TRIPOLY TO BENGAZI. 
7 
offered to ensure our arrival at that place, and our return in perfect 
safety to Tripoly, provided we would place ourselves entirely under 
his directions ; allowing, of course, for ill health, as well as for such 
accidents as could not be foreseen, and may happen to any one in 
travelling across the desert. As Timbuctoo, however, formed no 
part of the object of our mission, this offer was naturally declined ; 
and we merely mention it here as one which may be worth consi- 
deration, should any future traveller decide upon attempting this 
journey by way of Tripoly. 
Our next care was to provide ourselves with the dress of the 
country, which was strongly recommended to us by our Mahometan 
friends, and which, indeed, on the former experience of one of our 
party, we had before proposed to adopt. The opinion of Colonel 
Warrington was in favour of the European costume ; but as we sup- 
posed it to have been founded on the experience of journeys in the 
neighbourhood of Tripoly only, within the immediate range of the 
Bashaw’s authority, and in places where the natives are more accus- 
tomed to the dress ; we thought it most advisable to adopt the advice 
of our Turkish friends, which we knew to be formed on an extensive 
acquaintance with the prejudices, manners, and customs of the Arabs: 
this opinion, besides, had the additional recommendation of being 
quite in unison with our own ; and it is probably not unknown to 
some of our readers that a similar coincidence has usually its 
weight in decisions of much more importance. The experience of 
our journey through the Syrtis and Cyrenaica confirmed us still more 
decidedly in our former opinion ; and as the propriety of adopting 
