Feb. 22.—Boo-Khaloom came to us this morning, after seeing the sheikh, and said, “that he had explained to him our anxiety to see every thing, and take home the skins of birds, and gather the plants that appeared most interesting to us, and to take notes of what we saw.” The sheikh’s reply was, that “we, or any of our countrymen, whom the bashaw thought proper to send, should be welcome to see any part of his dominions, but that out of them he could not suffer us at present to go.” Boo-Khaloom, who was fully aware of the ulterior objects we had in view, and whose advice I always found dictated by an anxious desire to serve us, was of the greatest use, from his intimate acquaintance with the dispositions of the people; and he was of opinion that we should, in the first instance, be satisfied with this offer of the sheikh, and not alarm him, by declaring too abruptly all our intentions. Accustomed as they are to plunder, and to be plundered, at the sight of strangers, apparently possessing superior powers, and superior weapons to themselves, their alarm is not to be wondered at; and when these strangers were represented to them as having come from a distance almost beyond their belief, for purposes they could not in the least comprehend the importance of, it required extreme delicacy and great management to tranquillize their minds, and obtain their confidence. A report had gone abroad, that one of our purposes was to build ships, in which we should embark on the lake, return to our own country, and then that the white people would come and destroy them all. For these reports we had, I have no doubt, to thank some of the Mourzuk merchants who had preceded us; and whose frequent visits were as injurious to our stores as their advice would have been to our interests, had not circumstances prevented the latter from being acted upon. Boo-Khaloom assured us “these reports had gained considerable ground, but that he had explained to the sheikh how unfounded they were; and what we proposed doing here was what had been done during the last year by the bashaw’s permission, in many parts of the regency of Tripoli.”