When I told him that English women were allowed to have money in their own power, and that some of them had immense fortunes, he seemed scarcely to credit me. He was much astonished at being told, that young men often did not marry until they had arrived at 25 or 30 years of age: this he considered as highly improper; but in some degree reconciled it to his way of thinking, by supposing that they must, in that case, have a great number of concubines, and that they only married those who brought them children. He did not find fault with our customs in that respect, as he had, himself, only one wife; but he had 50 Negresses, which was considered a very moderate allowance for a Sultan of Fezzan. He frequently asked me how natural children were disposed of, when it was requisite to conceal their birth from the parents of the offending parties. His pointed manner of questioning me on this subject led me to some suspicion of his motives for the inquiry; and I afterwards discovered, from several of his people, that he invariably caused to be strangled all babes born of his Negresses by other men, and that it was the general custom at Tripoli, to poison illegitimate infants in the womb. The mother of little Yussuf, his son, had a child about a year since, perfectly black. Mukni being satisfied it could not be his, sent for the suspected father, and made him strangle the infant: the mother was allowed to return to her own country, which was considered a great piece of lenity, death being usually the punishment for such an offence.