previously.  Towards evening, however, it became warmer, as it usually does.  The country was bare and level, like an expanse of dull-coloured water; and the palm-trees that cluster near the village rose slowly above the horizon as we drew nigh.  The sun had gone down, and the plain stretched dim and shadowy around before we came in sight of the group of hovels which form the village.  As I looked back, the scattered camels slowly toiling along could be faintly traced against the horizon.

The Sheikh of Agar received us well this time, sending us two fowls and supper for our people.  This place consists of huts made of palm-branches and of mud hovels, several of which are in ruins.  The same remark constantly recurs in reference to almost all the towns of Barbary, both towards the coast and far in the interior.  The vital principle of civilisation seems to have exhausted itself in those parts.

I was now in a country comparatively familiar to me, and knew that I had but one more ride to reach the capital of Fezzan.  Rising early on the 6th, therefore, I determined to press on in advance of the caravan; and starting with warm weather, puffs of wind coming now from the south-east, now from the north-west, very unsteadily—­the atmosphere was slightly murky, with sand flying about—­I soon came in sight of the palm-groves of Mourzuk, without making any other rencontre than a Tuarick coursing over the desert in full costume.  The old castle peeped picturesquely through the trees, but I had still a good way to go before reaching shelter.  The sand and white earth that form the surface of the oasis near the town were painfully dazzling to my eyes.

At length I reached the suburbs, where a few people stared curiously at me.  My arrival had been announced by the chaouches, who had gone on about a quarter of an hour before; and at the eastern gate the soldiers allowed me to pass without notice, or any allusion to gumruk.  Mr. Gagliuffi had come out to meet me; but having taken a different gate we crossed, and I arrived on my camel at his house, and found it empty.  My veil being down in the streets I was recognised by no one.  The acting Governor had arranged to meet me with twenty horsemen, but I had taken them all quite unawares.  The letters forwarded requesting us to make a halt in the suburbs, and then advance slowly in “holiday costume,” for the sake of effect, had not reached me.  However, they had hoisted the Ottoman flag on the castle, in honour of our expected arrival,—­a compliment that had not before been paid to strangers, and one never offered at Tripoli.