On the day appointed for the interview, we proceeded to the palace of His Highness, accompanied by the Consul and Captain Smyth. The streets through which we had to pass, on our way to the Castle, were by no means fit approaches to a regal abode; they were encumbered with the rubbish of houses fallen into ruin, and with the superfluous produce of those which were yet standing; while swarms of little naked and dirty children, and numerous groups of hungry, half-starved dogs, almost blocked up the little space which was left for our passage. The dust which was unavoidably raised in our progress, together with the heat of the sun, and the myriads of gnats and flies which assailed us in every direction, were no grateful additions to these inconveniences; and we were heartily glad to find ourselves before the gates of the Castle, where a part of the Bashaw’s guard was drawn out in due form to receive us. After paying our respects to the Kechia[2], (who was seated at the end of the skeefa, or entrance hall,) we were ushered along a dark and narrow passage, so irregular and uneven under foot, that we were in danger of falling at almost every step[3], and having passed at intervals several Tchaouses and soldiers, who were barely discernible through the gloom, we found ourselves at length in a spacious apartment, where a motley crowd of Christians, Turks, Arabs, and Jews, were assembled to wait His Highness’s leisure. We had not been long here before it was announced to us that the Bashaw was prepared to receive us; and, on approaching the presence, we found His Highness seated, with all due solemnity, at the farther end of the apartment, attended by his third son, Sidy Ali, by Reis Moràt[4], who acted as interpreter, and by other principal officers of the Court. A formidable line of well-armed black soldiers were ranged along the walls of the room, who stood exactly like so many statues, each with a loaded blunderbuss, held with the muzzle pointed downwards; and close to the Bashaw’s person was a trusty black slave, who held in readiness His Highness’s pistols. The introduction of armed soldiers into the presence-chamber of a Sovereign was rather a novel sight to Europeans, and may be taken as an example of the extremely barbarous state in which the Regency of Tripoly, with all its recent improvements, must still be admitted to remain.