Part 2

After having buried in the sand the treasure which he had acquired, Sidy-Mahammet returned to the shore to get his share of the plunder of the ship; and during his absence a troop of Wadelims attacked the retreat of the Europeans, pulled them out by the throat and the hair of the head, and then began to fight amongst themselves for the few clothes which M. de Brisson had about him; and in their jealous fury they not only stripped him to the skin, but pursued him behind some heaps of sand, where they knocked him down, and almost beat him to death. They were preparing a rope to strangle him, when one of the men whom the talba had associated with him, came running out of breath, and accused them with having violated the asylum of Sidy-Mahammet, carried off his slave, and trodden under foot the sacred book of their religion. He told them that the priest, indignant at the indecency of their sacrilegious conduct, had demanded that the old men of both parties should meet to try the criminals in full council, and that the only means of appeasing his wrath would be to give up his slave. This menace had a good effect, and M. de Brisson was immediately set at liberty. The person who had interfered in behalf of the French officer was called Nonegem; he conducted M. de Brisson to the place where the council was assembled, and the trial immediately began; when the liberator, as avaricious as he was cunning, pretended that M. de Brisson was a slave of his own, as he had taken him from those who would have carried him off. He also founded his pretensions on having seen this Frenchman give his master several articles which he conceived to be very valuable. These audacious remarks, and particularly the disclosure of the little treasure, rendered Sidy-Mahammet furious: he darted at Nonegem a look of rage and indignation, and exclaimed, “This Christian belongs to me; he came of his own accord to throw himself into my arms, and I have promised to protect him and conduct him to king Alikouri. I gave him my word that I would do so; and I hope the tribunal will give a verdict in my favour, instead of declaring for Nonegem, who deserves to be severely punished.” To this Nonegem replied, “As thy slave cannot be mine, he shall die by my hand.” On which he drew a poignard to kill M. de Brisson, who stood appalled with terror. Sidy-Mahammet, however, without expressing the least emotion, threw over him a kind of chaplet of a considerable length; and then took up a little book which hung at his waist, when in an instant the women rushed towards M. de Brisson, took him from Nonegem, and delivered him over to the enraged priest: for they dreaded lest he should issue an anathema against his adversary. The whole of the council immediately applauded the act of authority of the talba, and approved of the conduct of the women. I should add by the way, that the talbas, or marabous, always wear a long string, which contains one hundred and fifteen little black balls, and which they use as the catholics do chaplets.

M. de Brisson was then taken to his comrades who were in the vicinity, and whom he found in a pitiable state. They were almost starved; for during the three days which they had been in captivity they had had no food but a little wheat-flour spoiled by sea-water, mixed with some barley-flour, which had for a long time been preserved in goats-skins. While they were enjoying this wretched meal, a friend of Sidy-Mahammet came and told them to hide themselves without delay, as the Wadelims were coming from all parts to carry off the slaves and treasure. The talba profited by this advice, and they all hid themselves behind some hillocks of sand, where they remained till some Moors of the other tribe, who were interested in preserving their plunder, came to reinforce their comrades. A guide went before the Frenchmen, and pointed out to them the road they had to take, by erecting at certain distances little pyramids of stones. This precaution was necessary in order to avoid the outskirts of the enemy, particularly those of the Wadelims. Indeed, these people are so avaricious, that whether friends or enemies they are equally to be dreaded. At break of day all those who possessed Christian slaves came with them, and joined the Frenchmen; when the whole body marched off for the interior of the country, at which resided the families of their respective owners.

This journey was to the Europeans toilsome in the extreme: they were dying with hunger and thirst, by which they experienced such pain, on moving the tongue, that they were afraid to ask the simplest question. Being forced to follow the steps of the camels, whose pace was hastened, they were exhausted by fatigue; and to avoid being surprised, they made several counter marches, in consequence of which they were a fortnight in making a journey which was generally performed in five days.

After climbing mountains of a prodigious height, covered with small greyish flints as sharp as those of muskets, they descended into a sandy plain, interspersed with thistles, and here the cavalcade rested. M. de Brisson having walked till his feet were excoriated, could proceed no farther; on which his master made him get up behind him on a camel, whose rough movements caused him to experience insupportable pain. Being naked, and having no means of preventing the friction of the camel’s hair, he was soon so chafed, that his blood ran down the camel’s sides. This was a sight which afforded much amusement to his master; and the better to enjoy it, he pressed the camel to a quicker pace. At length M. de Brisson, no longer able to endure the torture, threw himself down on the sand, and experienced no other injury than a few scratches from the thorny thistles.

