Among the persons to whom we were introduced by Shekh Mahommed, there were several whose good sense and good feeling would have done credit to a more civilized people; and the time which we spent in their society was often very agreeably passed. They were able to afford us a good deal of information respecting the country to the eastward, and in the interior, which we afterwards found very useful; but they were generally shy in giving an opinion upon affairs of a political nature. They would, however, talk freely of the exploits of Mahommed Bey, who was so instrumental in reducing the country to its present state of tranquillity; and whose sanguinary measures alone procured for Bengazi the security which it now enjoys[9]. We often conversed on the subject of the existing war with the Greeks, and they manifested at all times extreme curiosity to know what part we should take, in the event of the arrival of any Greek vessel off their port. Our answers were always satisfactory to them; and a report of the English being favorably inclined towards the Porte having by some means reached them, we were in subsequent interviews addressed as Sahab, or ally. This confidence in our intentions was not, however, so strongly felt among the lower classes of people; at least it did not appear to have been so on the occasion which we are about to mention. Some vague reports of the successes of the Greeks, and their merciless treatment of the prisoners which they had taken, having reached the people of Bengazi, they became, on a sudden, uncommonly nervous, and were in momentary apprehension of an invasion, and of an indiscriminate slaughter of themselves and their families. The appearance of the Adventure, about this time, on their coast, which had not been visited by a man-of-war for a long time before, together with the arrival, soon after, of our party, whose real objects were for the most part unintelligible to them, added to the circumstance of their having seen us employed in making plans and drawings of their fort and harbour, all contributed to strengthen their suspicions and their fears; and they soon began to consider our residence among them as, in some way, connected with the Greeks. While their minds were thus prepared, it unluckily happened one evening just before sunset, that some hard clouds had formed themselves on the horizon, into shapes which they conceived to resemble ships under sail; the appearance soon excited the greatest alarm, and many an eager eye was fixed upon the formidable armada which imagination had suggested to the terrified Arabs[10]. Before they could be satisfied that there was no foundation for their fears, it was too dark to distinguish anything more; and the greatest confusion very shortly prevailed in every part of Bengazi. The men now began to prepare their fire-arms, and the signal to assemble was everywhere repeated; the women and children running about in