Narrative of a ten years' residence at Tripoli in Africa : from the original correspondence in the possession of the family of the late Richard Tully, Esq. the British consul. Comprising authentic memoirs and anecdotes of the reigning bashaw, his family, and other persons of distinction; also, an account of the domestic manners of the Moors, Arabs, and Turks.

Tully, Richard.

Date:: 1816

Credit: Narrative of a ten years' residence at Tripoli in Africa : from the original correspondence in the possession of the family of the late Richard Tully, Esq. the British consul. Comprising authentic memoirs and anecdotes of the reigning bashaw, his family, and other persons of distinction; also, an account of the domestic manners of the Moors, Arabs, and Turks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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]0 ISLE OF JERBI. LOTUS. referring to them at present, they contribute to interest you considerably more for the part of the world I write from. Most of the cities and towns in the kingdom of Tripoli exhibit many interesting remains which prove their antiquity; Bengazi, which is a very short distance from Tripoli, governed by a Bey, or viceroy, under the Bashaw, is the ancient city of Berenice, built by Ptolemy Philadelphus, 284 years before Christ* Near to Bengazi, at Derne, which is also governed by a Bey from Tripoli, in the village of Rasem, are considerable ruins of a tower and fortifications built by the Vandals. On the coast near Tripoli is the island of Jerbi, known to be the Meninx of the ancients. This island has been in the possession of the Bashaws of Tripoli from the time that the Moors, by burying nearly the whole of their own army and that of their enemy in the sea, drove from it the Duchess of Alva and Medina-Celi, in the fifteenth century. From the island of Jerbi they bring to Tripoli great quantities of fruit, nearly the size of a bean, of a bright yellow when fresh. This fruit is the produce of a tree which grows there, and is said by a French author to be the lotus of the ancients A The Moors call it the Karroob, and with the seeds, or stones of this fruit they weigh diamonds and pearls ; the value of the diamond is ascertained by the number of Karroob stones. A considerable city in the neighbourhood * He says, “ Sur la cote de cette isle, on trouve un arbre appelle par les anciens Lothus, “ qui porte un fruit, de la grosseur d une feve, et, jaune coniine du saffran, qui a un gout si “ exquis, que les Grecs disaient que ceux qui en avoient une fois goute, oublierent leur patrie !” And as the ancient Lotophagi, (a people so called from their feeding on the fruit Lotus), are known to have been that race of inhabitants who lived near the Lesser Syrtes, where this island is, it is more probable this was the fruit known by the name of lotus, than the jubad, or the date, which are found all over Africa, and which some writers have thought to be the lotus. The celebrated Mr. Bruce says, that Gerbi, or Girbo, is the Meninx of the ancients, or the island of the Lotophagi. Ulysses visited this country on his return from the Trojan war Not prone to ill, not strange to foreign guests, They eat, they drink, and nature gives the feast. The trees around them all their fruit produce, Lotos the name ; divine nectareous juice ! (Thence call’d Lotophagi), which whoso tastes, Insatiate riots in the sweet repasts ; Nor other home nor other care intends, But quits his house, his country, and his friends.

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