AFRICAN EXPLORERS OF TEE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 115 
Denham, convinced that change of air would restore 
them to health, persuaded them to start and begin the 
journey by easy stages. He himself set out on the 
20th of November with a caravan of merchants from 
Mesurata, Tripoli, Sockna, and Murzuk, escorted by 
210 Arab warriors chosen from the most intelligent and 
docile of the tribes, and commanded by Boo-Khaloum. 
The expedition took the route followed by Lyon and 
soon reached Tegerry, which is the most southerly town 
of Fezzan, and the last 
before the traveller 
enters the desert of 
Bilma. 
Denham made a sketch 
of the castle of Tegerry 
from the southern bank 
of a salt lake near the 
town. Tegerry is en¬ 
tered by a low, narrow, 
vaulted passage leading 
to a gate in a second 
rampart. The wall is 
pierced with apertures, 
which render the en¬ 
trance by the narrow 
passage very difficult. 
Above the second gate there is also an aperture through 
which darts and firebrands may be hurled upon the 
besiegers, a mode of warfare once largely indulged in 
by the Arabs. Inside the town there are wells of fairly 
good water. Its situation is delightful. It is sur¬ 
rounded by date-trees, and the water in the neighbour¬ 
hood is excellent. A chain of low hills stretches away 
to the east. Snipes, ducks, and wild geese frequent the 
salt lakes near the town. 
Leaving Tegerry, the travellers entered a sandy 
desert, across which it would not have been easy to find 
the way, had it not been marked out by the skeletons of 
men and animals strewn along it, especially about the 
wells. 
