296 BENGAZI.

bah had fulfilled the injunctions of the Bashaw ; and to enumerate a few of the impositions, the unnecessary delays, and privations, to which which we had in consequence been subjected ; acquainting him at the same with the loss of property which we had sustained, from the thievish disposition of the Dhbbah’s people. We hoped by this complaint to get back a pocket compass, and some other articles which we could ill spare, which had been stolen from our tents on the journey across the Syrtis. Bey Halil was, however, either unwilling or unable to assist us in the matter ; and after shrugging up his shoulders in dignified silence (as if he had expected nothing less), he summed up the whole of his displeasure in the single exclamation of— “Arab ! By which he seemed to imply, that, as one of that race, the Shekh could not be other than a rogue *.

Unsatisfactory as this administration of justice may appear, it did not seem probable that we should obtain any other ; and having one means of punishment, at least, in our own hands (that of mulcting the Shekh, whom we had not fully paid, to the amount of the property stolen), we did not press the subject any further with his excellency ; and after having made known to him our intention of remaining during the rainy season in Bengazi, and of proceeding after-* As the Dubbah had sworn that neither himself nor his people knew anything of the articles which we had lost, we never got them back again ; although one of his own party afterwards confessed that they had stolen all that was missing. Shekh Mahommed did not hesitate to take a false oath — but he had too great a value for what he thought his character, to confess that he had deliberately perjured himself. At Malta we heard that a heavy fine of sheep and camels had been levied upon him by the Bashaw, for his disgraceful behaviour and wilful disobedience of his Highness’s most positive orders.