•plain their office and occupation. A Hybeer is a guide,
-from the Arabic word Hubbar, to inform, inftruit, or direct,
becaufe they are ufed to do this office to the caravans trave
lling through the defert in a l i its direflions, whether to
Egypt and back again, the coaft o f the Red Sea, or the countries
o f Sudan, and the weftem extremities o f Africa. They
,are men o f great confideration, knowing perfectly the fitua-
tion and properties o f all kinds o f water to be met on the
jo u te , the diftance o f wells, whether occupied by enemies
or not, and, i f fo, the way to avoid them with the leait in-
xonvenience. It is alfe neceflary to them to know the places
-occupied b y the fimoom, and the feafons o f their blowin
g in thofe parts o f the defert, likewife thofe occupied by
.moving fands. He generally belongs to fome powerful
tribe, o f Arabs inhabiting thefe deferts, whofe protection he
•makes ufe o f to affili his caravans, or proteil them in time
o f danger, and handfome rewards were always in his
power to diftribute on fuch occafions ; but now that the
Arabs in thefe deferts are everywhere without government,
¡the trade between Abyffinia and Càiro given over, that ba-
| ! tween Sudan and that metropolis much diminilhed, the
importance o f that office o f Hybeer, and its confideration, is
fallen in proportion, and with thefe the fafe conduit ; and
we fliall fee prefently a caravan cut o ff by the treachery o f
-the very Hybeers that conducted them, the .firft i-nftance o f
jthe kind that ever happened.
1,1 One day, fitting in my tent mufing upon the very ua-
promifing afpefl o f m y affairs, an Arab o f very ordinary appearance,
naked, with only a cotton -cloth around his mid-
.rdle, came up to me, and offered to conduit me to Barbar
a n d .thence -to Egypt. He faid his houfc was at.Daroo on the
fide
fide o f the Nile; about twenty miles beyond Syene, or Affou-
an, nearer Cairo I afked him why he had hot gone with
Mahomet Towaffi ? He faid, he did not like the company,
and was very much miftaken i f their journey ended well.
Upon preffing him further i f this was really the o n ly rea-
fo n ; he then told me, that he had been fick for fome months
at Chendi, contra&ed debt, arid had beeri obliged to pawn
his cloaths, and that his camel was detained for what
iUIl remained unpaid. After much converfation, repeated
feveral days., I found that Idris (for that was his name) was
a man o f fome fubftance in his own country, and had a
daughter married to the Schourbatchie at Affouan. He faid
-that this was his laft journey, fo r he never would crofs the
•defert again. A bargain'Was now foon made. I redeemed
his camel and cloak ; he was to ihew me the w ay to Egypt,
and he was there to be recompenfed, according to his behaviour.
C h e n d i , b y repeated obfervations o f the fun and ftars,
made for feveral fucceeding days and nights, I found to be
in lat. 16“ 38' 35" north, and at the fame place, the 13th o f
•Oitober, I obferved an immerfion o f the firft fatellite o f Jupiter,
from which I concluded its longitude to be 330 24' 45"
«aft o f the meridian o f Greenwich. The higheft degree o f
-the thermometer o f Fahrenheit in the fhade was, on the 10th
o f Odlober, at one o’clock P. M. 119“, wind n o r th ; the loweft
was on the n th , at midnight, 87% wind weft, after a fmalj,.
fhower df rain.
I p r e p a r e d now to leave Chendi, but firft returned my
benefaftrefs Sittina thanks' for a ll her favours. She had
«ailed for Idris, and given him veTy pofitive inftruitions,
V o l . IV. .3 Y mix*