INTEODUCTION.

In offering to the Public an account of the mission, the proceedings

of which will form the subject of the present Narrative, it may be

proper to state briefly the circumstances which gave rise to it, and

the objects to which its inquiries were chiefly directed.

When Captain Smyth visited the Northern Coast of Africa, in the

year 1817, he had many opportunities (during the course of his Survey) of obtaining information connected with the state of the country and the points most deserving of notice which it presented. The exertions of this active and intelligent officer procured at

Lebida the matter for the only plan which we have of that city and

its antiquities, while his journey to Ghirza made us acquainted with

the actual nature of those remains, so important in Arab estimation,

the account of which is given at the latter part of our narrative *.

Captain Smyth had proposed to extend his journey eastward ; for

the friendly disposition of the Bashaw of Tripoly had been diligently

cultivated by himself and Colonel Warrington, His Majesty’s Con-

sul-general at the Kegency, and the whole tract of country between

Tripoly and Derna was open to the researches of the English. Cir-

cumstances, however, prevented him from doing so, and on returning

* The plan here alluded to of the City of Lebida was obligingly placed at our disposal by the author, and we wished to have had it engraved for the work ; but, in consequence

of being obliged to limit our number of plates to much fewer than we had originally

anticipated, this plan, with some others of our own, have been omitted.