Chap- LXX. CARAVANS FROM THE NORTH. 
33 
amounted to the number mentioned in Mr. Jackson's 
account of Morocco*, and in various other works. 
The small caravans of Tdjakdnt which arrived 
during my stay in the town, the largest of which did 
not number more than seventy or eighty camels, are 
rather an exception to the rule, and can therefore 
furnish no data with regard to the average, although 
I am quite sure that they very rarely exceed 1000 
camels. The consequence of this state of things was, 
that, especially during the first part of my residence, 
the merchandise from the north fetched a very high 
price, and sugar was scarcely to be had. at all. 
With regard to European manufactures, the road 
from Morocco is still the most important for some ar- 
ticles, such as red cloth, coarse coverings, sashes, look- 
ing-glasses, cutlery, tobacco ; while calico especially, 
bleached as well as unbleached, is also imported by 
way of Ghadames, and in such quantities of late, 
that it has greatly excited the jealousy of the Morocco 
merchants. The inhabitants of Ghadames are certainlv 
the chief agents in spreading this manufacture over 
the whole north-western part of Africa, and, in con- 
sequence, several of the wealthier Ghaddmsi merchants 
employ agents here. The most respectable among the 
foreign merchants in Timbuktu is Taleb Mohammed, 
* P. 96. Here Jackson states the average size of sach a caravan 
at 10,000 camels; and even the more cautious M. Graberg de Hemso 
repeats these statements in his " Specchio di Morocco," p. 144. seq. 
" Ciononostante (le caravane) conducono talvolta seco da 16 Ji?io a 
20 mila cammelli.'^ 
VOL. V. D 
