250 TRAVELS IN BARBARY. 
Zapatapa, or keeper of the seals, and the com- 
mander of the army, are both Georgian slaves ; 
and the guardian of the captives, a post of great 
profit and dignity, is a Neapolitan renegado. 
Tripoli groans under a much severer tyranny. 
At the commencement of the present century, 
Hamet the Great freed that state from the Turk- 
ish yoke, by an indiscriminate and barbarous mas- 
sacre of all the chiefs of that nation. His vigor- 
ous and active administration not only rendered 
Tripoli independent, but established its power over 
the neighbouring tribes. The crown became no 
longer elective, but descended in a regular line 
through his family. At the time when Mr Tully 
and his family resided there, the Basha had reigned 
in a very mild manner for nearly thirty years, and 
Tripoli had assumed, in a great measure, the tran- 
quil and orderly aspect of an European state. 
The seeds of disorder, however, were already at 
work. The Basha's eldest son, called the Bey, 
was of a mild and respectable character ; but a 
younger brother, Sidi Useph, or Jussuf, was deep*- 
ly stained with all the vices of treachery, avarice, 
and cruelty, which spring so copiously in this re- 
gion. He rendered himself formidable, by select- 
ing from among the wild Arabs of the neighbour- 
hood, and the negro slaves, a band, who were 
ready to second him in every desperate enterprise. 
A violent dissension, fostered by opposition of 
