n ew ones at Sennaar, which were to defend them from the
-fimoomand tbeland, and.all the dangers o f the defert. That
they-might notffoil thefe in filling the Water, they had taken
•them from -their, arms,, and laid them on the brink o f the
well before they went down. .Upon looking for thefe after
•the girbas-were, filled, they were not to be found. This double
attempt was an indication o f a number o f people being in the
neighbourhood, in which cafe our prefent fituation was one
o f the moll defperate that could, be figured. We were in
the middle o f the moft barren, inhofpitable defert in the
world, and it was with the utmoft difficulty that, from day
to day, w e :couM-carry wherewithal to affuage our thirft
-We had with us the only bread i t was poffible to procure
fo r Lome hundred miles ; lances .and fwords were not rie
xeffary to dellroy us, the buriling or tearing o f a girba the
Jamenefs or death o f a camel, a thorn or fprain in the fo o t
-which might difable us from walking, were as certain death
to us as a fhot.from a cannon. There was no flaying for
one another ; to lofe time was to die, becaufe, with the ut-
-moft exertion our camels could make, we fcarce could carry
along w ith us a fcanty .provifion o f bread and water .fuffi-
cient to keep us alive. . .
T h a t defert, which did not afford inhabitants for the af-
fiftance-or relief o f travellers, had greatly more than iuifi-
x ien t for deftroying them. Large tribes -Of Arabs, two or
three thoufand, encamped together, were cantoned, as it
were, in different places o f this defert, Where there was Water
enough to ferve their numerous herds o f cattle and thefe
as their.occafion required, traverfed in parties all that wide
expanfe o f folitude, from the mountains near the Red Sea
xaft. to the banks o f the Nile on the weft, according as their
■B .fe.veral
feveral defigns or neceffities required. Thefe were Jaheleen
Arabs, thofe cruel, barbarous fanatics, that deliberately ihed
fo much blood during the time they were eftabliihing the
Mahometan religion. Their prejudices had never been removed
b y any mixture o f ftrangers, or foftened by fociety,
even with their own nation after they were poliihed ; but
buried, as it were, in thefe wild deferts, i f they were not
grown more favage, they had at leaft preferved, in their
fu ll vigour, thofe murdering principles which they had
brought with them into that country, under the brutal and
inhuman butcher Kaled Ihn el Waalid, impioufly called.
th e Sword o f God. I f it fliould be our lot to fall am'ong thefe
people, and it was next to a certainty that we were at that
very inftant furrounded by them, death was certain, and
our only comfort was, that we could die but once, and that
to die like men was in our own option. Indeed, without
confidering the b loody chara&er which thefe wretches naturally
bear, there'could he no .reafon for letting us liver
We could be o f no fervice to them as Haves ; and to have
fent us into Egypt, after having firft rifled and deftroyed our
goods, could not be done by them but at a great, expence,
to which well-inclined people only could have been induced
from charity, and o f that laft v irtue they had hot even heard
ih e name. Our only chance then remaining was, that their
number might be fo fmall, that, by our great fuperiority in
fire-arms and in courage, we might turn the misfortune
upon the aggreffors, deprive them o f their camels and
means o f carrying water, and leave them fcattered in the
defert, to that death which either -they or we, without alternative,
muft fuffer.
V o l . IV- 1 EXP LAIN ED