On the same day, Captain Smyth wrote to the secretary of the Admiralty, as follows:
“Sir,– I have the honor to acquaint you, for the information of my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, that I arrived at this port on the 10th instant; but as his Highness the Bashaw was confined to his chamber by a severe attack of rheumatism, I was unable to see him for several days. On the 15th, however, I accompanied Colonel Warrington to an audience, when his Highness was pleased to express himself particularly gratified at my return to the Regency, after so long an absence; and on our introducing the Messrs. Beechey to him, he in the kindest manner promised his protection and assistance to their undertaking, and repeating bis former professions to me, made all the necessary arrangements I could desire.
“In the afternoon, I disembarked the four small field-pieces I had brought from England, at the cove under the castle, and saluted the Bashaw and his family, who were sitting in a balcony overlooking them; and having harnessed some stout mules, put them through various evolutions: and on the whole his Highness was so much gratified, that he sent a sabre to the gunner, and five hundred piastres as a present for the seamen and marines who had landed. I am the more minute in these particulars in order to ground my conviction, that, from the Bashaw’s predilection for the British, and his personal esteem for our Consul-General, any views of my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, respecting discoveries in the Regency, may be easily put in execution. But a practical knowledge of Turkish character is a great requisite in the explorers; and they should suffer themselves to be imposed upon, even with their eyes open, in immaterial points, in order to gain the grand objects: for the Moors, in particular, being subtle and avaricious, and at the same time ignorant, are extremely addicted to petty chicanery.
“I have the honor to enclose a copy of the instructions I have given Lieutenant Beechey; and I hope, by the time of our arrival at Bengazi and Derna, the plague now raging there will have ceased; if not, I must make such alterations in the arrangements as may appear best calculated for forwarding the objects of the mission. I have the honor to be, &c.
“To J. W. Croker, Esq.”
The subsequent proceedings of the Adventure were reported to the Admiralty in two letters, of which the following are copies:–
