BENGAZI. 
287 
or writing, or eating or resting one’s-self, in any part of Bengazi in 
comfort for them ; and if at night they take up their accustomed 
position on the ceiling, and give place to the fleas and mosquitos, 
the first dawn of morning finds them on the wing, and all alive to 
recommence their operations. They are at the same time so watch- 
ful, and so quick in their motions, that it is difficult to succeed in 
kilhng any of them ; we often caught thirty or forty fleas in a morn- 
ing on turning down the bed-clothes with a little attention, and as 
many during the day on different parts of our dress, particularly 
about the legs and ancles ; but the whole collection of flies which 
we could kill in a week would scarcely amount to this number ; 
unless we except those which were caught in the traps which we 
were usually in the habit of setting for them. All hot climates are 
more or less subject to these nuisances ; but it is probable that no 
place on earth wiU be found to abound more in flies than Bengazi ; 
we might perhaps say, that few places could be mentioned where 
so many of them will at any time be observed. 
The situation of Bengazi is, however, much better than so filthy a 
town may be said to deserve. It is built on the coast, close to the 
sea, at the extremity of a beautiful fertile plain, extending itself to 
the foot of a long chain of mountains about fourteen miles distant 
(in this part) to the south-eastward. Plentiful crops of corn and 
vegetables are afforded to the town by the cultivated lands in the 
neighbourhood, and the supplies of beef and mutton are in general 
very regular and abundant. The harbour of Bengazi appears to 
have been formerly capable of containing good-sized vessels, and, 
even in the recollection of some of the present inhabitants, the 
