It may easily be conceived, from these relations, what consternation and dismay is excited among the inhabitants of a cultivated country by the appearance of a large swarm of locusts. The mischief, however, occasioned at Mesurata by those which we have mentioned above, was not by any means so great, we are happy to say, as might have been reasonably expected: and the Arabs of the place were soon as busily employed in eating their formidable invaders, as they had at first been in preserving their crops from experiencing a similar fate. On the 2nd December, after repeated promises and disappointments, our camels at length arrived; and having made suitable presents to Shekh Belcazi and his son, we prepared to continue our journey. We had few difficulties to encounter in our dealings with the people of Mesurata; and we must confess that we found in their Shekh, notwithstanding his occasional evasions, more openness and honesty than are usually met with in the inhabitants of Mahometan countries. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: Υεται γαρ δηταυτα της Λιβυης.] [Footnote 2: The saint and his tomb are thus mentioned by Captain Lyon:— “This place (Zelīten) is particularly blessed in possessing the remains of a great Marábūt, who is buried in a really handsome mosque, ornamented with minarets and neat cupolas, and whitewashed all over. His descendants are much respected, and are called Weled el Sheikh, sons of the elder; they think themselves authorized to be the most impudent, begging set of people in the whole regency of Tripoly.” (P. 335.)] [Footnote 3: It must be observed, that the opportunity of being buried in a mosque does not offer itself to many Marábūts—their tombs in general are small, insulated buildings, surmounted with a single cupola, having nothing to recommend them, in point of appearance, beyond the neatness and regularity which usually distinguish them. They are commonly built on eminences.]