BENGAZI. 
301 
colours they are less liable to molestation from the Greeks. Besides 
these articles, oxen are well known to constitute a great portion of 
the trade of Bengazi, and many vessels are kept constantly employed 
in transporting them to Malta and other places during the summer 
months. If the wind prove favourable, and the passage be quickly 
made, the profits to all parties are great ; but it sometimes happens 
that, from violent or contrary winds, or from the vessel being ill 
calculated for the cargo, and more frequently from there being too 
great a number of these poor animals crowded inconsiderately 
together, that so many oxen die from thirst and suffocation, from 
bruises, and occasionally from drowning, as to render the profits of 
the voyage very trifling. 
The cattle are chiefly driven from the neighbourhood of Gy- 
rene, where their original cost is from six to eight dollars a head ; 
some expenses, of course, are incurred on the road, but these are 
amply covered by the price of ten and thirteen dollars, at which sum 
the oxen are furnished to the captains of the bullock-vessels : the 
master, again, being fully compensated by a contract of about 
eighteen dollars a head at Malta. 
The prospect of fine weather very often induces the captain to 
take on board as many as there is standing-room for in his vessel, on 
both upper and lower deck, in both of which the poor animals are 
jammed as close as they can possibly be stowed. The sufferings of 
the oxen in hot and oppressive weather, taken at once from the 
invigorating atmosphere of their native mountains, and exposed to 
the thick and almost suffocating steam (proceeding from their own 
