An Exciting Adventure.

Evening Star, Issue 7411, 5 January 1888, Page 3

An Exciting Adventure.

M. Camiile Douls, a French traveller, has supplied to ' The Times' an account of an adventurous journey recently undertaken by him through part of the Western Sahara—a region hitherto rarely traversed by European explore B—from Garnet Bay, which is situated to the south of Cape Bojador, to the city of Morocco. The following is the first part of M. Douls's narrative : —" Between Morocco and Senegal lies a great tract of territory known a3 the Western Sahara, inhabited by Moors, partly nomadic and partly settled, whose reputation for barbarity and fanaticism is perpetuated Until the present day. The coast line on the Atlantic presents to the eye a long succession of cliffs, barren rockß, and sandhills, throughout all of which runs a dark red tint. The few Europeans who have scaled this sea wall, for tho most part shipwrecked seamen, beheld stretched out on the other side a huge landscape of miserable sandy desert, with an unbroken horizon, a burning plain, void of all vegetation, and without the least vestigo of natural resources to prolong the existence of any poor human creature cast on this miserable and ■ forsaken spot." In these words a celebrated navigator describes his experience during an exploration of the coast of the Grand Desert from Morocco to Senegal. It was on this inhospitable and bare spot that I landed alone in the early days of last January, without escort, like a poor shipwrecked mariner, and disguised as a Mussulman, quite at the Mercy of the Moors among whom I wished to traverse the unexplored steppes of the Western Sahara, and reach the southern boundary of M. Douls expresses In grateful terms his obligations to Sir William Kirby Green, Her Majesty's Minister Plenipotentiary in Morocco, and Mr Alexander Ferguson, secretary of the Northwest African Company, to whom he considers he owes his safety. Ho continues : " On my first visit to Morocco in 1885 I had Intended to penetrate the Sous province, lying south of Morocco proper, but all the travellers who had hitherto set out with this object had been turned back by orders proceeding from the Native chiefs, who viewed with jealousy tho advance of the impious Christian dog to his region. In fact, the Atlas Mountains form a grand natural boundary, beyond which no European can advance without danger to his life. The Sultan of Morocco, who had always had a preponderating influence in the Sous—uow since his expedition in 18S5 a part of his empire proper—is the chief cause of the troubles and dangers that surround this undertaking. The reason is that the Sous is very rich in

mines of copper and silver. Near to Erkshcesh, on the coast, among many other mines is one worked for the Sultan that furnishes all the silver necessary for the silver industry of the Shlcmah Berbers. Jealous of his prerogatives and monopoly, the Sultan fear 3 that tho sight of these riches will awaken the cupidity of Europeans ; and therefore, to prevent all conflict with tho Great Powers, he has carefully barred all access to inquisitive explorers. When therefore I quitted Morocco in 18S5 and returned to Paris, still determined to carry out my design, I was obliged to abandon all idea of the route from Morocco by the Atlas, and made up my mind to go south and tako that by way of the Sahara. My plan was to get thrown on the coast in the disguise of a Mahomedan. This I did, and it gave me the opportunity to make the exploration I am now describing. It had been my intention to land on the shoros of the Sahara at the English Trading Factory at Cape Juby, territory which has been in the possession of the English since 1875. From conversation with the manager, whom Wound at Las Palmas, I learned the impossibility of such a course. He informed me that great jealousy existed among tho Natives regarding any stranger, more especially since the

Moorish Governmeut had endeavored to prevent anyone claiming to be a Mahomedan, even though not a subject, holding any communication with Christians on pain of excommunication and imprisonment. _ I consequently changed my route, and arrivod at Arrecife de Lanzarote, where I engaged a fishing vessel to take me further south. After a voyage of two days and a half we arrived at a large bay, where tho fallon rocks enabled the boat to approach close to the shore and rendered a landing possible. This place is known as Garnet Bay, and is situated between Rio de Oro in the south and Cape Bojador in tho north. Having carefully examined the neighborhood without discovering any Moors, we dropped anchor, and I bade adieu to my honest fisher friends, who wished me bon voyage. Three of them landed, and having scaled the rock pulled up first my boxes and provision basket and finally myself, and then, ofter receiving a parting backsheesh, left me alone on the Sahara. I must confess that I <lid not at once realise my position, and my first feelings were not of fear. I had longed for the time to come, and had abundance of confidence in my courage; but I experienced a sensation of utter loneliness, not decreased by the knowledge that I was among a savage people and quite unknown. Seated on the edge of the cliff, which rose perpendicularly from the water, I gazed on these two immensities of nature—the desert and the sea—both unbroken by any sign of life save the fast disappearing vessel which had brought mo hither. It was ono of the solemn moments in a man's life which remain for ever in his memory. Tho desert lay before me, a sandy silicious soil, covered with stones, and losing itself towards the fast in a succession of endless undulations. Northward I saw approaching a troop of camels or dromedaries. Thcso I resolved to meet, preferring to take my chance with their drivers, whoever they might be, than to remain in utter loneliness on

