“On Saturday the 18th June I started by carriage to travel along the coast as far as Sfax (‘the City of Cucumbers’). When between Susa and the Roman amphitheatre of El Djem I sat down under an olive-tree while my horses were resting. In a few minutes about thirty Arabs of the Mitelit tribe, accompanied by two Sheikhs, gathered round me. They first wanted to know to what nation I belonged, and when I told them, their spokesman answered that ‘Englishmen were friends of the Arabs,’ and began to talk unreservedly of their feelings and intentions. ‘We are all ready to fight against the French,’ he said, ‘though we know quite well they are more powerful than we are; but at any rate we shall die gloriously and enter Paradise!’ He added that a deputation from the Hamáma, Zlass, and Neffet tribes had already asked their (the Mitelits’) co-operation in case the French troops should enter Kairwán or interfere with that portion of the country. They said also that they had secured the cordial support of the Mourabats (Almoravides) at Kairwán, and would all take the field as soon as they fixed on a competent leader. One of the Sheikhs mentioned that Ali Ben Hlifa (Caid of Neffet) had already declared himself on the side of the Arabs, and that the Bey had sent a commission, or _sengiak_, to each clan, consisting of ten irregular soldiers under a sergeant-major, to ascertain their intentions. As the persons forming these commissions undoubtedly sympathise with the Arabs, they will as a matter of course echo the hackneyed phrase that ‘tranquillity reigns everywhere,’ and conceal what is really going on, if they do not actually promote it.