2 
JOURNEY FROM 
of a Mediterranean climate ; and the whole together, viewed 
under favourable impressions, gave to Tripoly an appearance of 
much more interest and importance than it was afterwards found 
to have deserved. 
The reception which we experienced from Mr. Warrington, the 
British Consul-General at Tripoly, was friendly and attentive in the 
extreme ; and, on our landing, the consulate was assigned to us as a 
residence, which he obligingly left at our disposal. The arrival of 
our party was now signified officially to the Bashaw, who appointed 
a day to receive us ; being at the time indisposed, on account of the 
operation of burning, which he had undergone as a cure for the 
rheumatism His Highness was provided with a skilful European 
physician, who had been for some time attached to his person and 
to the court ; but the prejudices of his country were too strong to 
be overcome by reason, and the remedies of Dr. Dicheson gave way 
to the popular superstition. 
On the day appointed for the interview, we proceeded to the 
palace of His Highness, accompanied by the Consul and Captain 
Smyth. The streets through which we had to pass, on our way to 
* The practice of cautei-y is well known to be generally adopted, and confidently 
depended upon, by the Arabs and Moors, as an effectual remedy for almost every dis- 
order. The custom may be traced to a very remote period, and is alluded to by 
Herodotus, (Melpomene, 187,) as peculiar to the Libyan Nomades, the early inhabitants 
of a considerable part of the coast of Northern Africa. The remedy is indeed too 
indiscriminately applied, but is not, however, unfrequently productive of good effects. 
We were assured by a man at Bengazi, that he had been cured three times of the plague 
by the mere application of a hot iron to the tumours which attend the disease ; and if 
we might judge from the dreadful scars which remained, his attacks were by no means 
slight ones. 
