Chapter III

ALL our preparations being completed, we embarked, with our two Maltese servants, on board H.M.’s Gunboat _Boxer_, 2nd Master Gulliver commanding, and left Malta for Tripoli, Nov. 19, 1860. Our object in going there was to have our Firman presented to the Pacha or Governor- general of Barbary, who resides at Tripoli, and has subordinate Kaimakams, or Lieutenant-governors at Mourzouk and Benghazi. After a stormy passage, we reached Tripoli on the evening of the 21st, where we were most kindly welcomed by Colonel Herman, H.M.’s Consul-general, whose liberal hospitality we enjoyed during our stay. He had already presented the Firman, and seen that the most favourable orders regarding us had been forwarded to the Kaimakam of Benghazi. The evening before our departure, he entertained the Pacha at dinner, on which occasion we had the opportunity of becoming personally acquainted with His Excellency, who knew a little French, took his wine freely, played a fair game of billiards, and in every respect was quite unlike the ideal Osmanli.

Eastern towns bear such a resemblance to each other that it is difficult to give a distinctive description of one in particular. The houses, streets, and bazaars of Tripoli might be part of Constantinople or Smyrna. The inhabitants, however, are very different; instead of the slow gait and placid expression of the Turks, they have an unpleasantly wild and active appearance not at all reassuring to the traveller. Besides the Arabs, who form the great bulk of the population, there are a considerable number of Jews and Maltese.

The most prominent feature of Tripoli is the Meshiah or date-gardens, which occupy some six or eight square miles along the shore to the eastward of the town. Throughout their extent, they are so thickly planted, that the ground is almost completely shaded by the dense foliage of the date-palms. After traversing the Meshiah, one is much struck with its abrupt termination. From a luxuriant garden, the visitor, without warning, suddenly finds himself in the desert,—a bare undulating expanse of sand, stretching away to a range of distant hills.

The most conspicuous building in the city is the Pacha’s harem, close to the Eastern gate. By a strange freak of a former Pacha, part of it has been painted a bright red, which gives it an odd appearance in the midst of the surrounding mass of whitewashed walls. This building was the residence of the Karamanli Beys before Barbary was taken possession of by the Turks; and shortly before the fall of that dynasty, it was the scene of the murder of his brother by Yusuf Bey, in the presence of their mother—one of those domestic tragedies so common in the houses of Eastern rulers.

The government of Barbary and Fezzan is now similar to that of other Turkish provinces, being administered by a Pacha appointed by the Porte. As is the case with most Turkish governors, his tenure of office is usually very short, seldom, in fact, exceeding a year.

In the western part of the town, near the shore, stands the Castle, an irregular old building very much in need of repair. It contains the Medjlis or council chamber and the other public rooms of the Pacha, and is garrisoned by two or three battalions of regular infantry. A few years ago, the town was thrown into a state of consternation by the mutiny of the troops composing the garrison, who besieged the Castle, and threatened the town with destruction, if their arrears of pay were not settled and some other demands complied with. The firmness of the Pacha, and a few timely concessions, with difficulty restored subordination.

TRIPOLI

E. A. Porcher, delt., T. Picken, lith.

London. Published July 1st. 1864 by Day & Son, Lithographers to the Queen &c., Gate Street Lincoln’s Inn Fields.

Day & Son, Lithrs. to the Queen]

Besides the Infantry in the Castle, there is a considerable force of Artillery and Cavalry quartered in the Meshiah. When we told the General that we should like to see their barracks, he sent one of his aides-de- camp to show us over them. The two barracks (Artillery and Cavalry) are very pleasantly situated near each other, about a mile and a half from the town. We found them remarkably clean and well kept, and the stores of arms, clothing, &c., in perfect order.

In addition to the regular troops, many of the native Arabs are retained by the Government as irregular cavalry, called Koralié. They are similar to the Bashi Bozouks of other parts of Turkey, and are employed principally in the collection of the tribute.

During the late Russian war, an attempt was made to overthrow the Turkish government, and restore the rule of the Karamanlis. The head of the rebellion was a descendant of one of the last Beys, a chief named Ghomer, who had been kept a prisoner for some years at Constantinople, but had either escaped or been released. So many of the native tribes were in his favour, that for some time he was powerful enough to set the government at defiance. He seems, besides, to have been a man eminently well fitted for carrying on irregular warfare. Several expeditions sent against him ended in failure and disaster; but his army was at last completely defeated by a force under the immediate command of the Pacha, who on that occasion was accompanied by Colonel Herman, to whose judicious counsel he was much indebted for its fortunate result. After his defeat, Ghomer wandered as a fugitive, with a price set on his head, until, at last, he fell into the hands of some of the Pacha’s followers, by whom he was slain. One of his most active partisans was an Englishman, who, on the suppression of the rebellion, was taken prisoner and sent for trial to Constantinople; but on reaching the Dardanelles, he was quietly released by order of the Sultan.

