Tripolitania

“ In other words, the Tripolitanians much preferred to be ill-treated by the Turks, who are their coreligionists, than to be well-treated by the Italians, who are despised unbelievers. The Italians, having had no previous experience with Moslem peoples, landed at Tripoli with every expectation of being welcomed as saviours by the native population. It is quite true that the natives gave the Italians an exceedingly warm reception—with rifles and machine guns. ”

“ Tripoli, see p. 406. Skirting the flat, sandy coast, with its numerous oases, including that of Tajûra (p. 411) , we pass the small Râs Sotara, Râs el-Hamra (‘red cape’) , and Râs Ligata.
In the fertile undulating plain to the E. of the small port of Ligata (lighthouse; sailing-boat from Tripoli in about 7 hrs. if the wind is favourable) lies Lebida, Lebda, or Khoms (pop. 3500; Brit. vice-cons.) , in its oasis, a poor little seaport (for alfa) with open roads, relics of old fortifications, and an Italian school. ”

“ There is no one else in Tripoli so suitable for my purpose. He is a handsome, dark-featured fellow, and when in his bright-blue gown, white burnoose, and elegant fez, makes a really respectable figure. ”

“ HE maritime region of Tripoli, bounded east by the extreme bend of the Great Syrtis, west by the southern headlands of the Tunisian coast, forms a distinct territory both in an administrative and geographical sense. The belt of coastlands, varying in width, and intersected by a thousand mostly dry wadies draining to the Mediterranean, is dominated south and south-west either by chains of rocky hills and mountains, or by the rugged scarp of a plateau which runs mainly parallel with the shores of the Syrtes. This zone constitutes Tripolitana in the stricter sense of the term. ”

“ Tripoli, like other towns oh these shores, looks as though it were sloughing away. Where stones fall, there they lie. In the centre of the town is a marble triumphal arch in honour of Marcus Aurelius. Age would account for much of its ruin, but not all; yet it still stands cold, haughty, austere, though decrepit, in Tripolitan mud, with mean stucco and plaster buildings about it. The arch itself is filled in, and is used as a dwelling. ”

“ Why did you not take a pleasure trip to Naples? you would have seen wealthier nobles there and a more opulent government, made so by the taxes which are causing us to die of starvation; a more tranquil people, who worry but little over the fate of their neighbors. 'What do we care for Sicily? it is a conquered country and its people are not our brothers.'—That is what they say at Naples. Go to Palermo, where they will tell you that Catania is not to be pitied and can save itself unassisted, with its silk worms. ”

“ The flush in the East faints and fails and the evening star shines like a gem. It is hot and still in the broad Piazza Santa Maria; they are lighting the lamps; the swarm grows of the eager, shabby, spendthrift crowd of young Italians, so light-hearted and fluent, and so prodigal of this old Italy of theirs—and ours. All this I have been watching as I might. Nature clings to the city, playing her rhythmic dance at the end of every street. ”

“ Here we meet with little but rocky, stony, argillaceous, or sandy tracts, except in some depressions, where a few springs afford sufficient water for man and his dategroves. Hence Tripolitana is regarded as a geographical unit rather through a political fiction than on account of its physical conditions. ”

“ Slowly, slowly we turn round: and as the ship turns, our hearts turn. Palermo fades from our consciousness: the Naples boat, the disembarking crowds, the rattling carriages to the land—the great City of Trieste—all fades from our heart. We see only the open gap of the harbour entrance, and the level, pale-grey void of the sea beyond. ”

“ Leptis Magna, a titular see of Tripolitana. Founded by the Sidonians in a fine and fertile country, it was the most important of the three towns which formed the Tripoli Confederation. The remains of the ancient Phœnician town are still visible, with the harbour, quays, walls, and inland defence, which make it look like Carthage. This Semitic city subsequently became the centre of a Greek city, Neapolis, of which most of the monuments are buried under sand. ”

