Feb. 5th. The next day’s journey, which was attended with nothing remarkable, and during which they followed the line of the coast, brought them to Zuleteen, an inconsiderable town, where they found that a boat, to which a part of their baggage was intrusted, had been compelled by a storm to deposit her cargo. From this circumstance, and the necessity which followed it, of hiring six additional camels for their goods, the departure of the caravan on the next day (February 6th) was retarded till two o’clock in the afternoon. At the end of the first hour’s march, they were informed by some friendly Arabs, who were moving their tents and cattle, for the sake of protection, to the suburbs of the town, that on the preceding afternoon a party of the rebel tribe of Hooled Bensoliman, from the neighbouring hills, had attacked a small caravan belonging to Mesurata, and after killing four of the people, had carried off the camels and baggage:—and they were also informed, that on that very morning two men, who were going from Mesurata to the market, which is held at some distance from the town, were robbed and killed by the same party. At this news a Council was summoned to determine on the prudence of attempting to proceed; for the Shereefs began to distrust the sufficiency of that title to an exemption from the violence of war, on which, when the danger was distant, they had so confidently relied. The opinion of Mr. LUCAS being asked, he observed, that as the party which committed the depredations were described as not more than forty or fifty in number, and were consequently much too weak to resist the detachment that, they must be sure, would be sent from Mesurata to revenge the violences of which they had been guilty, he had not the smallest doubt of their being already returned to the refuge of their mountains; but that at any rate, their own numbers, considering how well they were armed, were amply sufficient to defend them from the attacks of such petty marauders. Pleased with an opinion which gave them the prospect of but little danger, they fresh primed their muskets and pistols, and singing as they went, drove merrily on. At six o’clock they encamped upon a hill directly opposite to the enemy’s mountains, that were now within twelve or fifteen miles; and having lighted, by Mr. LUCAS’s advice, about seventy fires, for which the dry brush-wood that was near them furnished the means, they had soon the satisfaction of observing, that the fires of the enemy, who probably mistook them for the troops of Mesurata, were all extinguished.