The following quaint sketch of the history of Tripoli is given in a work published in 1670, entitled “Africa; being an Accurate Description of the Regions of Egypt, Barbary, Libya, and Billedulgerid, the Land of Negroes, Guinee, Æthiopia, and the Abyssines, &c. &c., by John Ogilby, Esquire, Master of His Majesty’s Revels in the Kingdom of Ireland.”

“This city and State (Tripoli) hath from the beginning had Lords of greatest eminency; as first the Romans, to whom it did Homage and Fealty, when they were Masters of Africa; but as their strength and glory declined, shrouded themselves under the protection of the Kings of Morocco, Fez, and Tunis, which have possessed it by right of Birth: but when the Inhabitants saw themselves oppressed by the Tyranny of Mukamur, Son of Hesen, King of Tunis, they threw the yoke off their Necks, first by a general Revolt, then expelling the King’s Lieutenant, and all other his officers, and at last electing from among themselves one whom they made their Ruler or Magistrate, putting all the Revenue and Support of the State into his hands. In the beginning this new Lord ruled with all gentleness; but afterwards degenerating into all sorts of Tyranny, his brother in law revenged the cause of the City by killing him. Freed from this Viper of their own breeding, they impowered a courtier of Prince Abubacer, who had been a Recluse or Hermit who held the command a few months, till Ferdinand, King of Arragon and Castile, sent Don Pedro de Navarre thither with an Army, who surprized the city, made all the Inhabitants Slaves, and brought them away; together with their Governour and his Son, whom he sent first to Messina, from thence to Palermo, where the Emperor Charles V. set him at liberty, dismissing him home to Tripoli, which the Christians, as we said, had dismantled and made untenable in all parts except the castle, which they furnished with a brave wall, whereon they planted divers great Cannon.

“The young Prince being come to Tripoli, repeopled it, in the name and on the behalf of the Emperor Charles; but in the year 1533, together with Tunis, Byserta, Susa, Monaster, and the Island of Zerby, was regained by Barberossa, who was scarcely warm in it before the Emperor Charles reassaulted and took it, forthwith making a Present of it to the Knights of Malta, who possessed it till the year 1551, when, under the reign of Solyman the Magnificent, Sinan Bashaw came and besieged Tripoli; to whom after a short time it was delivered upon honourable articles; among which one was, That the garrison should march out with Bag and Baggage, and be provided of convenient shipping to Malta by Sinan; but, contrary to the conditions, most of them were plundered of their Goods: two hundred of the Moors, who had served the Maltese, were put to the Sword, and most of the Knights of Malta sent to the galleys, and the rest the Bashaw took and made slaves.

“After this victory Sinan appointed Morat Aga to be Viceroy, and ever since the Grand Seignior sends from Constantinople every three years a Beglerbeg or Bashaw thither to support his Conquests.

“About the year 1598, Sidi Haga, a Marabout, or Priest, designing to make himself a Master of the city and kingdom, with the assistance of the meaner sort, began a notable Rebellion; upon the first intelligence whereof, Assam Bassa, Admiral at Sea, sailed thither with sixty galleys and some soldiers, from Tunis and Algier, on a sudden fell into the Marabout’s Quarters, whose own men, finding their error, in some measure to mitigate the fury against themselves, set an end to their mutiny by presenting their Captain’s head to Sinan, who sent it to the Grand Seignior.

“In this condition Tripoli continued until about the year 1600, when the authority of the Bashaw was diminished by the soldiers and their commanders, in the same manner as Kara Osman did at Tunis, since which time Mahomet Bey, a Grecian Renegado, of the ancient house of the Justinians, hath so laid his business, that having got the Banner of Tripolis from the Grand Seignior, after he became Master of the Castle, would not endure the Bashaw any longer, but began to rule with full authority, yet still pretending a subjection to the Turk; and to preserve his favour, as an acknowledgement and homage, he frequently sends over many costly presents, and slaves: But at length this Bey became so powerful, that nothing was done but by his peculiar command. For he took soldiers at his pleasure, without the knowledge of the Divan, or Militia, and placed them in the Castle, for the security of his own person, that he might not be trepanned into his Ruin by the Policies of the Great Turk: and in this posture of Government it remained and doth still; only in 1667, the Moors made a dangerous Insurrection; but it proved only to the loss of their own heads.”