ABSTRACT
GRADUALLY we neared the city as the day got up. It was dusty and hot, and disagreeable. My feelings were down at zero; and I certainly did not proceed to enter the city in style of conqueror, one who had vanquished the galling hardships of The Desert, in the most unfavourable season of the year. We were now met with a great number of the people of the city, come to welcome the safe arrival of their friends, for travelling in The Desert is always considered insecure even by its very inhabitants. Amongst the rest was the merchant Essnousee, whose acquaintance I had made in Tripoli, who welcomed me much to my satisfaction when thus entering into a strange place. Another person came up to me, who, to my surprise, spoke a few words in Italian, which I could not expect to hear in The
Desert. He followed me into the town, and the Governor afterwards ordered him to be my turjeman, ("interpreter"). Now, the curiosity of the people became much excited, all ran to see The Christian! Every body in the city knew I was coming two months before my arrival. As soon as I arrived in Tripoli, the first caravan took the wonderful intelligence of the appointment of an English Consul at Ghadames. A couple of score of boys followed hard at the heels of my camel, and some running before, to look at my face; the men gaped with wide open mouths; and the women started up eagerly to the tops of the houses of the Arab suburb, clapping their hands and loolooing. It is perhaps characteristic of the more gentle and unsophisticated nature of womankind, that women of The Desert give you a more lively reception than men. The men are gloomy and silent, or merely curious without any demonstrations. I entered the city by the southern gate. The entrance was by no means imposing. There was a rough-hewn, worn, dilapidated gate-way, lined with stone-benches, on which The Ancients were once accustomed to sit and dispense justice as in old Israelitish times. Having passed this ancient gate, which wore the age of a thousand years, we wound round and round in the suburbs within the walls, through narrow and intricate lanes, with mud walls on each side, which inclosed the gardens. The palms shot their branches over from above, and relieved this otherwise repulsive sight to the stranger. But I was too much fatigued and exhausted to notice any thing, and almost ready to drop from off my camel. In fact, the distance which I had come since I first saw the dark palms of the city at the dawn, seemed to exceed
(mostly the case when exhausted in completing the last mile of the journey,) all the rest of the route. I now proceeded forthwith to the Governor, the Rais Mustapha, being led by the people en masse, who, on seeing me, said, " Es-slamah! Es-slamah! Es-slamah!" ordered me coffee, and gave me a cordial welcome. It was about 10 A.M. His Excellency was sitting out in the street on a stone-bench, under the shade. Some visitors were sitting at a distance, and servants were lounging about. The Governor's house is without the city, in the gardens. It was cleanly white-washed, but small, only two stories high. Before the door it was well watered, and there was a freshness springing up from the water just sprinkled about. Several palms cast gracefully their dark shadows on the street. The Governor was very sick, his face was tied up, and his eyes covered. But he smoked incessantly. He said only a few words through his interpreter. I was equally out of order, and begged him to allow me to go to the house which was being prepared for me. He consented; and two hours after his Excellency sent me a dinner of mutton, fowls, and rice.
