They Then Passed Through A Country Thinly
Peopled By Foulah Herdsmen, And Bands Of Roving Tuaricks.
In a few days
he came to Cabra, the port of Tombuctoo, which consists of a long row of
clay huts, thatched with straw.
It contains about 1200 inhabitants, who
are solely employed in conveying merchandize from the vessels to
Tombuctoo.
On the 20th April M. Caillie entered Tombuctoo. His feelings at the sight
of this celebrated city were those of disappointment. Perhaps in his
wanderings he had fed his imagination with dreams of a flourishing and
splendid capital reared amid the waste. He thus describes it: - "The
spectacle before me did not answer my expectation. At first sight it
presents but a heap of houses, neither so large nor so well peopled as I
expected. Its commerce is less considerable than is stated by public
report, a great concourse of strangers coming from every part of Soudan.
I met in the streets only the camels coming from Kabra. The city is
inhabited by negroes of the Kissour nation. They form the principal
population. The city is without any walls, open on all sides, and may
contain 10,000 or 12,000 inhabitants, including the Moors." The houses
are built of brick; and there are seven mosques, the principal one of
great size, having a tower fifty feet high. The city depends exclusively
on trade, which is entirely in the hands of the Moors. The chief article
of commerce is salt, which is dug out of the mines of Sahara; but other
articles, both of European and native manufacture, are likewise sold.
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