I remarked that our negress invariably used the letter P for F ; she would say,for instance, Yussup instead of Yussuf, Patoo for Fatoo; and I found that this was general amongst the natives of Bornou and Baghermee. These people, as well as the natives of F ezzan, always pronounce s as sh, and vice versa. Another peculiarity which I have often observed is, that all the Fezzanners and slaves, in cutting onions or other vegetables, cut downwards on the forefinger of the left band, and however sharp the knife may be, they seldom injure themselves. Mukni now received more enlivening news from Tripoli, and he began again to show himself. O r d e r s came that all the traders of Augela, a town between Tripoli and Egypt, should be put in prison, and their slaves and goods taken on the Bashaw’s account, as he was at war with their countrymen, and had sent an army against them. Fourteen were accordingly confined under the Castle, and orders were sent to the southward to take up those who came from the Interior, and to the eastward to secure those coming from Egypt, There was one of these people who was much disliked by Mukni, and who, on hearing o f the proceedings against his countrymen, escaped with nineteen negresses, his property. The Sultan sent after him, and having cut off his access to a watering- place, he was secured, almost dying from thirst. His life had been promised to him before he surrendered; but the next morning he was deliberately shot through the breast by those who had him in custody, and his head and property brought back to Morzouk. Had this man been aware of the treachery intended, he was of so powerful a form, and of such bravery, that his capture would have been very difficult. Previously to his being shot, he exclaimed, | Tell Mohammed el Mukni that he is a villain: Paradise is shut against him, and he will die by treachery. There is no God but God, and Mohammed is his Prophet.” Our friend Yussuf brought to me a very old man, who had been to Ashantee, and who gave gome very extraordinary and rather improbable accounts of the people there. He said that there were white traders at the coast whom he had himself seen. This I would not at first believe, until he related some distinct accounts of the habits of the people he met with, peculiar to Europeans. In Morzouk there are sixteen Mosques, which are covered in, but some of them are very small; each has an Imaum, but the Kadi is their head, of which dignity he seems not a little proud. This man had never been beyond the boundaries of Fezzan, and could form no idea of any thing superior to mud houses and palms; he always fancied us great romancers when we told him of our country, and described it as being in the middle of the sea. I t may be necessary before I take leave of Morzouk, and indeed of Tripoli, to explain that our adoption of the Moorish costume was by no means a sufficient safeguard in either of those places, or in traversing the interior of Africa; for though it might, to a casual observer, blind suspicion, yet when we had occasion to remain for a time at any place, or to perform journeys in company with strangers, we found that it was absolutely requisite to conform to all the duties of the Mohammedan religion, as well as to assume their dress. To this precaution I attribute our having met with so little hindrance in our proceedings; for had we openly professed ourselves Christians, we might, in Fezzan, have experienced many serious interruptions; whilst farther in the interior, even our lives would have been in continual jeopardy. The circumstance of our having come from a Christian country, which we always acknowledged, frequently rendered us liable to suspicion; but by attending constantly at the established prayers, and occasionally acknowledging the divine mission of Mohammed, or, more properly, by repeating
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