CHAP. V. 
JOURNEY TO ZUELA. 
207 
them. This place appears to have been once of some consequence, 
but is now nearly in ruins, and has not, I should imagine, above 
five or six hundred inhabitants. At 2 P. M. thermometer 19°. 
The Maraboot sent us a couple of fowls and some bread ; and as 
the Kaid of the town followed the present to know if we were pro- 
perly served, he came in for his share. I observed here, with much 
satisfaction, that Belford seemed quite recovered from his giddi- 
ness, though he remained very thin and weak. 
Dec. 17th. Thermometer 8° SO'. Eaw misty morning, with the 
wind in the north-east. We visited the Gusba, or castle, the ruins 
of which show it to have once been a place of some importance as 
an Arab fortress. The Maraboot informed me that it had been 
built prior to Morzouk, in which case it must be nearly six hundred 
years old. A story is told, that of the asses employed in bringing 
the materials for building it, 500 died before it was finished, of 
mere fatigue. About sixty years ago it was inhabited by a brother 
of the native Sultan's, who governed the eastern provinces, and 
was styled " Sultan el Shirghi," or Sultan of the East. From the 
castle we were enabled to observe that the town stood on a plain, 
bounded to the southward by palms, and from east-south-east to 
west by the Desert. 
The following towns bore thus : El Glaib, south-west three or 
four miles ; Ben Gleif, south-south-west four miles ; Mafen, south- 
half- west eight miles ; Zebbar, south four miles ; and Zaitoon, south- 
east by east seven miles. 
There are four mosques in Traghan, having small mud minarets. 
The houses are many of them large, but are now in ruins, owing to 
the great alteration in the circumstances of their owners. That of 
our friend Yussuf had been one of the best. We had, however, 
a proof of its present altered state, in finding the roof breaking in 
upon us, which obUged us to change our quarters. Three beams 