“ Tripoli, October 24, 1821.
“It is with the sincerest joy I communicate to you my safe arrival here. Every thing smiles and promises complete success to our enterprise. Accounts arrived here a few days ago, that the pasha’s army had penetrated to fifty-seven days’ journey beyond Bornou—a circumstance exceedingly favourable to us, as no danger need be apprehended the greater part of the way we design to take. This town has a very indifferent appearance. ”

“ Italy lay before us: the land of the fabled Hesperia—the country of the "eternal city;" and I thought of her as she was once: of "majestic Rome," in all her power, her glory, and her military supremacy; when nations bowed their heads before her banners, and her eagles spread their wings over half a world. But, alas! we find it difficult to recognise in the effeminate Venetian, the revengeful Neapolitan, or the ferocious Calabrian, the descendants of those matchless soldiers, whose pride, valour, and ambition few since have equalled, and none have yet surpassed. ”

“ Tripoli (1,000) , a province (since 1835) of Turkey, in North Africa, most easterly of the Barbary States; stretches northwards from the Libyan Desert, lies between Tunis (W.) and Fezzan (E.) , with which latter, as also with Barca, it is politically united; carries on a brisk caravan trade with Central Africa; capital, Tripoli (20) , situated on a spit of rocky land jutting into the Mediterranean; surrounded by high walls, and Moorish in appearance.
Triptolemus, in the Greek mythology the favourite of Demeter (q. v.) , the inventor of the plough, and of the civilisation therewith connected ”

“ If ever there was a city predestined to be blessed—that city is Palermo. Situated beneath a cloudless sky, on a luxuriously fertile plain, and sheltered by a belt of mountains, in the centre of a picturesquely beautiful country, its ample ports open to receive the gentle flow of the azure sea. ”

“ When there is wind they go fast, faster than our steamer. Ah Naples—bella, bella, eh? A little dirty, say I. But what do you want? says he. A great city! Palermo of course is better.
Ah—the Neapolitan women—he says, à propos or not. They do their hair so fine, so neat and beautiful—but underneath—sotto—sotto—they are dirty. This being received in cold silence, he continues: Noi giriamo il mondo! Noi, chi giriamo, conosciamo il mondo. We travel about, and we know the world. Who we are, I do not know: his highness the Palermitan carpenter lout, no doubt. But we, who travel, know the world. ”

“ Naples, March 5, 1787.
That no Neapolitan will allow the merits of his city to be questioned, that their poets should sing in extravagant hyperbole of the blessings of its site, are not matters to quarrel about, even though a pair of Vesuviuses stood in its neighbourhood. Here one can almost cast aside all remembrances, even of Rome. As compared with this free, open situation, the capital of the world, in the basin of the Tiber, looks like a cloister built on a bad site.
The sea, with its vessels, and their destinations, presents wholly new matters for reflection. ”

“ The first appearance of Tripoli may disappoint, by its meanness, the expectations of the traveller; but if he reflects on the nature of a despotic government, ever incompatible with permanent prosperity, he will not be surprized when he finds, on a nearer view, that the city, though the capital of an empire, exhibits through all its extent, the marks of a rapid decay; that its scanty limits, though scarcely four miles in circumference, are too great for its present population ”

“ And what shall I say about Palermo, the city of Santa Rosalia, in its conco d'oro, or golden shell, as the fertile valley is called in which it stands, like an oriental princess, dazzling and wonderful? It is said that she is a great sinner; that there are few cities in which so many murders annually occur, and no city has a higher social life, or more agreeable, but at the same time frivolous, gossiping, censorious, addicted to gambling and all kinds of selfish enjoyment. ”

“ The highest authorities in Italy have heartily assisted the authors in their task of drawing up a reliable account of the inner history of the Tripoli expedition and of vindicating Italy from the many false accusations which have been levelled against her. ”

“ Though the war in Tripoli was a trivial episode, wiped out in our memory by another kind of war, the Italian correspondents wrote millions of words about every affair of outposts—all of which streamed over the telephone in florid Italian. I had a Sicilian who translated that Italian into frightful French, which I, in turn, translated into [Pg 132] somewhat less frightful English, and conveyed by telephone to London. ”

