* * * *

DIRECTIONS TO THE BINDER.

Map of the Tracks across the Sahara to Timbuctoo, _to face_. 1

Map of the Empire of Marocco. 55

[Illustration]

1

AN
ACCOUNT OF A JOURNEY
FROM
FAS TO TIMBUCTOO,
PERFORMED IN OR ABOUT THE YEAR 1787, A.C.
BY
_EL HAGE ABD SALAM SHABEENY_.

The Moors always prefer the spring and summer for travelling,
because they suffer very much from the severe cold of the mornings
in winter. They generally leave Fas in the beginning of April to
proceed to Timbuctoo, and they leave Timbuctoo to return to Fas in
the month of January.

The Mecca caravan takes its departure from Fas the beginning of
March.

In travelling, the Moors hire their camels from stage to stage.
Shabeeny's first stage was from Fas[1] to Tafilelt, which is
generally performed in about twenty days.

[Footnote 1: This is a journey of crooked and rugged roads
across the Atlas mountains, where they often sojourn in spots
which invite the traveller, so that it takes a longer time to
perform it than the distance would indicate.]
2
The hire of every camel was from ten to twelve ducats, at five
shillings sterling per ducat; as this route is through a very
mountainous country, and the travelling is very bad, the charges
were proportionally high; the weight which every camel carried was
between four and five quintals, the camels in this country being
strong and very large.[2]

Tafilelt is the place of general meeting of all the merchants who
go to Timbuctoo.[3]

The territory of Tafilelt contains no towns, but abounds in
fortresses with mud-walls[4], which the natives call El Kassar, and
which contain from three to four hundred families; in these
fortresses there is a public market (in Arabic, _soke_) every week,
where the inhabitants purchase provisions, &c.

The natives of Tafilelt are descendants of the shereefs[5] or
princes of Marocco, and are therefore of the Imperial family.

[Footnote 2: This charge of carriage by the camels from Fas to
Tafilelt, is equal to 55s., sterling per camel