Early the next morning, as we were making the customary preparations for continuing our journey, we perceived that our new camel-drivers had all assembled together, and on being told to bring the camels as usual, not one of them stirred from his place, the whole party exclaming in concert, in no very conciliatory tones, hàt el flūs, hàt el flūs, give us the money. Here was evidently one of those concerted manœuvres which Arabs of all classes are so skilful in practising; but we were at a loss to conjecture its real cause, which is generally very different from the apparent one. At Boosaida, where the camels were hired, we had arranged with the Dúbbah that they should be paid for on arriving at Bengazi; and the camel-drivers themselves, who (with the exception of one) were all his own relations, had certainly understood and agreed to this arrangement. But they were now in a place which was too well adapted to their views to be passed without inventing some scheme for extorting money, a practice which is seldom omitted by an Arab when he thinks there is a proper opportunity for making such an attempt. A more dreary and barren spot could scarcely have been anywhere found than that which our friends here selected; it was at least two days’ journey from any encampment, and wholly without produce of any kind; if we except the rocks and stones of the soil, and the jackalls and hyænas which sheltered themselves among them. It was imagined that being here without any resource, unable to procure either provisions or water, and far from any inhabited place, we should necessarily be induced to comply with whatever demands it might be advisable to make on the occasion. They could not really have been anxious about their money; for they had seen the former camel-drivers punctually paid, and well pleased with the additional gratification which their general good conduct had induced us to make them. But the opportunity was too tempting, and they could not find it in their hearts to pass it over. It is true that had we paid them every day, the supply of money which we had brought with us from Tripoly, for the expenses of the road, would not certainly have lasted us to Bengazi; and there were no means of obtaining any more till our arrival at that place, where we had an order from the Bashaw on the Governor of the town. Neither the camel-drivers, however, or their relation the Dúbbah, were at all aware of the present slenderness of our supply; and it was not because they doubted our ability to pay them that they got up the scene which was acted at Linoof, but because they thought the opportunity too good to be lost, of getting what money from us they could. Whatever may have been their object, we were determined not to comply with it, and accordingly told them that although we should not have had the least objection to comply with their proposal, had they made it in a more proper manner, yet the insubordination and the insolence