COMMUNICATIONS, 
59 
their native country ; and of twenty-one camels, with fifteen 
drivers, each of whom was armed with a mufket and a pilloL ^ 
That fo few camels were requilite in this part of the journey, 
was owing to the expedient which the Shereefs, with great oeco- 
nomy, had adopted, of fending their heavy merchandize by fea 
to Mefurata. 
At twelve o'clock, the caravan, whofe courfe was E. S. E. 
palTed through the town of Tajarah, a miferable colleftion of clay« 
walled huts, of which fome were covered with terrace, and the 
reft with roofs of thatch : but wretched as the buildings are, the 
country around them abounds with date trees, among which a 
few of the olive are intermixed. 
At five the caravan encamped for the night upon a fandy 
eminence. No fooner were the camels unburthened of their loads, 
than their drivers turned them loofe to feed on the ftubble of the 
valleys, and on the brambles of the adjacent hills ; but though 
their freedom is thus given them, they never ftray to a greater 
diftance than that of two or three hundred paces from the camp. 
The loads in the mean time are piled in a circle, and, except 
at the narrow opening which forms the entrance, are flowed as 
I 2 clofe 
