questing permission to undertake the journey, with which he immediately complied. Only, as his eldest son, the Bey of Bengazi, was in rebellion against him, and might, by seizing us, demand terms which his Highness would find it difficult to accede to, he wished us to proceed with a small force to the mountains, and there be reinforced according to the actual state of the country. His Highness also signified his desire that Seedy Amouri, his son-in-law, and Seedy Mahomet, his nephew, should accompany us. He moreover furnished us with his Teskerah (an authority for being gratuitously subsisted by the Arabs), though we never used it but to insure a supply, and always made a present in return, proportionate to the value of the articles provided; being of opinion that availing ourselves otherwise of this document would be detrimental to future travellers.
“On the 28th of February, we left Tripoli before sunrise, accompanied by the two Seedies, an escort of Moorish cavalry, and several camels. On the 2d of March we passed an old tower, called Gusser-Kzab, in the plain of Frussa, where, about three years before, a considerable treasure had been discovered in gold and silver coins. Of these, however, I was unable to procure a single specimen, they having been all taken to the coast of Tripoli, where they were most probably melted, and their date and story lost for ever. Proceeding from Frussa over a sterile and fatiguing district, we arrived, about noon on the 3d, at the wadie of Benioleet, where, having been expected, the principal people came out to welcome us, and some met us even as far off as the valley of Mezmouth. This, though only a distance of four or five miles, is a very laborious and dreary ride, over a rocky tract, exhibiting a remarkably volcanic appearance, from a black substance resembling porous lava, lying upon a bed of tertiary limestone, and forming, perhaps, a part of the Harutsch of Horneman.
“Having found several people at Benioleet who had recently arrived from the place I was bound to, I repeated my inquiries respecting the sculpture, and again received positive assurances that I should see figures of men, women, children, camels, horses, and ostriches, in perfect preservation; and the belief of their being petrifactions was so prevalent, that doubts were expressed whether I should be able to remove any one of those whom it had pleased Providence thus to punish for their sins.
“On the 6th, after our party had been joined by three mountain chiefs, with twenty-five janissaries, and fifteen camels laden with water, barley, tents, &c., we proceeded over a hilly and bare country to the southward.
On the 8th, having passed the range of Souarat, we advanced through a pretty valley called Taaza, neglected, but evidently capable of improvement, from the luxuriant myrtle, lotus, juniper, cypress, and other plants, nourishing spontaneously. In the evening we arrived at a brackish well of great depth culled Zemzem, from having been blessed by a holy Marabut; and thence is derived the name of the whole wadie, which running towards the north-east reaches the Syrtis below Turghar. Ghirza, the scene of the extraordinary story so extensively propagated, being only
