INTRODUCTION TO CHAPTER IV.

An account has already been given of the opportunity which the length of his residence in Mesurata afforded to Mr. Lucas, of obtaining from the Shereef Imhammed a description of the Kingdom of Fezzan, and of such of the countries beyond it to the South as the Shereef himself had visited.

But though this intelligent stranger had no discoverable motive for deception, yet as the solitary evidence of any individual excites but a dubious belief, Mr. Lucas was anxious to learn from the Governor of Mesurata, who had formerly travelled to Fezzan, his idea of the truth of the Narrative. With this view he asked and received the Governor’s permission to read to him the memorandums that the repeated conversations of Imhammed had enabled him to make.

“The Shereef’s Account of Fezzan,” said the Governor, “my own knowledge confirms; and many of the particulars which he relates of Bornou and Cashna I have heard from the report of others. His countrymen say that he is better acquainted with both than any other individual among them; and such is the opinion which the King himself entertains of his probity, knowledge, and talents, that to his management is always entrusted whatever business in either of those empires his Sovereign has to transact.”

But while Mr. Lucas, with a prudent and laudable caution, was thus endeavouring to ascertain the truth of the Shereef’s account, another, and perhaps more decisive test of its value was fortunately obtained in England.—For, before the return of Mr. Lucas, or the arrival of his papers, the Committee of the Association, assisted by Mr. Dodsworth, (whose residence of fourteen years in Barbary had given him a competent knowledge of Arabic) had procured from Ben Alli, a native of Morocco, at that time in London, an account of all those countries to the South of the Desart of Zahara, which, in the course of his extensive Travels as a Merchant, he had formerly visited: and though his remarks appear to be those of a superficial Observer, who possesses activity of spirit rather than energy of mind, and whose remembrance of what he saw is impaired by the lapse of near twenty years; yet, (as will be seen in the following pages) the general conformity of his description of Bornou to that which the Shereef has given, has an obvious tendency to strengthen the credit of the latter.

This short account of the nature of the only external evidence that has yet been obtained in support of the following Narrative seemed to be due from the Committee; but in what degree that evidence is impressive of belief, or what internal marks of authenticity the Work itself may afford, the judgment of others must decide; for on these points, it is evident that each individual must determine for himself. In forming his opinion, however, it is requisite he should know, that while the most anxious attention has been given to the faithful preservation of the sense of the Original, an entire change has been made in its language and arrangement; a change which, the obvious advantage of methodizing conversations, as desultory as they were numerous, of separating the blended accounts of unconnected objects, and of uniting a variety of broken and detached descriptions of the same thing, has unavoidably occasioned.