Note 9 — Chapter XI

Previously to these measures, the town was constantly subject to the attacks of the neighbouring tribes of marauding Arabs, who, as occasion offered, made incursions into it without ceremony, and retired with their plunder into the interior. The garrison and citizens opposed them as well as they could, and many a desperate skirmish frequently ensued; but as Bengazi is unprovided with walls, it was difficult to prevent a surprise, and the people lived in continual fear. Mahommed Bey began by building a round fort on the sandy tract to the eastward of the town, and then collecting his forces, carried the war into their territory, and after making severe examples of the most refractory, succeeded in reducing the Bedouins to subjection.