are distinguished from the poor by being admitted into the Sultan’s presence, and living in every respect better than the Arabs and the other natives. They have great power to oppress and ill treat their inferiors; yet are as free with their slaves as with each other, and associate as much with them. A slave will come and sit down with his master, though not on the same mat, and join in the conversation, amusement, or meal, even without a shirt on his back; when the master wears his best clothes, however, he is too dignified to permit such freedom. The Fezzanners are possessed of but little courage, spirit, or honesty, andaré as completely submissive to their tyrants as oppression could wish: they seem insensible of their abject state, never having known freedom, or having been exempt from the caprice of their rulers. There is little chance, therefore, that amongst such men, any struggles for liberty should be made; and it never enters their heads to take advantage of the power they possess from their situation in the desert to render themselves independent of Tripoli. The Arabs, and particularly those of the tribe Waled Suliman, of whom I have already spoken, were once dangerous, lawless freebooters, but are now at an end. When the Sultan goes to Tripoli, which he generally does once a year, he leaves his eldest son to command in his absence, under charge of whoever may, at the moment, be most in favour; this decision, or more properly those o f his governor, are equally to be enforced as the Sultan’s own orders. Mukni’s military force, if he presses the Arabs into his service, may, on an emergency, amount to 5000 men. N o Fezzanners are ever allowed to go on military excursions, being considered too pusillanimous to be trusted; but they pay deeply for their exemption from bearing arms, by being obliged to support those who do. There are no wars in whieh the Sultan is called upon to engage; but his love of gain, and the defenceless state of the Negro kingdoms to the southward, are temptations too strong to be resisted. A force is therefore annually sent, not to fight (for the Negroes cannot make any resistance against horsemen with fire-arms) but to pillage these defenceless people, to carry them off as slaves, burn their towns, kill the aged and infants, destroy their crops, and inflict on them every possible misery. These inroads have sometimes been conducted by Mukni in person, and in his absence, by some of his principal men; his son, however, is now thought old enough to make his initiatory campaign. In addition to the people usually ordered to attend these expeditions, many Bedouins from the desert near Sockna and Benioleed join them; also some of the Tibboo of Tibesty and Gatrone, in hopes of obtaining a share in the plunder. The wars thus made for the purpose of carrying off slaves, or invading enemies countries, are called Ghrazzie. There are no permanent or hereditary feuds existing between tribes, or even families in Fezzan, as the warlike race of independent Arabs no longer exists. The Tibboo and those Arabs who inhabit the southern districts of Fezzan, are distinct from each other; | and the native people, living in towns, cannot have the appellation of tribes applied to them. No Barbary or Negro Chief, or indeed any of their people, are able to resist a bribe; much might therefore be done by securing the good will of the Sultans of the interior kingdoms; and they might; by presents properly applied, form together such a barrier against the inroads o f Mukni, as would enable them to secure their independence, and prevent the annual seizure of multitudes of their subjects. Though amongst themselves slavery might (and doubtless would) exist; yet it would not, with such arrangements, extend so far as it does at present. The blacks alone, in consequence chiefly of Mukni’s incursions, are always engaged in o o
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