Atlantida

The principal authors were, and still are, the Senoussis, whose able

chief has been forced by our arms to transfer the seat of his

confederation several thousand leagues from there, to Schimmedrou, in

the Tibesti. They had, I say they through modesty, the idea of

ascertaining the traces left by these agitators on their favorite

places of concourse; Rhât, Temassinin, the plain of Adejamor, and

In-Salah. It was, you see, at least after leaving Temassinin,

practically the same itinerary as that followed in 1864 by General

Rohlfs.

I had already attracted some attention by two excursions, one to

Agadès, and the other to Bilma, and was considered by the staff

officers to be one of the best informed on the Senoussis question. I

was therefore selected to assume this new task.

I then suggested that it would be of interest to kill two birds with

one stone, and to get, in passing, an idea of the northern Ahaggar, so

as to make sure whether the Tuaregs of Ahitarhen had continued to have

as cordial relations with the Senoussis as they had had when they

combined to massacre the Flatters' mission. I was immediately accorded

the permission. The change in my first plan was as follows: After

reaching Ighelaschem, six hundred kilometers south of Temassinin,

instead of taking the direct road to Touat via Rhât, I would,

penetrating between the high land of Mouydir and Ahaggar, strike off

to the southwest as far as Shikh-Salah. Here I would turn again

northwards, towards In-Salah, by the road to the Soudan and Agadès. In

all hardly eight kilometers additional in a trip of about seven

hundred leagues, with the certainty of making as complete an

examination as possible of the roads which our enemies, the Senoussis

of Tibesti and the Tuareg of the Ahaggar, must follow to arrive at

Touat. On the way, for every explorer has his pet fancy, I was not at

all displeased to think that I would have a chance to examine the

geological formation of the plateau of Egere, about which Duveyrier

and the others are so disappointingly indefinite.

Everything was ready for my departure from Wargla. Everything, which

is to say, very little. Three mehara: mine, my companion Bou-Djema's

(a faithful Chaamba, whom I had had with me in my wanderings through

the Air, less of a guide in the country I was familiar with than a

machine for saddling and unsaddling camels), then a third to carry

provisions and skins of drinking water, very little, since I had taken

pains to locate the stops with reference to the wells.

Some people go equipped for this kind of expedition with a hundred

regulars, and even cannon. I am for the tradition of Douls and René

Callie, I go alone.