294 TRAVELS IN AFRICA. Chap. XXX. 
number and variety of the women who shared his 
attention, he seemed to take a hearty interest in 
each of them ; at least I remember that he grieved 
most sincerely for the loss of one who .died in the 
winter of 1851. Poor Haj Beshir ! He was put 
to death in the last month of 1853, leaving seventy- 
three sons alive, not counting the daughters, and the 
numbers of children which may be supposed to die in 
such an establishment without reaching maturity. 
But to return to his political character. I said 
that he neglected to attach to himself the more 
powerful of the courtiers, with whose assistance he 
might have hoped to keep the rival brother of Sheikh 
'Omar at some distance ; indeed, he even alienated 
them by occasional, and sometimes injudicious use of 
his almost unlimited power, obliging them, for in- 
stance, to resign to him a handsome female slave or a 
fine horse. If he had possessed great personal cou- 
rage and active powers, he might have mastered cir- 
cumstances and kept his post, notwithstanding the 
ill-will of all around him ; but he wanted those qua- 
lities, as the result shows : and yet, well aware of the 
danger which threatened him, he was always on his 
guard, having sundry loaded pistols and carbines 
always around him, upon and under his carpet. 
Shortly before I arrived, an arrow had been shot 
at him in the evening, while he was sitting in his 
courtyard. 
I have peculiar reason to thank Providence for having 
averted the storm which was gathering over his head 