Towards evening they met their guide and halted. M. de Brisson being no longer able to move, and suffering all the horrors of starvation, threw himself behind a bush and implored death; but they soon roughly pulled him from his retreat to make him unload the camels. Being, however, tired of his life, he made some resistance, and knocked down the Moor who disturbed him, on which the latter ran off and fetched his master, who assured his captive that he had nothing to fear. This, and many other instances of a similar nature, prove that the Moors are not insolent, and that they only shew courage when they meet with no resistance.

The shipwrecked mariners, while sitting beneath the bushes, perceived some arrangements which made them tremble with horror. The Moors put a quantity of stones in a brasier, and made them red hot; they then lifted up a lage stone, and dug a hole in the ground, occasionally making shouts of laughter, and repeating the name of Brisson. At length they called him to them, and made him approach to the hole which they had dug; but what was his surprise when he saw them draw from the hole which they had just dug, and in which he thought they were going to bury him, a large skin full of water, a sack of barley-flour, and a newly-killed goat. His fear subsided, and the sight of the provisions gave him a new life; he saw them fill a large wooden bowl with water in which they put a quantity of flour, and then, by throwing into it the red-hot stones, they made it boil. By this means they produced a sort of gruel which they kneaded in their hands, and ate without chewing. The slaves had for their repast the same steeped flour, and a very small quantity of brackish water: the goat was reserved for the next day. The guide who went before them had procured those provisions in a neighbouring village, and had concealed them under the stone. M. de Brisson observed, that the resentment of the Moor whom he had struck was converted into acts of kindness and complaisance: for this man brought him a larger share of provisions than was allotted to the others. The meal being finished, each man laid himself down to sleep behind the bushes.

The next morning as soon as day appeared, a signal was given for their departure; and M. de Brisson, with the other slaves, were ordered to collect the camels and load them; after which the troop set off, and at noon stopped in a plain where there was not a single tree to shade them from the rays of the sun. Having unloaded the camels, the slaves were employed in digging up roots to make a fire; a labour which, in this country, is the more troublesome, as all the trees, roots, and grasses, are thorny. As soon as the fire had imparted a sufficient heat to the sand, they covered the goat entirely with it; and while the slaves were keeping up the fire, their masters regaled themselves with the raw fat of the animal, for which they seemed to have a great relish. When the goat was dressed, the Moors, without taking the trouble to knock off the sand, ate it with a most incredible voracity, gnawing it to the very bones, and pulling off the skin which remained on them with their nails: they then threw the bones to the slaves, telling them to make haste and get their dinner, that they might reload the camels.

Towards evening they perceived some tents on a little eminence, with a few herds grazing: the inhabitants of this village came in crowds to meet the travellers; but far from expressing towards the unfortunate slaves the mild laws of hospitality, they overwhelmed them with insults, and subjected them to the most inhuman treatment. Two comrades of M. de Brisson were used with extreme rigour, and the women were more ferocious than the men. Their owners made but feeble resistance; for they were very glad that the people occupied themselves more with the slaves than with the burdens of the camels. M. de Brisson, who was at a little distance from his camel, perceived a man who was aiming at his face with a double-barrelled musket, on which he presented his breast to him and told him to fire; when the assassin, struck by his firmness, let the piece fall from his hands. At the same instant he was struck on the head by a stone, and for a moment lost his senses; but on recovering himself he burst into a rage, and loudly demanded vengeance. There needed no more to spread terror through the village, and the savages who had come to see the travellers took to flight; one of them, however, before he ran off, gave M. de Brisson a blow on the breast with his musket, which made him vomit blood, and the unfortunate man was unable to recognise the fellow who had injured him; but by complaining loudly he excited the curiosity of several of those monsters, who asked him a number of questions, and seemed pleased with his answers.

