Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/85

 TRIPOLI. 66 The so-called Meshiya, a belt of palm-groves encircling the city, with an average breadth of 9 miles, is itself a fMipulous district, containing, according to Kraift, about thirty thousand inhabitants. Here the emancipated Negroes from liornu and the Niger states have resumed the stmie mode of life as in their native hamlet.s ; here are also nomad Arabs, who pitch their tents beneath the palms near some holy shrine ; Maltese dealers, whose stalls or inns are usually established at the cross roads ; retired Europeans or Turks occupying some pleasant country seat amid the verdant and flowering thickets. But in some places the Meshiya is threatened by the sands of an ancient marine inlet. Many gardens are already covered with dunes from 100 to 130 feet high, and elsewhere the trunks of the trees have been swallowed up, leaving nothing but the topmost branches mournfully beating the sands in the breeze. To this zone of dunes the people of Trip;)li improperly give the name of " desert," through a sort of vanity leading them to fancy themselves near neigh- bours of the Sahara, from which they are nevertheless separated by the wholo region of steppes and by the Ghuriah highlands. At the same time Tiipoli and its outskirts present in many respects the aspect of an oasis, beyond which the caravans have at once to follow the track of dricd-up watercourses. In the Meshiya itself innumerable wells have been sunk to an extensive underground reservoir, which has never been pumped dry by the irrigation works, and which near the coast lies within 3 or 4 feet of the surface. The water wells up spontaneously through the sands left exposed during exceptionally low neap tides. For the internal trade with the Tsad and Niger basins, Tripoli is more favourably situated than more western cities, such as Tunis, Bona," Algiers, and Oran, inasmuch as it communicates directly with the regions draining to the Gulf of Guinea. Two main routes, one through Murzuk, the other through Ghadames, and connected together by intermediate byways, enable Trijwli to maintain constant relations with the towns of the Bornu and Haussa states. Before the year 1873, the caravan traders of Ghadames enjoyed a monopoly of the commerce with these countries ; but since then the Jewish merchants of Tripoli have organii^cd a caravan traffic from their very doors, based on the principle of co-operation with the tribal chiefs escorting the convoys, who receive half profits on all the transactions, and who on their part render a faithful account of all their operations. During the year from Tripoli are usually despatched from six to eight large caravans, each comprising from one thousand to three thousand camels, and always escorted by hundreds of armed Arabs, who venture fearlessly into hostile territories. The journey generally takes between two and three m'mtlis to the first towns in the north of Sudan. Several merchants arc associated to a gre;!ter or less extent in the common speculation ; but they are seldom able to realise their respective shares in the profits under two years, for it takes a long time to negotiate on advantageous terms an exchange of the cotton goods, Maria-Theresa crown pieces and other European objects for such native products as ostrich feathers, ivory, gold dust, and slaves, and the Tripoli dealers have often to send their wares to many markets before