INTRODUCTION. xlvii 



purpofe, fo that, after flaying two days among them, the 

 Shekh reitored to us all that had been taken from us, and 

 mounting us upon camels, and giving us a conductor, he 

 forwarded us to Bengazi, where we arrived the fecond day 

 in the evening. Thence I fent a compliment to the Shekh, 

 and with it a man from the Bey, intreating that he would 

 ufe all pofiible means to fiih up fome of my cafes, for 

 which I allured him he mould not mifs a handfome re- 

 ward. Promifes and thanks were returned, but I never 

 heard further of my inftruments ; all I recovered was a 

 filver watch of Mlicot, the work of which had been taken 

 out and broken,fome pencils, and a fmall port- folio, in which 

 were fketches of Ptolemeta; my pocket-book too was found, 

 but my pencil was loft, being in a common fiiyer cafe, and' 

 with them all the aftronomical observations which I had 

 made in Barbary. I there loft a fextant, a parallactic in- 

 flrument, a time- piece, a reflecting telefcope, an achromatic 

 one, with many drawings, a copy of M. de la Caille's ephe- 

 merides down to the year 1775, much to be regretted, as be- 

 ing full of manufcript marginal notes ; a fmall camera ob- 

 fcura, fome guns, piftols, a blunderbuf*, and feveral other 

 articles. 



I found at Bengazi a fmall French floop, the matter of 

 which had been often at Algiers when I was conful there. 

 I had even, as the rnafter remembered, done him fome lit- 

 tle fervice, for which, contrary to the cullom of that fort of 

 people, he was very grateful. He had come there laden 

 with corn, and was going 110 the Archipelago, or towards 

 the Morea, for more. The cargo he had brought was but a 

 mite compared to the neceffities of the place ; it only re- 

 lieved 



