the 8th, therefore, we all returned, and the expedition was put off for a month. From this time, until the 19th instant, we were in a state of great tranquillity: every body was suffering from the severity of the Rhamadan, which was unusually oppressive this year—the days were thirteen hours long, and the heat excessive. On the 19th instant I had news of Mr. Tyrwhit’s arrival at the river Yeou, and on the 20th I went out to meet him a t the resting place, called Dowergoo. This gentleman His Majesty’s Government had kindly sent out to strengthen our party, without knowing how fatally the climate had weakened u s: he was the bearer of presents to the sheikh, in acknowledgment of the kind reception we had experienced, and was also accompanied by the sheikh’s children, so long detained at Mourzuk by the intrigues and contrivances of the late bey, Mustapha, the sultan of Fezzan. On the 22d instant we delivered the presents from his Majesty in full form, consisting of two swords, of very beautiful workmanship, two pair of pistols, a dagger, and two gold watches.: the delight, nay ecstasy, with which these well-selected specimens of our manufactories were received by El Kanemy, was apparent in every feature of his intelligent countenance, and in the quick glances of his sparkling and penetrating eye. The dagger, and the watch vrith the seconds movement, were the articles which struck him most forcibly; and when I mentioned, that, agreeably to his request, a parcel of rockets had also been forwarded, he exclaimed, “ What, besides all these riches I there are no friends like these! they are all tru th ; and I see, by the Book, that if the Prophet had lived only a short time longer, they would have been all Moslem!” June !.■—The Rhamadan was now over, and we had, in the place of fasting and complainings, feastings and rejoicings: the oftener m the twenty-four hours a man could afford to eat m e a t , the greater person he was considered. The heat had been very oppressive, and the people complained dreadfully, as the sheikh admitted of no excuse for breaking the Rhamadan: any man who was caught suffering his thirst to get the better of him, or visiting his wives between sunrise and sunset, was sentenced to four hundred stripes with a whip made of the skin of the hippopotamus—-a dreadful punishment. An hour or two before the sun went down, sometimes more than a dozen of the class to whom labour rendered the deprivation of liquid for so many hours far more insufferable, would lay themselves near the well, and have buckets of water thrown over them, the only relief that could be allowed, and which appeared greatly to revive them, even when almost fainting with thirst. With the feast of the Aid, however, finished all their sufferings, and also the recollection of them ; for the wrestlings now took place in front of the sheikh’s house,- as before, and the evening dances at the gates of the town were crowded with many picturesque groups. I had, several times during the fast, paid the sheikh a visit by his desire, soon after sunrise, the only time in the day, at this season, that he is visible: our meeting was always in his garden, which a few pomegranate and lime trees made really here a refreshing spot, which was not a little- increased by the troughs of water which reached from the well all round this miserable, though royal, nursery-ground, and refreshed the roots of the languid and drooping trees. Our conversation chiefly related to the war with Tunis, which he seemed to think of great importance, and added, that, friends as we were with all Mussulmans, our taking up the cause of their enemies seemed very unaccountable. I endeavoured to explain it to him, that we were enemies to cruelty and blood-shedding, let who would be the perpetrators; that we as often prevented Greeks from massacring Turks, and always released prisoners of either faith, whenever our cruisers found them confined in the ships of their enemies. I do not know that I should have succeeded in satisfying him entirely of our disinterested conduct, had it not been for Shrief Hashashy, a
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