EASTERN CONSULATES. 
119 
sent Saltan of the Haghar Tuaricks is called 
Ghamama. 
One of our party, who undertook to accompany 
us to take the management of the boat, has not 
proved equal to the occasion ; and I have therefore 
written to Tripoli, to request that two Moorish 
sailors, of Jerbah if possible, should be sent up by 
the direct route to Bornou. I had almost engaged 
a very excellent person at Tripoli, the captain of the 
vessel in which I arrived ; but when he called at the 
Consulate on the subject, some minor official ordered 
him off with a contemptuous " Barra ! barra !" and 
he accordingly yielded to the solicitations of his crew 
and embarked without seeing me. There is too 
much of this self-sufficiency and off-handedness in 
all Consulates in the Levant, where a grain of au- 
thority is apt at once to magnify a man, in his own 
estimation, into a mighty potentate. I regret my 
Jerbine captain very much; he originally volunteered 
to accompany us, and entered into my plans with an 
enthusiasm and intelligence rare among Muslims. 
These small details of our expedition are inte- 
resting to me to record, though probably many will 
think them superfkious. Perhaps they will serve 
to give a true idea of the magnitude of the under- 
taking, and of the great responsibility which weighed 
upon me, and thus prove an anticipatory excuse for 
any accusation of shortcoming or dilatoriness that 
may be preferred against me. I will not, however, 
enter further into the business-details of the expedi- 
