TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 145 retreated to the castles, where they shut themselves up, and refused to supply the caravan with water, of which they were greatly in need.

As the wells were within the fortifications, there was nothing left for the caravan, under these adverse circumstances, but to carry the forts, and to supply themselves by force, or to continue their journey across the desert, at the risk, perhaps the certainty, of perishing with thirst. They soon determined to make an attack upon the castles, which, after a slight engagement, they succeeded in carrying ; and having obtained from the wells as much water as was necessarv, they proceeded on their route across the desert*.”

In many of the forts which we visited in the Syrtis, one or two, and sometimes more, wells were still visible within the works (although, for the most part, they were filled up with mud and sand, or with the rubbish of the fallen materials of the buildings) ; and it is probable that all of them were originally provided with a convenience so essential to the garrison. In some cases we found wells decidedly without the works, in places which appeared to be wholly undefended; except we may suppose them to have been within range of the archers and slingers from the walls, which did not always appear to have been the case.

In such instances, however, we must not conclude that there were originally no wells within the forts, because none are found there at present ; for a single century of neglect would in many cases be sufficient to account for the disappearance of a well altogether.

* Leo Africanus in Ramusio, quinta parte.

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