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He was sent from Mourzuk, and enjoys the confidence of Hasan Belazee. Before him there was another Turkish Kaed of Sockna. The continual jealousies and rivalries in these towns prevent the Pacha from appointing them one of their native Sheikhs. The Mudeer has been four years in Barbary, but, like all the Turks, speaks Arabic very badly, with a most detestable accent.
His new friend delighted in pomp and show, and he and his attendants entered Sockna attired in magnificent costumes, their chief himself riding a beautiful Tunisian horse, the saddle and housing richly adorned with scarlet cloth and gold.
Started with the first solar rays, and as we journeyed on, the valley of Ghotfa widened, till we found ourselves traversing an immense plain, at the extreme north of which, and on the west, we saw the palms of Sockna. We had seen them yesterday indistinctly from the peaks of Gibel Asoud. We continued our route for four hours, when we arrived at Sockna.
Mourzuk itself, the seat of the Pashalic, distant about four hundred and twenty miles from Tripoli, in a straight line, and five hundred, counting the sinuosities of the road, viâ Benioleed, Bonjem, and Sockna, is a rising town, becoming daily more salubrious by the improvements made since the residence of the Turks here, and the subjection of the inhabitants to a more orderly and powerful government than they had been accustomed to.
Sockna stands on an immense plain of gravel, bounded to the south by the Soudah mountains, at about fifteen miles; by the mountains of Wadam, about thirty miles to the eastward; a distant range to the west, and those already mentioned on the north. The town is walled, and may contain two thousand persons. There are small projections from the walls, having loop-holes for musketry.
Hammam, is a collection of small sand-hills grouped together, around and upon which are palms. There is also a well of tolerably good water. This is what the people have received by tradition. Very hot this evening; the sun burnt us most extraordinarily. We felt it more after having been shut up some days in Sockna; we took in a supply of water at Hammam in preference to the waters of Sockna.
The courier leaves every Saturday, but it requires nearly forty days to get the answer of a letter from Tripoli. The courier is eighteen days en route. A caravan occupies from twenty-four to thirty days. In the route of Sockna there is water nearly every day, but one or two places, the longest space three and a half, and four days.
They are all of Sockna. It is now near sunset, but I am not going to write a description of a Saharan sunset, which this evening offers nothing but sheets of bright yellow flame. Towards the east, the palms, underwood, and herbage make me fancy myself in the midst of a boundless circle of cultivation, for I see no "darksome desert" through the pale skyey openings of the thick verdure.
However, with care and due preparation, this route, and all Saharan routes, can be and are travelled in every season of the year; as is sufficiently proved by my own journey to Ghadames. Two days after the Tuscan left Sockna, came on a terrible ghiblee, but infinitely more intense and stifling than any south wind could be in this season.
The Concubine of His Excellency. Convoy of Provisions for the Troops of Mourzuk. The number of Palms destroyed at Sockna by Abd-El-Geleel. Population of Sockna, and position of the Oasis. Visit to the Sockna Maraboutess. The Lady honoured with "Stigmata," or "Holy Marks." Propriety or impropriety of assuming the Moorish Character and the Mahometan Religion whilst Travelling in Sahara.
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