Mourzuk itself, the seat of the Pashalic,—­distant about four hundred and twenty miles from Tripoli, in a straight line, and five hundred, counting the sinuosities of the road, via Benioleed, Bonjem, and Sockna,—­is a rising town, becoming daily more salubrious by the improvements made since the residence of the Turks here, and the subjection of the inhabitants to a more orderly and powerful government than they had been accustomed to.  The British Consul, Mr. Gagliuffi, has rendered important aid to the administration, in embellishing the appearance of Mourzuk, and giving it the air and character of a Turkish city of the coast.  Our camel-drivers pretend that it is already superior to Tripoli.  At the Consul’s suggestion a colonnade has been built in the main street, in front of the shops, affording shelter from the fiery rays of the summer sun, as well as being an agreeable place for the natives to lounge under and make their purchases.  He was also the principal promoter of the erection of new barracks for the troops, and the appropriation of a large house as a hospital for the poor.  His last improvement is the plantation of a garden of the choice fruit-trees and vegetables of the coast; and his example has been imitated by the Bim Bashaw, commandant of the troops, who is now laying out a garden in a conspicuous part of the city.

Since the departure of Abd-el-Galeel with his Arab followers, the Walad Suleiman, for the neighbourhood of Bornou, the province of Fezzan has certainly enjoyed profound tranquillity.  But on account of heavy taxation, high customs’ dues, and other clogs to free commerce, the people are sinking deeper and deeper into poverty and wretchedness, and, except in the capital, there is a general retrograde movement.  The Ottoman yoke is a peculiarly heavy one; it keeps the people in order, but it crushes them; and perhaps the Fezzanees may now regret somewhat the wholesome anarchy that distinguished the Arab chieftain’s reign.

As I have said, the entire population of the ten districts of Fezzan is, according to the last Turkish census, only about twenty-six thousand souls, of whom about eleven thousand are males, including the children.  The disproportion of the sexes arises in part from the number of female slaves, in part from the emigration of the men to the commercial countries of the interior, either for temporary gain, or permanently to escape from the grinding weight of taxation.

The whole amount of revenue collected by the Government is estimated at fifty thousand mahboubs per annum.  Twenty-three thousand of these are raised by direct taxation, whilst the remainder is produced by customs’ dues and the date-palm groves, which are the property of Government.