take that route. This would have acted as a check upon the slave-trade;
but the influence of the Gadamsee merchants was too great to allow the
measure to be carried out. It is most important that the legitimate
trade should not be burdened with double custom-dues, and it is to be
hoped that the influence of the British Government will be used to bring
about some reform in this matter. We should bear in mind, that as most
of the goods and merchandise passing through Fezzan are only in transit,
they are therefore legally subject to a duty of no more than three per
cent.

I have paid as much attention to this subject of the encouragement of
the legitimate trade as my time and other occupations would allow me. It
will be as well to make a note here on another point, though it may seem
out of place,--the existence of sulphur in the Syrtis. There appears no
doubt that this substance can be procured at the foot of a mountain
called Gebel Sinoube, about six miles from the sea at the innermost
point of the Syrtis. A considerable quantity is obtained by the Arabs
near this mountain, about eighteen camel-hours south-west from a place
on the coast called Maktar, the eastern limits of the district Syrt.
There is also good sulphur found in the Gebel-Harouj, five or six days
east from Sokna. But what is really the per-centage of pure sulphur on
the rough masses of the mines is not ascertained; nor is the quality
precisely known, except that of the Harouj mountain. Accurate
information could only be procured by despatching a trustworthy Sicilian
miner to make a report. Perhaps these mines could only be brought into
profitable working in the event of the stoppage of a supply from Sicily.
It has been proposed to establish a colony of Maltese at Zafran, on the
shore of the Syrtis. If this idea were carried out, the sulphur mines
might by this means be brought into play.