I could spare, or that was not absolutely necessary, such as all shells, fossils, minerals, and petrifactions, that I could get at, the counter-cases of my quadrant, telescopes, and clock, and several such like things. Our camels were now reduced to five, and it did not seem that these were capable of continuing their journey much longer. In that case, no remedy remained, but that each man should carry his own water and provisions. Now, as no one man could carry the water he should use between well and well, and it was more than probable that distance would be doubled by some of the wells being found dry; and if that was not the case, yet, as it was impossible for a man to carry his provisions, who could not walk without any burden at all, our situation seemed to be most desperate. The Bishareen alone seemed to keep up his strength, and was in excellent spirits. He had attached himself, in a particular manner, to me, and with a part of that very scanty rag, which he had round his waist, he had made a wrapper, very artificially, according to the manner his countrymen, the Bishareen, practise on such occasions. This had greatly defended my feet in the day, but the pain occasioned by the cold in the night was really scarce sufferable. I offered to free him from the confinement of his left hand which was chained to some one of the company night and day; but he very sensibly refused it, saying, 'Unchain my hands when you load and unload your camels, I cannot then run away from you; for, though you did not shoot me, I should starve with hunger and thirst; but keep me to the end of the journey as you began with me; then I cannot misbehave, and lose the reward which you say you are to give me.' From Umarack we came to Umgwat, a large pool of excellent water, sheltered from the rays of the sun by a large rock. A bird of the duck kind rose from the spring as we арproached, and flying straight west, and rising as he flew, we thought to be a sure proof that his journey was a long one. He vanished from our sight, without descending, or seeking to approach the earth, from which I drew an unpleasant inference, that we were yet far from the Nile. We left the well, and continued along a sandy valley, which is called Waadi Umgwat. This night it was told me that Georgis, and the Turk Ismael, were both so ill, and so desponding, that they had resolved to pursue the journey no further, but submit to their destiny, as they called it, and stay behind and die. It was with the utmost difficulty I could get them to lay aside this resolution; and the next morning I promised they should ride by turns upon one of the camels, a thing that | to divide it, we found it insuffinone of us had yet attempted. cient for our necessities, if Syene On the 25th we alighted at El Haimer where we met a troop of Arabs, all upon camels, who proved to be Ababdé. From them I had the direction from Haimer to Syene, which I found to be N.N.W., or more northerly. On the 26th, when we left Abou Heregi, we had an unexpected entertainment, which filled our hearts with a very short-lived joy. The whole plain before us seemed thick covered with green grass and yellow daisies. We advanced to the place with as much speed as our lame condition would suffer us; but how terrible was our disappointment, when we found the whole of that verdure to consist in senna and coloquintida, the most nauseous of plants, and the most incapable of being substituted as food for man or beast. At nine o'clock in the evening we alighted at Saffieha, which is a ridge of craggy mountains to the S.E. and N.W. The night here was immoderately cold, and the wind north. We were now very near a crisis, one way or the other. Our bread was consumed, so that we had not sufficient for one day more; and though we had camel's flesh, yet, by living so long on bread and water, an invincible repugnance arose either to smell or taste it. As our camels were at their last gasp, we had taken so sparingly of water, that, when we came was even so near as we con ceived it to be. Georgis had lost one eye, and was nearly blind in the other. Ismael and he had both become so stiff by being carried, that they could not bear to set their feet to the ground; and I may say for myself, that, though I had supported the wounds in my feet with a patience very uncommon, yet they were arrived at that height as to be perfectly intolerable, and, as I apprehended, on the point of mortification. The bandage, which the Bishareen had tied about the hollow of my foot, was now almost hidden by the flesh swelling over it. Three large wounds on the right foot and two on the left, continued open, whence a quantity of lymph oozed continually. It was also with the utmost difficulty we could get out the rag, by cutting it to shreds with scissors. The tale is both unpleasant and irksome. Two soles which remained from our sandals, the upper leathers of which had gone to pieces in the sand near Gooz, were tied with a cotton cloth very adroitly by the Bishareen. But it seemed impossible that I could walk farther, even with this assistance, and therefore we determined to throw away the quadrant, telescopes, and timekeeper, and save our lives by riding the camels alternately. But Providence had already decreed that we should not terminate this dangerous journey by our own ordinary foresight and contrivance, but owe it entirely to his visible support and interposition. nor that the camel has within him reservoirs in which he can preserve drink for any number of days he is used to. In those caravans, of long course, which come from the Niger across the desert of Selima, it is said that each camel, by drinking, lays in a store of water that will support him for forty days. I will by no means be a voucher of this account, which carries with it an air of exaggeration; but fourteen or sixteen days, it is well known, an ordinary camel will live, though he hath no fresh supply of water. When he chews the cud, or when he eats, you constantly see him throw, from this repository, mouthfuls of water to dilute his food; and nature has contrived this vessel with such properties, that the water within it never putrifies nor turns unwholesome. It was indeed vapid, and of a bluish cast, but had neither taste nor smell. On the 27th, at half-past five in the morning, we at tempted to raise our camels at Saffieha by every method that we could devise, but all in vain only one of them could get upon his legs, and that one did not stand two minutes till he kneeled down, and could never be raised afterwards. This