HISTORY OF THE WAHABEES. 317 



a garrison of 800 men. This feat was at length 

 accomplished by a stratagem ; Ghaleb was seized, 

 while paying a visit of ceremony to Toussoun, by a 

 detachment of soldiers, who lay concealed in the 

 apartments adjoining the court-yard of the house 

 which he had just entered. After a short captivity 

 at Mecca, he was conveyed by way of Cosseir to 

 Cairo, where he was joined by his wives and a 

 retinue of eunuchs and slaves ; but he died of the 

 plague in the summer of 1816 at Salonica, the place 

 which the Porte had assigned for his residence. The 

 fate of this chief spread terror among all his parti- 

 sans, and caused a revolution in the whole political 

 affairs of the country. Yahia, a distant relation of 

 his and formerly an antagonist, was appointed gover- 

 nor of the city, with a monthly stipend from the pasha. 

 Among the hostile tribes near Mecca, none had 

 displayed a more resolute opposition than theBegoum 

 Arabs who inhabited Taraba, where most of Gha- 

 leb's troops had taken refuge ; and which thus be- 

 came a point of union for all the southern Wahabees, 

 as Deraiah was of the northern. Their leader at this 

 time was a widow, named Ghalia, whose husband 

 had been one of the principal men of the place. She 

 was possessed of great wealth, which was distributed 

 liberally among all the poor of the tribe who were 

 willing to fight against the Turks. The Egyptian 

 soldiers entertained the most absurd notion of her 

 powers as a sorceress, and believed that she had 

 the faculty, by means of certain personal favours, of 

 rendering the Wahabee chiefs invincible. 



In the beginning of November 1813, Toussoun 

 was despatched from Ta'if with 2000 men, and on 

 his reaching Taraba the troops were immediately 



VOL. II. U 