this barren shore I placed my belongings behind a large stone, freed myself of my turban, and putting my dagger in my belt, and my revolver in the hood of my Moorish cloak, 1 set out towards the approaching caravan. I lost no time in intercepting this troop. A littlo Blave guarded them. Approaching the young negro I made signs that I wanted to speak to him, hut at the sight of my face and white costume (the desert Arab usually dress in blue cotton, having no water to wash white clothing) he fled screaming. Proceeding further I met two new troops of camels under care of slaves, but with these I was not more fortunate, and my advances only made them run off. Finally, after a long march, roasted by the sun, suffering greatly from thirst and fatigue, I saw in the distance four Moors. Tho sight restored mo, and I made haste to meet them. Two of them were young, the others older. Dressed in the skins of animals and halfnaked, with long and thin hair falling on their shoulders, dagger at their hips and gun in hand, they advanced, talking with a superabundance of animation. I approached the eldest, and in the manner of the Mahomedan wished him 'the peace of God,' extending my hand to him. He refused tho salutation and drew back, and regarding me with a fierce expression he grasped his comia, or dagger. Without taking any notice of this I repeated my salutation, and asked him if he knew a certain D'Aghmed, who lived on the coast in this neighborhood. ' Who art thou ?' he demanded brusquely. *My brother,' I replied calmly, *I am a slave of God, an Algerian merchant, who, under the will of the Almighty, am thrown on this coast.' At this moment the youngest of tho group, who was watching me from the corner of his eye,

uaw the Moorish rosary which I had round my neck, and coming up to me took it between his hands, closely examined it, and said ' Oh how beautiful are your beads, show them to me,' and before I could reply it was off. This action disclosed my revolver in the hood of my cloak. He seized it, and asked several questions regarding it. ' What does it matter to you?' I replied.' • Answer me first in the name of God my first query,' my reply came quickly. Seized from behind I was thrown to the ground, the eldest, Mohamed El Mahdi, put his heel on my throat, while the others bound my hands. Scarcely able to breathe, I made great efforts to free myself, while another of my assailants drew his dagger, and with the flat blade violently struck me on the mouth, the shock breaking two of my teeth and drawing blood, while the pain brought on semi-unconsciousness. After this I was stripped, my dress being almost torn to threads; a sum of money in my belt was taken from me ; and the dagger at my side was broken in the attempt to remove it from my person. A woman passing with two little children heard the noise, and came to assist the party. They were shortly joined by the woman's husband, Ibrahaim Onid Mahommcd, who, when I lay on the sand, after the struggle, prevented my first assailants from casting me into the sea, and by the power of his authority took me into his care and introduced me to his tent. I was dying with thirst and asked for water. It was brought in a wooden bowl by a girl completely naked. I drank with avidity. When the news of my

capture spread the Moors arrived from all parts to look at me. They were dressed In the same manner as the first, vith long hair and faces veiled* and were fully armed, each having a gun besides daggers at his side. They embraced my host, and, seating themselves in a circle, interrogated me at length, asking all sorts of questions; but I was very reticent; desiring to play faithfully my part as a Mussulman. When I insisted on my believing in their creed, they replied, exasperated : ' But a Mussulman does not arrive by the sea.' 'I am a slave of God ; He is most wise,' I replied, with the ambiguity characteristic of Arab dialogue. My answer did not dispel their suspicions, and they went to fetch irons, which they riveted on my legs round the ankles. Whenlwassecuredfourorfiveyoung men invaded the tent demanding a share of the booty, and as my captors did not wish to part they exclaimed: ' Ah, well, we will strangle the Christian,' violently seizing me. I just had time to crawl to a stake of the tent, to which I clung with all my might, while Ibrahaim seized his gun and turned out the assailants very quickly, declaring he would shoot the first who violated the hospitality of his tent. Three other Moors continued the disturbance until he drove them aWay to aVoid a quarrel. The noise increased, and I heard a gun shot. During this disturbance outside the women profited by the absence of the men to come and examine me, questioning me on all sorts of