“ Whether any of the other cities of Italy have in any degree ceased to merit the traditional epithets which so many successive generations assigned to them—how far Genoa is still la Superba, Bologna la Grassa, Padua la Dotta, Lucca la Industriosa—I cannot say. Venezia is unquestionably still la Bella. And as for old Rome, she vindicates more than ever her title to the epithet Eterna, by her similitude to those nursery toys which, throw them about as you will, still with infallible certitude come down heads uppermost. ”

“ These were the lights and spires of Tripoli, a Moorish town then best known as a haunt and stronghold of the pirates of the Mediterranean. All was silence, all seemingly peace. The vessel—the ketch, to give it its nautical name—moved onward with what seemed exasperating slowness, scarcely ruffling the polished waters of the bay. The hours passed on. The miles lagged tardily behind. The wind fell. The time crept towards midnight. The only life visible in the wide landscape was that of the gliding ketch. ”

“ Why should people like the Campanians who were incapable of defending either their possessions or themselves enjoy the most fertile territory in Italy, and a city well worthy of its territory, in preference to a victorious army who had driven off the Samnites from it by their sweat and blood? ”

“ Tripoli has been so often described, that I shall pass it over in silence. Its Jews, its Arabs, its Moors, and Maraboots; the slave population, and the bashaw’s family; are all so well painted to the life in “Tully’s Letters,” as to require no further notice from me as a casual visitor. Neither is it my intention to enter into a minute description of the country between Tripoli and Mourzuk; the surface of which is not essentially different from that between Mourzuk and Bornou, and has already been noticed by Captain Lyon, and in the communications to the African Association. ”

“ Nothing is more just, natural, or easy than to free the Adriatic provinces, and to confine the despotism of the Papacy between the Mediterranean and the Apennines. I have shown that the cities of Ferrara, Ravenna, Bologna, Rimini, and Ancona are at once the most impatient of the Pontifical yoke and the most worthy of liberty. ”

“ The population of Naples produces really a sorrowful and repulsive impression. In Rome, the people stand about idle, or sit in the streets; here they lie on the streets like dogs, when they are not bawling or fighting—especially the half or wholly naked boys. ”

“ The people look full of life, gay, independent, even lawless.
Thus we reached Naples and its charming bay, over which Vesuvius seems to rule like a gloomy despot with judgment and death upon his lips. The city however looks gay, far more so than Rome. The houses shine out white, amongst the verdant gardens, beside the bright blue sea, towards which the coast of Naples extends itself like an opened embrace, the rocky arms of which are richly adorned with towns, country-houses, and pleasure grounds!—splendid bracelets! ”

“ I find that in the important coast towns the favourite idea of the Italian residents is that Tripoli should be seized, in order to counterbalance the French acquisition of Tunis. But at Tripoli itself that idea finds no favour, even among the Italians; and the reason for this it is not difficult to discover. Neither from a financial, a military, nor a political point of view is Italy strong enough to secure Tripoli. Those who are on the spot are well aware of this, and they are most anxious to counteract the Chauvinist ideas of their fellow-countrymen at a distance. ”

“ After the war in Tripoli between the Italians and the Turks, in 1911, the suzerainty of Italy over Tripoli was formally acknowledged at the Treaty of Lausanne, but although the whole of the country became an Italian possession only the coastal towns were held firmly. The Arabs in the south, and the Berber inhabitants of the various oases, strongly resented the Italian rule, and for this reason the seeds of propaganda sown by Turkish and German agents found fertile soil among the natives of Tripoli. ”

“ It is probably greatest in the vicinity of the Atlantic and in Tunis, where it may be one hundred and fifty miles; in Algiers, Shaler considers it generally to be about sixty miles; but Tripoli is merely a narrow strip of soil, on the Mediterranean, in many places traversed by rocky spurs from the mountains, and tracts of sand from the desert.
The materials for the early history of this country are very imperfect; we possess no works of ancient native writers, and the accounts from which all our information must be drawn, appear in the form of episode, in those of Greek and Roman historians. ”