Mr. Lucas congratulated the Governor on the victory, who thanked him; but “I fear,” said he, shaking his head, “that the news requires confirmation. There was a time, indeed, when the people of Tripoli knew how to conquer, and the Arabs trembled at the sight of an encampment.”
March 15th. On the next day but one, accounts were brought by different persons who arrived from the camp, that there had indeed been a skirmish, in their relation of which they varied much from each other; but they all agreed that the Bey had lost a greater number of men, and that the only cattle which he had obtained, were a few camels and some sheep that the straggling parties from the camp had seized.
Wearied with fruitless expectations of a peace, disappointed in their expedients, and warned by the increasing heat, that the season for a journey to Fezzan was already past, the Shereefs now resolved to proceed to the intended places of their Summer residence.
The Shereef Fouwad retired to Wadan, his native town; and the Shereef Imhammed, with tears in his eyes, and an earnest prayer that he might see his friend Mr. Lucas again in November, retired to the mountains, where he had many acquaintance, and could live at a small expence.
March 20th. A few days afterwards, Mr. Lucas took leave of the Governor, to whose civilities he had been much indebted, and having accompanied a small caravan as far as Lebida, embarked in a coasting vessel at the neighbouring village of Legatah, and went by sea to Tripoli, where the Bashaw, upon whom he waited, and to whom with many acknowledgments he returned the mule, not only received him with great kindness, but expressed his hope that better fortune would attend him another year.
April 6th. From Tripoli he sailed for Malta, and after a tedious quarantine, which the suspicion of the plague at Mesurata had much prolonged, he took his departure for Marseilles, and on the 26th of July arrived in England.
INTRODUCTION
TO
CHAPTER IV.
An account has already been given of the opportunity which the length of his residence in Mesurata afforded to Mr. Lucas, of obtaining from the Shereef Imhammed a description of the Kingdom of Fezzan, and of such of the countries beyond it to the South as the Shereef himself had visited.
But though this intelligent stranger had no discoverable motive for deception, yet as the solitary evidence of any individual excites but a dubious belief, Mr. Lucas was anxious to learn from the Governor of Mesurata, who had formerly travelled to Fezzan, his idea of the truth of the Narrative. With this view he asked and received the Governor’s permission to read to him the memorandums that the repeated conversations of Imhammed had enabled him to make.