CHAPTER XVI
T h e Tawareks may, roughly speaking, be said to
hold, with the exception of the Twat depression and
a strip of desert along the Atlantic coast, the whole
of the Sahara from Timbuktu in the south right up
to the southern boundary of Algeria, and to extend
as far east as the western frontiers of Tripoli and
Eezzan.
The French lay claim to the whole of this
immense region, and of late years have been poaching
upon the Tawarek preserves, and, by establishing
a few small outposts in the oases, have attempted
to obtain some control over the trade routes and to
protect them as far as possible from the attacks of
these marauders. They will, there is little doubt,
succeed in controlling the trade, but they have as
yet no power to protect the routes, for though the
French publishers may issue maps in which the
Sahara is painted red to mark it as a French
possession, this does not by any means constitute
them the rulers of the country, and no greater mistake
can be made than to suppose that it is they who
rule the Sahara.
The Tawarek rules it. The French may obtain
a precarious footing in some of the oases, but the
open desert is, and probably will for many years
remain, to all intents and purposes the Tawarek’s.
He has a more intimate knowledge than the French
of the geography of the Sahara, and though he
‘ paints it red ’ in a less civilised way, for all that
he rules the desert, and has hitherto regarded the
French attempts to take his country from him with
derision and contempt. He blackmails or waylays
the Arab caravans, recklessly attacks the French
military convoys, and does not care a battered flous
for the little French expeditions that are sent out to
chastise him. His methods, though primitive, are
none the less effective. He raids and runs away,
and so lives to raid another day. Mounted on his
swift mehari, armed with his sword and iron lance,
he is monarch of all he surveys. He rules the desert
literally with a ‘ rod of iron.’
Before considering the Tawareks themselves, it
is necessary that the nature of the country in which
they live should be realised in order that their
habits and method of life may be clearly understood.
The Tawarek country covers about a million and
a half square miles; yet in the whole of this vast area
there are, it is estimated, less than three thousand
acres of cultivated land. Perhaps the resources of
this country may be increased in the future, for it is
believed that in several districts artesian wells can
be successfully sunk and fresh oases created; but at
present there are only some half-dozen commercial
places in the whole Sahara to which the Tawareks
resort. These are the centres from which the trade
routes radiate, and the only markets for the
Tawareks. They are Wargla and Timbuktu on the
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