subjects ; and in spite of the customs of the Arabs, which interdicts to the women contact even with the clothes of the men, they touched my skin to assure themselves that my physical constitution did not differ from that of the Moors. 'Do not go out,' they cried, 'or they will kill you,' pointing significantly to their throats. Towards evening Ibrahaim entered and informed me I must consider myself his prisoner until I proved myself to be really a Mussulman. The night came oh quickly. The flocks entered the encampment. The camels were ranged and knelt in 'front of each tent, while the sheep and goats took their place behind. Every rghaim (tent) had a blazing fire of brushwood to itself, round which were squatted, waiting the hour of retirement, all the members of the family with faces and hexds covered and with bare legs. The children were absolutely nude. At eight o'clock the slaves and dependants began to milk the camels. To each was handed a dish of milk, and after making their cvenlug prayer they laid themselves down on their mats alongside of each other and sought rest in sleep. For myself, broken down by emotion and pain, I closed my eyes and fell into a heavy and troubled sleep, and thus t spent my first night iu the desert."

The next morning a largo party went to the seashore to get the boxes which the prisoner said he had left there. The Moors did not easily find their booty, and, shaking their daggers in the explorer's face, they declared that the Christian was trying to lead them where his friends lay in ambush to kill them. Ibrahaim, who had as little faith as the others in Douls's story, told him lie would be killed if the boxes were not found. Just as he had given himself up for lost they were discovered, and everything the explorer possessed was soon divided among the Arabs, tho women and children coming in for a small share For some weeks the explorer expected every day to be his last. It was fortunate for him that he was proficient in the forms of Mahomedan worship, and that he could recite passages from the Koran. Nothing could have saved him, however, if several sheiks and holy men, to whom he was taken for examination, had not expressed the belief that he was a Mussulman. He was kept in irons until a chief of one of the nomad tribes, before whom lie was summoned, told his captors that they had been too hasty in

fettering and despoiling him, and that they might be called to account at tho Day of Judgment for inflicting great suffering upon one of their brethren. Even then he was not released until a Moor of great authority, who had been to Mecca and had travelled much, assured the nomads that their prisoner was a Turkish Mussulman. He was then at liberty, not to leave the nomads who had captured him, but to cast his future fortunes with the Arabs, and become, like them, a wanderer in the desert. For five months he helped to drive herds of camels and sheep over the dreary steppes of the western Sahara, traversing territory that no white man had visited before, and crossing here and there tho path of Dr Lenz, who, in the guize of a Turkish physician, travelled over these plains to Timbuctoo a few years ago. In their wanderings from one oasis to another the nomads took their white captive as far south as the sanCy wastes of El Juf, within 300 miles of Timbuctoo. He visited Tenduf, the great slave market of the Sahara, whence slave caravans from the Soudan are sent north in all directions to the Mediterranean countries. His new ways of life so changed his appearance that his best friends would not have recognised him. His head was shaven, only one tuft of hair on top escaping. He was clad only in a sheepskin. He was burned red by the sun, and his privations made him very thin, as he lived wholly on camel's milk, with an occasional treat of sheep's flesh.

At last in their travels tho nomads reached the southern boundary of Morocco, and a way then opened for the escape of the white man. He had so far won the favor of Ibrahaim, who had saved his life when he first entered the Sahara, that the Arab thought he would make a desirable son-in-law. He was accord ingly betrothed to the twelve-year-old daughter of his benefactor, It was necessary, however, for him to visit his home to procure the means needed for his marriage ; and, after tho betrothal had been celebrated with speeches and festivities, Dotils was permitted to join a caravan that was starting for Morocco. He travelled through the Sua Province, whose exploration had been the sole object that took him to the .Sahara. He says this region is very rich, not only in mineral, but also in agricultural resources. New perils awaited him in Morocco, for the nomads with whom he travelled suspected that he was an impostor, informed the Sultan of their suspicions, and ho was put in irons at the capital. There is little doubt that ho would have been killed if the Europeans in the city had not heard of his plight. He was rescued through the intervention of Sir William Kirby Green, the British Minister to Morocco, and sent to the coast, where he embarked for Europe. Morocco teems with riches of many kinds, and is naturally one of tho most desirable and accessible parts of the world, Why is it that it has no waggon roads, that its resources are untouched, that its exports are almost nothing, that white men dare not travel there, that its government is barbarous, and that its people are sinking into degradation ? It i 3 simply because several of the great Powers of Europe, each eager to grasp the prize, are determined that it shall not pass to other nations. Their mutual jealousies have had the effect to keep them all out of Morocco, and so civilisation and progress have avoided a rich region, lying within sight of Europe, that needs only good government to be a blessing to its inhabitants and to tho world. For the Bake of the Moors, for the sake of commerce, and for the sake of white travellers like Mr Douls, who enter Morocco and the country tributary to it only at the risk of their lives, it is to bo hoped that the European Powers will some day be able to unite upon a Dolicy that will give Morocco a chance to thrive.