feet deep, and from twenty to thirty yards in circumference.
The salt comes up in hard lumps mixed with earth, and
part of it is red.
The Moors here are perfectly black; the only personal
distinction between ’them and the Negroes being, that the
Moors had long black hair, and had no scars on their faces.
The Negroes are in general marked in the same manner as
those of Tombuctoo. Here the party staid fourteen days,
to give the ransomed Moors, whose long confinement
had made them weak, time to recruit their strength; and
having sold one of the camels for two sacks of dates and
a small ass, and loaded the four remaining camels with
water, the dates, arid the flour, (in the proportion of eight
goat skins of water, or six skins of water and two bags of
dates or flour, to each camel) they set out to cross the
Desert,* taking a north-west direction.
They commenced their journey from Tudenny about
four o’clock in the morning, and having travelled the first
day about twenty miles, they unloaded the camels, and lay
down by the side of them to sleep.
The next day they entered the Desert; over which they
continued to travel in the same direction, nine and twenty
days, without meeting a single humari being. The whole
* See Note, p. 14.
way was a sandy plain, like a sea, without either tree, shrub
or grass. After travelling in this manner about fourteen
days at the rate of sixteen or eighteen miles a day, the
people began to grow very weak ; their stock of water began
to run short; and their provisions were nearly exhausted.
The ass died of fatigue; and its carcase was immediately
cut up and laden on the camel, where it dried in the
sun, and served for food; and had it not been for this
supplyj some of the party must have died of hunger.
Being asked if asses’ flesh was good eating, Adams replied ;
“ It was as good to my taste then, as a goose would be
“ now.”
In six days afterwards, during which their pace was
slackened to not more than twelve miles a day, they arrived
at a place where it was expected water would be found;
but to their great disappointment, owing to the dryness of
the season, the hollow place, of about thirty yards in circumference,
was found quite dry.
All their stock of water at this time consisted of four
goat skins, and those not full, holding from one to two
gallons each; and it was known to the Moors that they had
then ten days further to travel before they could obtain a
supply.
In this distressing dilemma, it was resolved to mix the