water was almoft exhaufted, and what remained had an intolerable
ftench. However, flocks o f Guinea fowls, partridges,
and every fort o f bird, had crowded thither to drink;,
from the fcarcity o f water elfewhere. I believe, 1 may certainly
fay, the number amounted to many thoufands. My
Arabs loaded themfelves in a very little while, killin g them
with flicks and ftones •, but 'they were perfe&ly -ufelefs,
being reduced to Ikeletons b y hunger and thirft, For this
treafon, as well as that I might not alarm anyftrolling banditt-i
within hearing, I did not fuffer a fliot to be fired at them.
A t eight we came to Eradeeba, where i s neither village
n o r water,'but only a refting-place about h a lf a mile fquare,
which has been cleared from wood, that travellers, who
pafs to and from Atbara, might have a fecure fpot whence
?they could fee around them, and guard themfelves from
being attacked unawares by the banditti fometimes refort-
in g to thole deferts.
At a quarter paft eleven we arrived at Quaicha, a bed o f
.a torrent where there was now no water; but the wood
feemed growing ftill thicker, and to be fu ll o f wild beafts,
-efpecially lions and hyanas. T he fe do not fly from man,
as thofe did that we had hitherto feen, but came boldly up,
^efpecially the hyasna, with a refohxtion to attack us. Upon
our firft lighting a fire they left-us for a tim e ; but towards
morning they came in greater numbers, than before; a lion
carried away one o f our affes from among the other beafts o f
burden, and a hy$na attacked one o f the men, tore his cloth
from his middle, and wounded him in his back. As we
:now expefted to be inftantly devoured, the prefent fear overcame
the xefolutions we had made, not to ufe our fire arms,
2 unlefs
unlefs in the utmoft neceflity. I fired two guns, and ordered
my fervants to fire two large fhip-blunderbufles, which
prefently freed us from our troublefome guefts. Two hy-
ænas were killed, and a' large lion being mortally wounded
was difpatched by our men in the morning. They came no
more near us ; but we heard numbers o f them howling at
a diftance till day-light, either from hunger or the fmarts
o f the wounds they had received, perhaps from both ; for
each' ihip-blunderbufs had fifty fmall bullets, and the
wood towards" which they were dire&ed, at the diftance o f
about twenty yards,feemed to be crowded with thefe animals.
The reafon why the hyæna is more fierce here than in any
part o f Barbary, w ill be given in the natural hiftory o f that
wild beaft in the Appendix,
T h o u g h this, our firft day’s journey from Falaty and
Ras el Feel, to Quaicha, was o f eleven hours, the diftance we
had gone in that time was not more than ten miles ; for
our beafts were exceedingly loaded, fo that it was with the
utmoft d ifficulty that either we or they could force ourfelves
through thofe thick woods, which fcarcely admitted the rays
o f the fun. From this ftation, however, we were entertained
with a moft magnificent fight. The mountains at a-diftance
towards the banks o f the Tacazze, all Debra Haria,
and the mountains towards Kuara, were in a violent bright
flame o f fire.
T h e Arabs feed all their flocks upon the branches o f trees ;
no beaft in this country eats grafs. When therefore the
water is dried up, and they can no longer ftay, they fet fire
to the woods, and to the dry grafs below it. The flame
runs under the trees, fcorches the leaves and new wood,
V o l . IV. U u without