The Turkish system is vastly superior to the French in this important matter of garrisoning their possessions in Northern Africa.  The latter require one hundred men where the Turks are content with one to hold the country.  Perhaps one of the chief reasons may be the difference of religion.  The Arabs and other natives of North Africa cannot endure the sight of a ruler of another faith.  Something, however, may be attributed to the immense and sacred authority of the Ottoman Sultan, the great chief of the Mussulmans of the East, as the Shereefan Emperor of Morocco is the chief of the Mussulmans of the West.  We may add, also, the tremendous severity of the Turkish criminal law, or, rather, the inexorable justice with which a crime committed against a Turkish functionary is visited.  The French make their razzias and strike off heads enough; but their criminal code in Algeria is perhaps not so summary and sanguinary as that of the Turks.  Possibly one of the chief reasons of this curious contrast may be the fact that the French soldier is scarcely to be depended on when isolated.  He acts well in masses, but considers himself deserted and betrayed when left comparatively alone.  At any rate, the fact is that the Turks hold Tripoli with a handful of men, whilst the French, with a military force nearly as large as the whole British army, can scarcely maintain a feverish and uncertain possession of Algeria.

The population of Mourzuk numbers two thousand souls.  It is very much mixed, and the people vary greatly in colour, so that there is no general character.  There are more women than children, the greater portion of the females belonging to the members of the great winter caravans.  Contrary to what I had been told, these women seem to be rather remarkable for modesty and virtue than otherwise.  It is worth observing, that Fatamah, the proper name of Mahomet’s daughter, is here used, by excess of delicacy, to describe the softer sex, more especially ladies.

From October to January, as at Ghat, there is a large annual souk, or market, at Mourzuk.  One general caravan comes from Bornou and Soudan, every year during the winter season, and small bodies of merchants also go up and down to Soudan in the summer; whilst to Bornou there is no intermediate trade.  Caravans also congregate here from Egypt, Bengazi, Tripoli, Ghadamez, Ghat, and Tuat.  From forty thousand to sixty thousand Spanish dollars is the value of the merchandise that usually changes hands during the great mart.  The principal articles of traffic from the interior are slaves, senna, and ivory.  This is the first year that a hundred and fifty cantars of elephants’ teeth have been brought from Bornou; sixty or seventy of these were consigned to one merchant, forty were on account of the Vizier of Bornou, and the remainder belonged to Arab traders.  This export of elephants’ teeth direct via Fezzan has only lately been opened.  Some manufactured cottons are likewise brought from Soudan, and sell easily in this part of the Sahara, especially amongst the Tuaricks.  Besides, there are exported bullocks’ and goats’ skins, and a small quantity of ostrich feathers.  The gum trade has lately been introduced into Fezzan by the British Consul, and one hundred cantars per annum are already collected from the tholukh-trees.