may be pronounced almost destitute of inhabitants; except where the scanty vegetation which appears in certain spots, affords pasturage for the flocks of a few miserable Arabs, who wander from one well to another. In other places, where the supply of water and pasturage is more abundant, small parties of the Moors have taken up their residence. Here they live, in independent poverty, secure from the tyrannical government of Barbary. But the greater part of the Desert, being totally destitute of water, is seldom visited by any human being; unless where the trading caravans trace out their toilsome and dangerous route across it. In some parts of this extensive waste, the ground is covered with low stunted shrubs, which serve as landmarks for the caravans, and furnish the camels with a scanty forage. In other parts, the disconsolate wanderer, wherever he turns, sees nothing around him but a vast interminable expanse of sand and sky; a gloomy and barren void, where the eye finds no particular object to rest upon, and the mind is filled with painful apprehensions of perishing with thirst. rounded by this dreary solitude, the traveller sees the dead bodies of birds, that the violence of the wind has brought from happier regions; and, as he ruminates on the fearful length of his remaining passage, listens with horror to the voice of the driving blast; the only sound that interrupts the awful repose of the Desert."*

"Sur

The few wild animals which inhabit these melancholy regions, are the antelope and the ostrich; their swiftness of foot

* Proceedings of the African Association, Part I.

enabling them to reach the distant watering-places. On the skirts of the Desert, where water is more plentiful, are found lions, panthers, elephants, and wild boars.

Of domestic animals, the only one that can endure the fatigue of crossing the Desert, is the camel. By the particular conformation of the stomach, he is enabled to carry a supply of water sufficient for ten or twelve days; his broad and yielding foot, is well adapted for a sandy country; and by a singular motion of his upper lip, he picks the smallest leaves from the thorny shrubs of the Desert as he passes along. The camel is, therefore, the only beast of burden, employed by the trading caravans, which traverse the Desert in different directions, from Barbary to Nigritia. As this useful and docile creature has been sufficiently described by systematical writers, it is unnecessary for me to enlarge upon his proprieties. I shall only add, that his flesh, though to my own taste dry and unsavoury, is preferred by the Moors to any other; and that the milk of the female is in universal esteem, and is indeed sweet, pleasant, and nutritive.

I have observed that the Moors, in their complexion, resemble the Mulattoes of the West Indies; but they have something unpleasant in their aspect, which the Mulattoes have not. I fancied that I discovered in the features of most of them, a disposition towards cruelty, and low cunning; and I could never contemplate their physiognomy, without feeling sensible uneasiness. From the staring wildness of their eyes, a stranger would immediately set them down as a nation of lunatics. The treachery and malevolence of their character, are manifested

in their plundering excursions against the Negro villages. Oftentimes, without the smallest provocation, and sometimes, under the fairest professions of friendship, they will suddenly seize upon the Negroes' cattle, and even on the inhabitants themselves. The Negroes very seldom retaliate. The enterprizing boldness of the Moors, their knowledge of the country, and, above all, the superior fleetness of their horses, make them such formidable enemies, that the petty Negro states which border upon the Desert, are in continual terror while the Moorish tribes are in the vicinity, and are too much awed to think of resistance,

Like the roving Arabs, the Moors frequently remove from one place to another; according to the season of the year, or the convenience of pasturage. In the month of February, when the heat of the sun scorches up every sort of vegetation in the Desert, they strike their tents, and approach the Negro country to the south; where they reside until the rains commence, in the month of July. At this time, having purchased corn, and other necessaries from the Negroes, in exchange for salt, they again depart to the northward, and continue in the Desert until the rains are over, and that part of the country becomes burnt up and barren.

This wandering and restless way of life, while it inures them to hardships, strengthens, at the same time, the bonds of their little society, and creates in them an aversion towards strangers, which is almost insurmountable. Cut off from all intercourse with civilized nations, and boasting an advantage over the Negroes, by possessing, though in a very limited degree, the

knowledge of letters, they are at once the vainest and proudest, and, perhaps, the most bigotted, ferocious, and intolerant of all the nations on the earth: combining in their character, the blind superstition of the Negro, with the savage cruelty and treachery of the Arab.

It is probable that many of them had never beheld a white man, before my arrrival at Benowm: but they had all been taught to regard the Christian name with inconceivable abhorrence, and to consider it nearly as lawful to murder a European, as it would be to kill a dog. The melancholy fate of Major Houghton, and the treatment I experienced during my confinement among them, will, I trust, serve as a warning to future travellers to avoid this inhospitable district.

The reader may probably have expected from me a more detailed and copious account of the manners, customs, superstitions, and prejudices, of this secluded and singular people; but it must not be forgotten, that the wretchedness of my situation among them, afforded me but few opportunities of collecting information. Some particulars, however, might be added in this place; but being equally applicable to the Negroes to the southward, they will appear in a subsequent page.

CHAPTER XIII.

Ali departs for Jarra, and the Author allowed to follow him thither.-The Author's faithful Servant, Demba, seized by Ali's Order, and sent back into Slavery.-Ali returns to his Camp, and permits the Author to remain at Jarra, who, thenceforward, meditates his Escape.-Daisy, King of Kaarta, approaching with his Army towards Jarra, the Inhabitants quit the Town, and the Author accompanies them in their Flight.—A Party of Moors overtake him at Queira.-He gets away from them at Daybreak:-is again pursued by another Party, and robbed; but finally effects his Escape.

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HAVING,

AVING, as hath been related, obtained permission to accompany Ali to Jarra, I took leave of Queen Fatima, who with much grace and civility, returned me part of my apparel; and the evening before my departure, my horse, with the saddle and bridle, were sent me by Ali's order.

Early on the morning of the 26th of May, I departed from the camp of Bubaker, accompanied by my two attendants, Johnson and Demba, and a number of Moors on horseback; Ali, with about fifty horsemen, having gone privately from the camp during the night. We stopped about noon at Farani, and were

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