the Arabs all declared to be the effects of cold; and yet Fahrenheit's thermometer, an hour before day, stood at 42°. Every way we turned ourselves death now stared us in the face. We had neither time strength to waste, nor provisions to support us. We then took the small skins that had contained our water, and filled them as far as we thought a man could carry them with ease; but after all these shifts, there was not enough to serve us three days, at which I had esti-fering, and despair, honour, inmated our journey to Syene, which still however was uncertain. Finding, therefore, the camels would not rise, we killed two of them, and took as much flesh as might serve for the deficiency of bread, and, from the stomach of each of the camels, got about four gallons of water, which the Bishareen Arab managed with great dexterity. It is known to people conversant with natural history, Nothing but death was before our eyes; and in these dreadful moments of pain, suf stead of relieving me, suggested still what was to be an augmentation to my misfortune; the feeling this produced fell directly upon me alone, and every other individual of the company was unconscious of it. The drawings made at Palmyra and Baalbec for the King were, in many parts of them, not advanced farther than the outlines, which I had carried with me, that, if leisure or confinement should happen, I might finish them during my travels in case of failure of other employment, so far at least, that on my return through Italy they might be in a state of receiving further improvement, which might carry them to that perfection I have since been enabled to conduct them. These were all to be thrown away, with other not less valuable papers, and, with my quadrant, telescopes, and time keeper, abandoned to the rude and ignorant hands of robbers, or to be buried in the sands. Every memorandum, every description, sketch, or observations, since I departed from Badjoura and passed the desert to Cosseir, till I reached the present spot, were left in an undigested heap, with our carrion-camels, at Saffieha, while there remained with me, in lieu of all my memoranda, but this mournful consideration, that I was now to maintain the reality of these my tedious perils, with those who either did, or might affect, from malice and envy, to doubt my veracity upon my ipse dixit alone, or abandon the reputation of the travels which I had made with so much courage, labour, danger, and difficulty, and which had been considered so desperate and impracticable to accomplish for more than 2000 years. I would be understood not to mean by this that my thoughts were at such a time in the least disturbed with any reflection on the paltry lies that might be propagated in malignant circles, which has each its idol, and who, meeting, as they say, for the advancement of learning, employ themselves in blasting the fame of those who must be allowed to have surpassed them in every circumstance of intrepidity, forethought, and fair achievement. The censure of these lion-faced and chicken-hearted critics never entered as an ingredient into my sorrows on that occasion, in the sadness of my heart; if I had not possessed a share of spirit enough to despise these, the smallest trouble that occurred in my travels must have overcome a mind so feebly armed. My sorrows were of another kind; that I should, of course, be deprived of a considerable part of an offering I meant as a mark of duty to my Sovereign; that, with those that knew and esteemed me, I should be obliged to run in debt for the credit of a whole narrative of circumstances which ought, from their importance to history and geography, to have a better foundation than the mere memory of any man, considering the time and variety of events which they embraced; and, above all, I may be allowed to say, I felt for my country that chance alone, in this age of discovery, had robbed her of the fairest garland of this kind she ever was to wear, which all her fleets, full of heroes and men of science, in all the oceans they might be destined to explore, were in- | all burst into floods of tears, capable of replacing upon her brow. These sad reflections were mine, and confined to myself. We went five hours and a half this day, and at night came to Waadi el Arab, where are the first trees we had seen since we left El Haimer. On the 28th we left Waadi el Arab, and entered into a narrow defile, with rugged but not high mountains on each side. About twelve o'clock we came to a few trees in the bed of a torrent. Ill as I was, after refreshing myself with my last bread and water, I set out in the afternoon to gain a rising ground. I arrived with great difficulty and pain, on the top of a moderate hill, but was exceedingly disappointed at not seeing the river to the westward; however, the vicinity of the Nile was very evident by the high uniform mountains that confine its torrent when it comes out of Nubia. The evening was still, so that sitting down and covering my eyes with my hands, not to be diverted by external objects, I listened and heard distinctly the noise of waters, which I supposed to be the cataract, but it seemed to the southward of us, as if we had passed it. I was, however, fully satisfied that it was the Nile. I communicated to them this joyful news, which was confirmed by Idris. A cry of joy followed this annunciation. Christians, Moors, and Turks, kissing and embracing one another, and thanking God for his mercy in this deliverance. On the 29th we left Abou Seielat; about nine, we saw the palm-trees at Assouan; and a quarter before ten arrived in a grove of palm-trees on the north of that city. CHAPTER XVII. Return homewards through Egypt, and arrival at Marseilles. WITHOUT Congratulating one another on their escape and safe arrival, as they had the night before at Abou Seielat, my companions, with one accord, ran to the Nile to drink. I sat myself down under the shade of the palm-trees to recollect myself. It was very hot, and I fell into a profound sleep. But Hagi Ismael, who was neither sleepy nor thirsty, but exceedingly hungry, had gone into the town in search of somebody that would give him food. He had not gone far before his green turban and ragged ap pearance struck some brethren janizaries who met him, one of whom asked him the reason of his being there, and whence he came? Ismael, in a violent passion, and broken Arabic, said that he was a janizary of Cairo, was last come from hell, where there was not one devil, but thousands, from a country of Kafrs that called themselves |