Staunton spectator, and general advertiser. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 183?-1849, 1846-10-01
THE SAHARA OF AFRICA.

To form correct conception of the Sahara, our
readers must dismiss from their minds all the long
and fantastic conceptions which have been attach
cd, from time immemoria to the interior of North
ern Africa. Instead of torrid region, where
boundless steppes of burning sand are abandoned To
the rowing horsemen of the DESERT and to beasts of
prey, and where the last vesges of Moorish civil
Ration expire, long before the traveller arrives at
Negroland and the savage communities of the inte-
riOr, the Sahara is now ascertained to consist of
vast archipelago of Gases each of them pcopled
BY tribe OF the Moorish race or its offsets, more
civilized, and more capable of receiving the les
sons OF civilization, than the houseless Arabs of
the Tell ;-cui,lvatng the date tree with applica-
ton and ingenuity, inhabiting walled towns, living
under a regular government for the most part of a
popular origin carrying to some perfection certain
branches of native manufactures, and keeping up
an extensive system of commercial intercourse with
the northern and central parts of the African CONT
nent, and from Mogador to Mecca, by the enter
prise and activity Of their caravans Each of the
Gases Of the Sahara--which are divided from one
another by sandy tracts bearing shrubs and plants
INT only for the nourishment of cattle-presents an
animated group Of towns and villages Every vii
lage Is encrcled by profusion Of fruit bearing
trees. The palm is the monarch of their orchards
AS much by the grace of lis form as by the value
OF Its productions; and the pomegranate, the fig
tree, and the apricot cluster around its lofty STEM
poetry has peoped the African wids, are to be met
with only in the mountains of the Tell-never in
the plain of the Sahara. The robber tribes of the
Iaurchs frequent the southern frontier of the Sa-
hara and the last tracts Of habable land which in
tervene between these Gases and the real Desert :;
but, in the Sahara itself, communications carried on
after the fashion of the country regular and Sc
cure. War is, indeed of frequent occurrence be-
tween the neghboring tribes,-either for the pos
session OF disputed territories or the revenge of
supposed injuries but all that is yet known Of
these singular communities shows them to be living
In completely constituted state of civil society
emhently adapted to the peculiar part of the globe
which they nhabit,-governed by the strong tradi-
tons OF primitive people, and fulfilling with en-
ergy and intelligence the strange vocation of their
life. The population of the Flat, or the most
northern tract Of the Sahara, between the 800 and
Ego parallels of latitude is more dense than that of
the Tell, or region near the coast though even
there the Gases often separated by two or three
days march barren sand The Kifar is the
sandy plain beyond, which produces scanty pas
ture after the winter rains; and to the south of
that region lies the Talat, or sea of sand to be
crossed without danger and suffering by none but
the dromedary and Arab horsenan. The sedentarg
population of each of the Gases of the Sahara CEN
tres In town OF more or less importance, and de-
votes itself to the cultivation of the palm and the
date, or to manufactures. Around this town are
assembled the dependent ksour, or villages of the
tribes, some pastoral and some mercantile, which
are in continual motion, and carry on what may be
termed the external relations of the community
All the corn consumed in these villages and towns
is grown in the Tell. The date which is the great
edible product of the Sahara, becomes unwhole-
some, and even fatal to life if it be eaten without
a proper admixture of other food so that the in
dustry of one-half Of the inhabitants of the Sahara
consists in preparing commodities for the purposes
of trade, whilst the other half carries on this trade
IN the distant markets of the north and of these
no inconsderable number emigrate to the coast for
long term of years-Edinbmgh Reuie,c