4'8 
-M^- LUCAS'S 
on the South, are interefthig objeds ; but the town itfelf is built 
in too low a fituation to compofe a part of the general fcene : for 
it is fcarcely vifible at the diilance of a mile. 
The {ud appearance of Tripoli may difappoint, by its mean- 
nefs, the expeftations of the traveller; but if he reflefts on the 
nature of a defpotic government, ever incompatible with per- 
manent profperity, he will not be furprized when he finds, on a 
nearer view, that the city, though the capital of an empire, ex- 
hibits through all its extent, the marks of a rapid decay ; that its 
fcanty limits, though fcarcely four miles in circumference, are 
too great for its prefent population ; and that its antient caftle, 
though once the pride, and ftill the refidence, of the reigning 
family, is now a mouldering ruin. 
The expeded ceremonial of announcing to the Bafliaw, which 
is the title of the Sovereign, and to the Conful of the State, to 
whom the veflel belongs, her arrival in the harbour, having been 
regularly obferved, Mr. Lucas, accompanied by Mr. Tully, the 
Britifli Refident, waited on Hadgee Abdrahaman, the Tripoline 
Minifter for Foreign Affairs, who had formerly refided in Eng- 
land as Ambaffador from the Bafliaw ; and having known Mr. 
Lucas there, received him now with the joy of an old acquain- 
tance, 
