turn to the south,
arriving at the oases just as the dates were ripening. Here the grain,
wool and other stuffs from the north would be exchanged for dates and
manufactured articles of the desert. The same tribes which advanced
from the oases of the desert to the north also descended towards the
south, thus establishing intercourse between the Barbary States and
Timbuktu. Many slaves picked up by these immigrating tribes were
carried from one oasis to another until they were finally sold into
the states bordering the Mediterranean.

The second kind of caravans were those conducted by merchants,
traveling with hired camels, and making rapid and direct journeys
across the desert to and from the chief slave markets. These caravans
would come into the Sudan composed of men mounted upon camels, asses
and mules, bringing salt, hides, cloth, and sundry articles from
civilized North Africa, and return with slaves through Tibbu to
Fezzan, and there fatten them for the Tripoli slave markets. Those
that came to Timbuktu returned to any of the Barbary States, and there
transferred their slaves to other traders who carried them as far as
Turkey in Asia. Those that came to Kano usually passed out by way of
Kuka or Katsena and proceeded thence by several routes to markets in
North Africa.

The journey across the desert was exceedingly fatal to the blacks,
since they were not accustomed to the northern climate. They suffered
from hunger, thirst and cold, and a large per cent. of them perished
along the way. Damberger, who traveled through the interior of Africa
between 1781 and 1797, relates, as follows, his experience as a
slave-captive in crossing the desert. Passing through the Sudan he
fell in with some Moors, journeying to Tegorarin, where he was sold to
a slave dealer, who resold him to a Mussulman en route to Mezzabath, a
town on the river Oniwoh. Here again he was sold to a merchant who
carried him to Marocco. He narrates that "On the 6th of September, my
new master and I departed with the caravan. It consisted of merchants
from various nations, of persons of distinction, who had been
performing a pilgrimage to Mecca, and of slaves. We proceeded slowly
on our journey, as the roads were bad and our beasts were very heavily
laden. Every day some of our company left the caravan, as we
approached or passed the respective destinations. We traveled over
mountains where the path was sometimes so narrow as only to permit the
passage