DESCRIPTION OF MOURZUK. 
85 
Ghatroun includes, witliTajerby the most soutli- 
ern place of Fezzan, three small towns. The in- 
habitants are all black, speaking the Tibbooese and 
Bornouese languages, and very little Arabic. The 
other nine districts above enumerated contain a 
mixed race, like the population of Mourzuk ; but 
some of the northern towns are inhabited by people 
of purer blood, with comparatively fair com- 
plexions. 
Mourzuk itself, the seat of the Pashalic, — distant 
about four hundred and twenty miles from Tripoli, 
in a straight line, and five hundred, counting the 
sinuosities of the road, via Benioleed, Bonjem, and 
Sockna, — is a rising town, becoming daily more 
salubrious by the improvements made since the 
residence of the Turks here, and the subjection of 
the inhabitants to a more orderly and powerful 
government than they had been accustomed to. 
The British Consul, Mr. Gagliuffi, has rendered im- 
portant aid to the administration, in embellishing 
the appearance of Mourzuk, and giving it the air 
and character of a Turkish city of the coast. Our 
camel-drivers pretend that it is already superior to 
Tripoli. At the ConsuPs suggestion a colonnade has 
been built in the main street, in front of the shops, 
affording shelter from the fiery rays of the summer 
sun, as well as being an agreeable place for the natives 
to lounge under and make their purchases. He was 
also the principal promoter of the erection of new bar- 
racks for the troops, and the appropriation of a large 
house as a hospital for the poor. His last improve- 
