The individuals next in importance to Moknee are, perhaps, the Chaouches, as they are called here—­Arab cavaliers, who are to act as janissaries.  There is one big fellow for me, and one little fellow for the Germans.  How they will behave remains to be seen; but I suspect they will give us some trouble.  Then there are a number of free blacks from Tunis, some married, others not, who are to return to their homes in Soudan, Bornou, and Mandara, under our protection.  Some of these have agreed to travel partly on their own account, or nearly so, whilst others will be paid and act as servants.  One of them, named Ali, is a fine, dashing young fellow.  They are very unimportant people here, but as we advance on our route will no doubt prove of some service, especially when we fairly enter upon the Black Countries.  A marabout of Fezzan also accompanies us, and our camel-drivers are from the same country.  They arrived with a caravan from Mourzuk, and we were some time detained by the necessity of allowing them and their beasts to rest before recommencing their march over the very arduous country that lies between this and the confines of Fezzan.

Our progress will necessarily be slow, as all travelling is in the desert.  Camels can rarely exceed three miles an hour, and often make but two.  We may calculate their average progress at two miles and a half, so that the reader will be pleased to bear in mind, that when I speak of a laborious day of twelve hours, he must not imagine us to have advanced more than thirty miles.

Before commencing the narrative of my journey, it may be as well to introduce a few observations on the commerce at present carried on with the interior by way of Tripoli.  In addition to the mere acquisition of geographical, statistical, and other information, I look upon the great object of our mission to be the promotion, by all prudent means, of legitimate trade.  This will be the most effectual way of putting a stop to that frightful system by which all the Central Provinces of Africa are depopulated, and all the littoral regions demoralized.  When the negro races begin to make great profits by exporting the natural products of their country, they will then, and perhaps then only, cease to export their brethren as slaves.  On this account, therefore, I take great interest in whatever has reference to caravan trade.

There are now four general routes followed by the trading caravans from the Barbary coast, leading to four different points of that great belt of populous country that stretches across Central Africa,—­viz. to Wadai, Bornou, Soudan, and Timbuctoo.

Wadai sends to the coast at Bengazi a biennial caravan, accompanied by a large number of slaves.  The chief articles of legitimate traffic are elephants’ teeth and ostrich feathers.  This route is a modern ramification of interior trade, and was opened only during the last century.  It is calculated that the exports of Bengazi form one-third of the whole of those of Tripoli.