be spared, and an offer, on that condition, to submit to any terms which the Alcaid should desire to impose. The Alcaid accordingly demanded, and received, as hostages for their future conduct, twenty of their principal people, with whom, and with all the plunder which the country afforded, he returned in triumph to Fezzan. There the King entertained them with kindness, and under a promise that their nation should acknowledge him as their _Sovereign_, and should annually pay to him a tribute of twenty camel loads of senna, made them valuable presents; and with strong impressions on their minds, of the generous treatment which they had received, sent them back to Tibesti. From that period no attempt to molest his caravans has been made by the mountaineers; and though they neither acknowledge the King of Fezzan for their Sovereign, nor pay him any tribute, yet they bring the whole of their senna to Mourzouk for sale, where it is purchased to great advantage by the King, and is afterwards sold, on his account, at the market of Tripoli. An occasional visit to the Court of Fezzan is paid by their Chief, who is always received with great hospitality, and after a residence of a few weeks, is dismissed, with a present of a long robe. The vales of Tibesti are fertile in corn, and pasturage for cattle, of which they have numerous herds, and are particularly celebrated for their breed of camels, which are esteemed the best in Africa. For this fertility they are indebted to the water of the innumerable springs that amply compensate for the want of rain, which seldom, if ever, falls within the limits of Tibesti. Huts of the simplest construction (for they are formed of stakes driven into the ground in a circular arrangement, and covered with the branches of trees and brushwood intermixed) compose the dwellings of the people. In return for the senna and the camels which they sell in Fezzan, they bring back coral, alhaiks, or barakans, Imperial dollars, and brass, from the two last of which articles they manufacture the rings and bracelets which are worn by their women. Among the natives of Tibesti different religions are professed; for some of them are Mahometans, and others continue attached to their antient system of Idolatry. ~CHAPTER V.~ _Mode of Travelling in Africa._ * * * * * The mode of travelling in Africa is so connected with the commerce, and therefore with the manners of its principal nations, that without some knowledge of the _former_, a description of the two _latter_ cannot be clearly understood. [Sidenote: The shereef Imhammed.] [Sidenote: Ben Alli.] [Sidenote: Lucas.]