88 
RECRUITING IN MOURZUK. 
commit spoliations in the towns and districts where 
they are stationed to avoid starvation. 
I visited the barracks of Mourzuk, and found them 
to be commodious, and apparently salubrious. The 
good living of these stationary troops surprised me. 
They have meat and excellent soup every day, with 
rice and biscuit. The Fezzanee is never so well fed 
and well clothed and lodged as when he is a soldier. 
Indeed the men seem too well off, in comparison with 
their former state and with the rest of the popula- 
tion. Nevertheless, they are glad to escape when 
the time of their service expires. The people all 
dread being^ made soldiers ; so that Government is 
compelled to resort to the most paltry tricks to get 
recruits. Men are often unjustly charged with 
theft or debt, and put in prison, and then let out as a 
favour to be enlisted, or sometimes are clapped into 
the ranks at once. Youths have been seized as sol- 
diers for kicking up the dust in front of a sentinel 
and dirtying his clothes. I remarked the number of 
soldiers that were black, and the Bim Bashaw 
observed that he hoped the time would come when 
there would not be a white private left in Mourzuk. 
The Turks manage to do with twenty or thirty of 
their own people, mostly officers, in this garrison ; 
but, by one method or another, get as many 
Fezzanee recruits as they want. 
The Turkish system is vastly superior to the 
French in this important matter of garrisoning their 
possessions in Northern Africa. The latter require 
one hundred men where the Turks are content with 
