As soon as this visit of ceremony was over, we began to employ our time, which, on account of the heavy rains, was necessarily passed in doors, in putting together the materials which we had collected on our route, in making some arrangements for improving the condition of our horses, of which they stood much in need, and in preparing provisions and other necessaries which were required for our journey to the eastward. In these pursuits we were materially assisted by the vice-consul and his brother, Mr. Giacomo Rossoni, to both of whom our thanks are particularly due, as well on these as on many other occasions. Our time, though we passed it as agreeably as we could, nevertheless often hung very heavy on our hands; and we soon found that Bengazi was a residence which we should quit with very little regret. There is not a single place of public resort or amusement in any part of this gloomy abode: its inhabitants idle or sleep away the greater part of their time, without appearing to entertain the slightest desire of improving their comfortless and miserable condition, or of enlivening the monotony of their pursuits. Turkish towns are not in general remarkable for gaiety, and we did not expect to find theatres or assembly-rooms; but there is usually a good deal of amusement to be derived from occasional visits to the coffee-shops and bazaars, and not unfrequently some useful information. These resources, however, were not afforded us at Bengazi; for there is nothing of the kind there that we felt an inclination to visit a second time. Strangers who arrive there may indeed find a shelter from the weather, in a place well known to Mahometans as the Fundook, a temporary place of reception and partial accommodation. We once, and once only, took occasion to visit this place; and on entering it through the aperture of a broken door, we found ourselves in a long arched room, in which there was scarcely sufficient light to show us where to place our feet, a precaution which was nevertheless highly essential. Here we perceived the remains of a charcoal fire, which had been kindled on the well-smoked capital of a marble column, and a greasy Arab stretched close to it on the ground, snoring amid the folds of his barracan. The building itself was of some antiquity, though not apparently older than the worst time of the lower empire, the roof being supported upon small columns of execrable taste, and the other parts of the building in no better style. The exterior had undergone some repair from time to time, but no attention whatever had been paid to the chamber within, not even that of removing the dirt and filth which was collected there; and the consequence was, that the level of the floor reached two-thirds of the way up the columns. We need scarcely add, that whatever attractions this place may have had for an Arab, it had little allurement for us; and we should have laid ourselves down, without the least hesitation,