days, after which they come to another well, called Beer-el-tabbeyed.

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19th-22nd Journey.-From Beer-el-tabbeyed they travel on four journies, resting each night in the deserts, and the fourth day they reach a place, called El-mossegguem.

22nd-25th Journey.-From El-mossegguem they perform four more journies, stopping in the intermediate way, in barren or uncultivated spots, after which they reach a well dug in a wood, and which is therefore called Beer-el-grâbah,2.

26th-29th Journey.-From Beer-el-grabah, during a progress of four days, they rest in desert places, after which, they reach and repose at a place called Hassi-Farsik.

30th-33rd Journey.-From Hassi-Farsik, after having performed four journies in the heart of the deserts, they come and sleep at a place called Ain-el-salah,3 that is to say, the Fountain of Saints, on account of saints or religious muselmen who reside and have their tombs there.

34th-35th Journey.-From Ain-el-salah (or more properly, Ain-essalah, the being a solar letter, a distinction which I should not think it necessary to notice, but for the infor

The French orthography of Beer, is Bir; but Bir, according to the English orthography, signifies a country or district; wherefore it became necessary to adapt the orthography to the English alphabet. Considerable errors have originated in transposing the Oriental languages into the European character, a remarkable example of which is evident in the word Nile, which is intelligible in the French, but not in the English language.

2 As I have translated this itinerary principally for the use of British travellers in Africa, it is impossible to be too particular in the pronunciation of Arabic or African words. For example, the French translation calls this word, Bir-el-gabah; but the word gabah, pronounced by an European to an African, would be perfectly unintelligible, and the word loses its identity by being so pronounced. I have repeatedly called the attention of African travellers to this matter, and it is the importance of the matter only, that induces me thus again to impress it on their minds: viz., that the Arabic letter is not rendered by the European g or gh, as Richardson and others have rendered it, but rather by gr or grh.

3 I translate this passage, o, the fountain of peace, not of saints. The word Salah is not a noun plural.

mation of travellers in Africa), after two stations, they arrive at the town called Agably,' the capital of a great country, called Tuat, or Tuwat, which contains an infinite number of towns or encampments, whose inhabitants live on dates, milk, and the sugar cane. This town was built by a Muhamedan whose name was Bû Nâmeh. It is protected by the Emperor of Marocco. There is plenty of water in this country.

36th-39th Journey.-From Agably they proceed during four days between mountains; aud on the fourth they reach a well, called Beer-Wellan, that is to say, the Inhabited Well, a country inhabited by Arabs, who dwell here under tents made of leather, The chief of the Arabs of Wellan, whose name is Kâoû, raises a passage-impost or duty on all caravans which pass through his country. The territory of Wellan is rich in pasturages, wherein camels feed.

40th-44th Journey. From Beer-Wellan they arrive, after five days' march, at the country of the Tuâreks, a black race. The Tuâreks cover themselves to the eyes, with the same garment or envelope, which covers a tunic or under dress of linen, which they dye black. If the men of the Tuâreks cover their bodies to the eyes, the Tuârek women, on the other hand, contrary to the oriental custom, go uncovered. They are said to be of a monstrous size, and as indolent as they are large, out of proportion, or monstrous. The Tuâreks take their wives by their weight-the heavier a woman is, the handsomer she is. A Tuârek of 10 quintals is a Venus. The Tuâreks mount the swift camel of the desert, who for their expedition are

El Kibla, i. e. the south; El Kibly, i. e. southern. The south country, so called, as relative to the empire of Marocco and Tafilelt, the same being its southern appendage, and the emperor claims its sovereignty, as may be seen in his letter to our late revered sovereign, George III., in Jackson's Account of Marocco, 2nd or 3d edition, p. 320. The k is changed into a g hard by the French translator, the k and the go hard being synonymous; but he has (possibly to avoid the g being pronounced soft) spelt the word Agably, instead of Kibly, or Akibli.

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A corroboration of this happy taste may be seen in Lyon's Travels in Africa. Speaking of these weighty beauties, he says,-"A boy who accompanied us from Tripoli came to me full of the praises of Lella Fatima, the fat wife of Sheikh Barood, a white woman, 'who,' he said, was the most beautiful creature he had ever seen, and so fat, she could scarcely walk: her arm (t’barek allah, God's blessing on it) is as big as my body.' Continued he, 'I must say I never beheld such a monstrous mass of human flesh; one of her legs, of enormous size, was uncovered as high as the calf, and every one pressed it, admiring its solidity, and praising God for blessing them with such a sight.""

divided into several classes. Some perform, in one day, an ordinary camel's journey of five days; these are called Khammassi, i. e. a camel of five journies. Others, performing

six journies in one day, are denominated Saddassy. Others, performing ten days in one, are called Ashray. There are some which perform three days in one, and they are therefore called Tallati. In the empire of Marocco several Arab tribes use these animals for travelling. The arms of the Tuâreks are sabres, lances wholly of iron, and shields, covered with the hide of an animal called enir-ainda, which resembles the ox. This people proceeded about four years since to Tripoli, in the territory of which they made an incursion in the neighbourhood of the island of Gerbi, the ancient Meninx; but they returned, not without an attempt on the part of the Tripolitans to pursue them, but they could not come up with them, by reason of the swiftness of their camels.3 The territory of the Tuâreks abounds in springs and meadows. The Tuâreks are expert in the manageinent of the sabre.

45th 49th Journey.-From the Tuârek country, after five days' journey, they reach the wells called Beer-mossaguem.

50th-54th Journey. Five days more bring the travellers to another well, called Hassy-Tuaber.

55th-61st Journey. From Hassy-Tuaber, after seven days of tedious march through a desert without water, they reach the wells called Hassy-Moussy, a country inhabited by Arabs named El-Brabish, who carry on a trade in cattle with the Tuâreks.

62nd 70th Journey. From Hassy-Moussy they reach, in eight days' march, the town of Mabrouk. The situation of this

'The highest class or denomination of the swift camel, or heirit, that ever I heard of during my residence in north-western Africa, is the nineday camel, designated by the term tasayée, and I very much doubt if a swifter animal exists. A description of these extraordinary animals is given in Jackson's account of Marocco, p. 90. of the 2nd and 3d editions of that work.

2 I take this word to be eneer-hendy, i. e. the Indian ox: q. d. the buffalo.

3 The word dromadaires I render camel, because, according to Buffon, the dromedary has two bumps on his back, the camel has but one; the swift camel, or heirie, has but one, and therefore more correctly belongs to the denomination of camel.

4 An emigration of this tribe of Arabs occupy, according to Jackson, the territory north of Timbuctou.-Vide his map of the tracks of caravans across the Sahara.

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