s, 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.

The military force by which the Turks hold possession of this vast but
thinly-peopled territory--stretching north and south twenty-one days'
journey, or about three hundred miles--is the very inconsiderable number
of six hundred and thirty men. The garrison of Mourzuk itself consists
of four hundred and thirty men, of whom about one-half are Fezzanees,
twenty or thirty Turks, and the residue Arabs or Moors. The remaining
three hundred are Arab cavaliers, living chiefly on their own means, and
changed every year, who serve as a flying corps, or mounted police, for
all the districts of Fezzan. The rate of pay for this latter class is
one kail of wheat and half a mahboub per month for those who have no
horses, and one kail of dates additional for those who are mounted. This
division, however, is fastidious at present, as all those on service in
Fezzan are now possessed of horses. In the whole regency of Tripoli
there are but six hundred and sixty of these Arab soldiers; but in
Bonjem and the Syrtis they are not cavalry, and the detachment at
Ghadamez is mixed.[3] I am afraid these janissaries are obliged to
commit spoliations in the towns and districts where they are stationed
to avoid starvation.

[3] The distribution of the corps is as follows:--

In Gibel 150
Fezzan 200
The Syrtis 150
Bonjem 60
Ghadamez 100

I visited the barrac