VISIT MUSTAPHA AGHA. 
99 
out which true discipline is impossible. However, 
we at length got within the gate, and the procession 
poured along the streets, the women loo-looing as 
we passed, the bagpipes shrieking louder than ever, 
the crowd buzzing, the horses thundering, the cava- 
liers shouting. In fine, this hubbub carried us 
quite back into the regions of civilisation, where 
men collect on public occasions often without any 
real joy, and by mere process of action and reaction 
succeed in working themselves up into a state of 
boisterous enthusiasm. 
Several days were now chiefly occupied in writ- 
ing reports on the progress made by the expedition 
hitherto ; and in voluminous correspondence on 
petty matters — petty, I mean, in themselves, but 
very important to us — all connected with our future 
proceedings. I forwarded to the Foreign Office a 
letter addressed by the Sultan Laoul, of the Tib- 
boos of Bilma, to Mr. Gagliuffi. It appears these 
people are now nominally subject to the Ottoman 
Porte. 
\2th. — We went to pay a visit to Mustapha 
Agha, my old friend of Ghadamez. He received 
us with all the honours — a guard of officers, pipes, 
coffee, and sherbet. That important subject of 
health was a good deal talked of. Mustapha fears 
the climate of Fezzan, and finds little consolation 
in the doctrines of fatalism. He seemed surprised 
at the bulk of the despatches last forwarded from the 
Consulate, and asked if we all knew how to write. 
He cannot understand the necessity of minute 