M. de Brisson, to prove that he knew the king Alikouri, and that he had been his _friend_ at isle St. Louis, attempted to imitate the _egeums_ or buffoons, whom that king had in his suite: by this kind of drollery he so highly pleased his master, that he made him repeat his mimickry several times, and at last employed this stratagem to divert the people, who, he feared, would steal his property. No sooner had he mentioned the talent of his slave for imitating the egeums, than M. de Brisson was surrounded by crowds of men, women, and children, who were constantly pressing him to sing, and for which they rewarded him with a little camel’s milk.

The travelling party remained one day in this canton; but the inhabitants, though they had received them coldly, supplied them on their departure with provisions for three or four days. They proceeded eastward, and passed over large plains, which were covered with white, flat, and round flints, but not a single plant was to be seen; and the horizon appeared to be loaded with a reddish vapour, which resembled in different parts the flames from volcanoes. The small pebbles pricked the feet of the Frenchmen, and produced a sensation similar to the burning of sparks. The air contained neither birds nor insects; and the silence which prevailed was so profound, as to produce a sort of terrific effect on the mind. If by chance a breath of air arose, the traveller immediately experienced an extreme lassitude; his lips became chapped, his skin parched, and his whole body covered with painful carbuncles. The Moors, who had retired to live in these countries in order to avoid certain tributes which they did not wish to pay, were afflicted by the atmosphere as much as their slaves; for so inhospitable is the region, that the most ferocious animals dare not penetrate it.

On leaving this plain they entered another, where the wind had raised from space to space the sand into hillocks, and the intervals of which produced a few odoriferous plants, which the almost famished camels devoured with avidity. They afterwards came to a valley surrounded by mountains, the soil of which was white and saponaceous; and here, for the first time, they found some pools of water: it was very brackish, covered with green moss, and had a pestilential smell; but such was their thirst, that they drank it with indescribable pleasure. Towards evening they had the good fortune to meet with an hospitable horde by whom they were well received, and who pointed out to them the road which led to some other villages where they could obtain provisions to last them for the remainder of their journey. This information was very seasonable, as their guide had lost his way.

The brother-in-law of the master of M. de Brisson was one of the chiefs of the burgh, and took particular care of all the slaves: he sent them a meal of ostrich-flesh and camel’s milk. He appeared affected at the fate of M. de Brisson, and said to him, with much tenderness, “Unfortunate Christian! my brother has long been my debtor; if you will attach yourself to me, I will make arrangements with him to obtain you.” This proposition, though it affected M. de Brisson, nevertheless made him tremble, as it indicated a long captivity, while he flattered himself that his present state would soon be changed; he therefore sought for his master, and intreated him not to consent to such an arrangement. “Be easy,” said the Moor; “you shall not leave me except to go to Senegal or Morocco, and that shall soon take place.” This assurance gave indescribable joy to the captive.

They rested three days amongst the Moors of the tribe called _Laroussye_, and then continued their journey to the spot at which resided the families of their conductors. It was not till they had travelled sixteen days, and suffered the most dreadful fatigue and misery, that they arrived at the place of their destination, reduced to skeletons.

At break of day they discovered a village which apparently occupied a fertile spot. Several tents were pitched under large shady trees, and innumerable herds were grazing on the hillocks, which made them conceive the place to be the residence of peace and plenty. But this proved an illusion.

The travellers were soon perceived ascending a hill which led to the residence of the Moors who were approaching; and several black slaves came to meet them, prostrated themselves, and kissed their feet. At a short distance the children made the air resound with shouts of joy; and the women placed themselves erect at the entrance of the tents to give their husbands a respectful reception. As the latter approached, the women came forward, and with a submissive aspect, placed the right hand on the men’s heads, which they kissed after prostrating themselves to the ground. This ceremony being over, they looked towards the Christian slaves with much curiosity, and then insulted them in the most odious manner: they spat in their faces, and threw stones at them; while the children, imitating their example, pinched them, pulled their hair, and tore their flesh with their nails, their cruel mothers stimulating them to the commission of such injuries.

