1807.] 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
pacts relative to the PRESENT STATE of 
the cisy of TRIPOLI; communicated 
in a LETTER from JONATHAN COW- 
DERY, SURGEON Of the late AMERICAN 
FRIGATE PHILADELPHIA, 
Malta, July 10, 1805. 
HANKS to the activity of our navy, 
aud to the efforts of General Eaton 
and his few but valiant men, who much 
attonifhed every Muiiulman in Tripoli, 
and put the whole regency on the point 
of a revolution, we were liberated on 
the 3d of June, for 60,000 dollars, as a 
balance of prioners. 
We lIcft about 200 flaves, who were 
fubjects of the King of Naples, much 
regretting that they could not claim 
fo happy a country as ours, whofe fo- 
vereigmty had the fpirit to deliver its 
Subjects from flavery and inifery. I have 
fince vilited the once opulent and pow- 
erful, but now wretched, Syracufe. 
We arrived here yefterday, and find the 
people of Malta very civil, polite, and 
commercial, and the imnmente fortifica- 
tions filled with Britith troops; * * 7” 
The city of Tripoli ftands on the north 
coult of Africa, m north latitude 52° 54’, 
and longitude eaft from Loudon 13° 11’; 
and is built upon the ruins of the ancient 
Oca, on a fandy fou. It contains about 
40,000 ‘Lurks, 5,000 Jews, and. 1,000 
Roman Catholics and Greeks. » It: has 
eight mofques and one chritian church ; 
forne of the motques are very large, 
The baths are places of confiderable 
refort, on account of the mjunctions of 
Mahomet, which direct the keeping the 
body clean: but I have feen taiany devi- 
ate from this, and rub their bodies with 
dry fand inttead of water. ‘This cuttom, 
I am informed, originated from the pil- 
grims and travellers not being able to 
find water while travelling over the de- 
fert. ‘The Bedouins, a kind of fojourn- 
ing Arabs, and people fram the interior 
of Africa, often prefer this mmperfect 
method of purification, even when water 
is at hand. 
Many of the buildings have the ap- 
pearance of great antiquity, of which 
the Turks can give no account. Among 
them isa Rowan palace aud a triumphal 
arch. ‘The cattle ftands on the water's 
edge, in the north-eatternmott corner of 
the city. Its ramparts are of different 
heights ; on the land fide they are from 40 to - 
80, and on the water fide they are from 35 
to 40 feet in height. ‘Twenty-five pieces 
of brafs ordnance, of different fizes, are 
Monvury Mac., No. 153. 
_ dry) forms a very firm terrace. 
Oi the present State of the City of Tripolt. ® 
mounted on different parts of the caftle, 
to command the city, adjoining country, 
and harbour, Several of the apartments 
in the weft end of the caftle are large, 
cominodions, and airy, ornamented with 
a variety of fine marble, mofaic and fluce 
co work, and richly furnifled in the 
Turkith ftyle. 
Here the Bafhaw receives and holds 
audience with foreign ambaffadors and 
confuls; holds his divan, which he often 
imperioully over-rules; and gives his 
mandates, which are often enforced by 
the moti cruel torture and death. Here 
are a great number of fmaller apart- 
ments; a large open court and {pacious 
gallery, for the accommodation and refi- 
dence of the Bafhaw, his wives, chil- 
dren, and attendauts: here is alfo a 
bomb-proof room, to which the Bafhaw 
flies im times of danger. The apart- 
ments in the eaft end of the caftle are 
fiables for the Bafliaw’s horfes, and pri« 
fons where our officers and myfelf were 
confined, and where the Bafhaw confines 
his hoftages and criminals; and in the 
inidit of which isthe magazine of gun- 
powder, ‘Thefe gloomy manfions of hor- 
ror are in bad repair, full of verrmin, and 
1s the filthieft place im all Tripoli. I was 
taken out of this prifon forne months 
before our liberation, and put on a very 
limited parole, to attend the fick and 
lame of our crew. 
The city, meluding the caftle, is three 
miles-and a half m= circumference. The 
country about Tripoli, nearly to the foot 
of Mount Atlas (which is two days’ jour- 
ney from Tripoli), is all, except the gar- 
dens and orchards near the city, a fandy 
and barren dcfert. The honfes, the ram- 
parts and batteries which furround it, 
are built of the ruins of the ancient 
cities of Oca, Leptis, and Sabrata, which 
are chiefly of marble and a variety of 
other calcareous fiones, and columns of 
granite, mahy of wiuch are very large, 
put together with a cement of lime and 
jand; but without the regularity of fquare, 
plumb-line, or level. The walls are ge- 
nerally white-wafhed with new-flacked 
lime, at the commencement of the Ra- 
wadan or Carnival. ‘The tops of the 
houfes are flat, and covered with a com- 
polition chiefly of lime, which (when 
To ward 
againit the vengeance of their enemies, 
the whole city 1s fire-proof. 
The frefh water uled in Tripoli (ex- 
cept in time of fearcity, or the fear of a 
fiege, when it is brought trom the wells 
in the Defert on mules, ales, and ebril- 
tliat 
y 
