them at the same time that their treatment depended upon themselves;
and that if they brought the camels immediately and conducted
themselves well for the future, we would pass over their conduct
on this occasion, and make them some little present at Bengazi,
in addition to the hire of their camels, as they had seen us do to the
men of Mesurata. All we could with propriety concede was, however,
of no avail; the men positively refused to bring the camels, and
we as positively refusing to be imposed upon, they all began to drive
them away, and then ranging themselves in a row, unslung their
muskets from their shoulders and began hammering their flints, and
priming them afresh ; looking all the timé as fierce and as formidable
as they could, as if they were resolved to carry their point at all
risks. A very little will convert a quarrel into a fray, and it was
certainly not our interest to begin one; we were determined, however,
not to be bullied, and as fire-arms had now been brought forward as
arguments, we were not long in producing our own. We told our
opponents, at the same time that we had no wish to hurt any one of
them, that we were quite determined we would not be dictated
to ; and that if they persisted in not bringing the camels, we should
despatch one of our party, accompanied by the chaous, to procure
others from the Arabs of Barca ; and in case they refused to supply
them, to proceed on with all speed to Bengazi, where the Bey would
not fail to provide them with as many as we had occasion for. In
the mean time, we said, we should load our own horses, and go back
to the Arab tents at Mahiriga, where we should at least procure
water, and would subsist on our remaining stock of rice till the messengers
returned with the camels. We now threatened the Dùbbah
with reporting his conduct to the Bashaw, who he very well knew
was our friend ; but he appeared not to mind what we said, and did
not offer to interest himself in our behalf. Our refractory camel-
drivers still refused to bring their camels, although they did not
attempt to proceed further on the offensive than the hammering and
priming above mentioned; and nothing seemed left for us, but to
put our proposed plan into execution, however ill-timed the delay
might be to us, and however unpleasant might be the annoyances
which we should probably have been exposed to from the Arabs to
whose encampment we must remove, while at variance with the
Dùbbah and his relations. As there was, however, no alternative but
submission to the mutineers, or the immediate adoption of some plan
like that we have mentioned, we made up our minds at once upon
the occasion; and having concerted arrangements for despatching
two of our party to Bengazi, we were proceeding to put them in
execution, when matters began to assume a different aspect, and our
project very happily was rendered unnecessary.
Thè Dùbbah was the first who began to relent; he had probably
been reflecting upon our threat of reporting his conduct, and he
very well knew what an unfavourable footing he would stand upon
with the Bashaw, if he ventured so decidedly to disobey the injunctions
he had received from him when he was directed to conduct us
to Bengazi. He now came out of his tent, and going first to one of
his party and then to another, pretended that he 'was using all the
means in his power to induce them to relinquish their demands, and