A division was now made of the slaves; and Messrs. Devoise, de Brisson, and Beaudré were taken by Sidy-Mahammet. As soon as his family had done carressing him, M. de Brisson asked which of the women who surrounded him was his favourite, on which he pointed her out. The captive then approached her, and presented her with a double handful of cloves, which her husband had carefully kept for her, that he might meet with a favourable reception; for these women are passionately fond of aromatic scents, and that of cloves beyond others. She received the present with an insulting hauteur, and then kicked him from the tent. A minute afterwards this despotic woman commanded the slaves to unload the camels; after which she set one to clean a sort of kettle, and sent another to pull up roots for fuel. While she was giving these orders, her dear husband was fast asleep, with his head on the lap of one of his concubines.

The unfortunate Frenchmen, though thus condemned to an excess of fatigue, misery, and opprobrium, nevertheless occasionally experienced some relaxation, owing to the interference of their master; but the cruelty of his wife was incessant, and at length became unbearable. The Moors never inhabit the same place for a length of time; but when the half-starved herds have devoured all the pasturage, they change their position, and remove to a spot which is more favourable. The care and labour attendant upon such changes were the task imposed upon the French slaves; and from the frequency of these movements they were absolutely exhausted. One day Devoise and Beaudré were beaten almost to death, and left senseless on the sand, because they were unable to perform the required service. For a long time they were compelled to the dire necessity of seeking their food along with the cattle; and on these occasions their only nutriment was plants and live snails.

M. de Brisson was possessed of sufficient strength and firmness of mind to resist all these hardships; but he was soon subjected to others. He was compelled to harness the camels to the plough, to attend to the tillage and sowing of the lands; and his master, when he had finished his own jobs, would let him out to other Moors for a portion of milk. He would infallibly have fallen under the fatigue, if some hope of liberty had not remained with him, and if he had not been enabled occasionally to steal some barley and mutton in addition to the small quantity of food which they allowed him.

The unfortunate M. Devoise being older, and not so strong in constitution, could not long withstand such hardships. Every day he prayed for death, who at length came to his assistance. This gentleman was the brother of the present French commercial commissioner at Tunis. I was on terms of the strictest intimacy with him; and when I heard of his shipwreck, I sent to the deserts with the most pressing requests that he might be delivered up; but all my endeavours were unsuccessful. M. de Brisson paid him the last duties of humanity. Beaudré also died, and his body was devoured by ravens and serpents.

M. de Brisson at length obtained the permission of his master to write to Mogador, which the Moors call Sovia. He addressed his letter to the French consul, and gave a melancholy account of the hardships he suffered. It was conveyed by a Jew, who travelled through that part of the desert; for the Jews who are born in the desert live on good terms with the Moors, and adopt nearly the same customs; but the Jewish inhabitants of the towns being more rigid observers of their religious maxims, receive far worse treatment.

A second favour more important than the first occurred by chance. Another Sidy-Mahammet, who was sheriff of the tribe of the Trarzas, had occasion to pass through the place where M. de Brisson was enslaved, and they recognised each other. The sheriff spoke so highly of him to the brother-in-law of his master, Sidy-Sellem, that the latter, who was naturally humane and compassionate, made a second attempt to purchase him, and the bargain was at length concluded. The price of his transfer was five camels.

Sidy-Sellem was the first who informed M. de Brisson of the change, which was soon confirmed by his former master, and they separated on the best terms. M. de Brisson, on returning with his new owner, met with a companion of his misfortune, who had been baker to the wrecked ship, and they travelled together under the protection of Sidy-Sellem. Their master had given them a camel to ride on without a saddle, and they proceeded in this manner for some days; but the motion of the animal was so fatiguing, that they were obliged to quit it and travel the rest of the way on foot.

This journey was difficult, but much less so than the former, as their master took them through villages where water was plentiful, and the people were more feeling. M. de Brisson, however, had a shocking rencontre with some Moors of the tribe of Telkannes. They fired two muskets at him, but which luckily missed him. Two Moors then seized him, and were about to carry him off, when Sidy-Sellem, who was some distance behind, came forward on the report of the guns, and loudly complained of the outrage; but the Moors told him that they had taken the slave for a thief who had run away, Sidy-Sellem pretended to believe them, and the travellers continued their journey.

The Moors of this tribe are the worst off of any in the desert. They live amongst hills which are formed entirely of sand raised by the wind; and it is so difficult to penetrate into their retreats, that it is a common saying, that they endeavour to conceal themselves from the rays of the sun: the plains in the neighbourhood contain great numbers of enormous serpents, which do not permit the cattle to approach them.