12th.—I requested an immediate audience of the bashaw, whiph in consequence of the Rhamadan was not granted me until the following evening. The consul, Captain Smyth of the navy, and myself, attended : I represented, in the strongest terms, how greatly we were disappointed at the unexpected and ruinous delay we had experienced in Mourzuk, and requested a specific time being fixed for our proceeding to Bornou ; stating, also, that were the answer not satisfactory, I should proceed forthwith to England, and represent to the government how grievously we had been deceived. The bashaw denied having intentionally broken his word, and solemnly declared that the will of God, in visiting the sultan of Fezzan with sickness, had alone prevented our being now on the road to Bornou. A voyage to Marseilles, on my way to England, was the consequence of our altercation with the bashaw; and the promptitude with which it was decided upon, and carried into effect, by means of a small French vessel which, at the time, most fortunately lay in the harbour, was not without its good effects. The bashaw sent three despatches after me, by three different vessels, to Leghorn, Malta, and the port I had sailed to, which I received in quarantine,' informing me, that Boo-Khaloom was appointed with an escort to convey us forthwith to Bornou. This was every thing I wished fo r ; and immediately re-embarking, a seven days’ passage brought me once more to the shores of Barbary. Boo-Khaloom and part of the escort were already at the entrance to the desert; and on the 17th of September we re-entered the pass of Melghra in the Tarhona mountains. Hope and confidence had taken possession of my mind, in the place of anxiety and disappointment; there was now an air of assurance and success in all our arrangements ; and I felt my health and spirits increase with this conviction. But little beyond the casualties attendant on desert travelling occurred, previous to our arriving again at Sockna, which we did on the 2d of October. I found the great failing of my friend, Boo-Khaloom, was pomp and show; and feeling that he was, on this occasion, the bashaw’s representative, he was evidently unwilling that any sultan of Fezzan should exceed him in magnificence. On entering Sockna, his six principal followers, handsomely attired in turbans and fine barracans, and mounted on his best horses, kept near his person, whilst the others, at a little distance, formed the flanks. I rode on his right hand, dressed in my British uniform, with loose Turkish trowsers, a red turban, red boots, with a white bornouseover ally as a shade from the sun ; and this, though riot strictly according to order* was by no means an unbecoming dress. * Boo-Khaloom was mounted on a beautiful white Tunisian horse, fa present from the bashaw, the peak and rear of the saddle covered with gold, and his horisings were of scarlet cloth, with a border of gold six inches broad. His dress consisted of red boots, richly embroidered with gold, yellow silk trowsers| a crimson velvet caftan 1 with gold buttons, a silk benise of sky blue, and a silk' i sidria underneath : a transparent white silk barracan was thrown lightlytover this, and on his shoulders hung a scarlet bornouse with wide gold lace* a present also' from the bashaw, which had cost* at least, four hundred dollars ; a cashmere shawl turban crowned the whole.- In .this-splendid array* we’moved* on until, as we approached the gates of the town, the dancing and singing men and women met us ; : and, amidst these, the Shouts and firing of the ineft*^who'skirmished before us, and the “ loo! loo!Vi of the women, we enteredk Sockna.- We > found that houses were provided for us in the town:* but the kafila bivouacked outside the gates. I t had always been our.■•■intention to halt at Sockna,. foF I three or four days * and here we expected to be joined by a party of the Megarha Arabs, whom their sheikh, Abdi Smud ben Erhoma, had left us, for the purpose of collecting together. Hoon and Wadan were also to furnish -us ¡with another quota. My house consisted of a court-yard eighteen feet square, and a small dark room, leading out of it by two steps : the court, however, was-« the greater-'part of the day shaded ; and here, on a carpet, I received my visitors. > The Arabs, as they arrived* were all sent to me by Boo-Khaloom,; and their presentation has a form in it, not much in character withtheir accustomed rudeness: they all came armed with their long guns; and the same girdle which confines their barracan contains also two long pistols. The chief enters, and salutes, dropping on one knee, and touching the stranger’s-right hand with his, which he carries afterwards to his lips; he then says, f* Here are my men, who are come to say health to you.” On receiving permission, .they approached me, one by one, saluting in the same manner as their chief* who continued to remain at my side:-they then sat down, forming aI sort of semicircle round me, with their guns upright between their knees ; and, after a little time, on the sheikh making a signal, they all quitted the presence. d
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