THE SOUPvCE OF THE NILE. ^Gf 



^vlio could not there proteA us ; therefore we were to truft 

 to ourfelves, and admit of no parley ; for if we pafled, wc 

 fhould pafs with applaufe, as if the king's force had con- 

 duded us ; and if we mifcarried, the blame would be 

 laid upon ourfelves, as having ventured, fo thinly attended, 

 through a country laid watte by rebel Arabs, exprefsly in 

 defiance of government. He added, that he did not believe 

 it was in bhekh Fidele's power, from want of time, to do us 

 any injury upon the road ; that the people in Teawa were 

 in general well-affecfed to us, and afraid we fliould bring 

 Yafme and the Daveina upon them, and fo v/ere the Jehai- 

 na ; and as for the pack of gracelefs foldiers that were then 

 ab. ur the Shekh, their belief that we had really no money 

 with us, and the laft exhibition I had flicwn them on horfe- 

 back, had perfectly cured them of venturing their lives for 

 little, againft people fo much fuperior to them in the ma- 

 nagement of arms ; yet he wiilied us to be adtive and vigi- 

 lant like men, and truft in nothing till we had feen the 

 Shekh of Beyla, and not to lofe a moment on the road. 



Our journey, for the firft feven hours, was through a 

 barren, bare, and fandy plain, without finding a vetlige of 

 any living creature, without water, and without grafs, a 

 country that feemed under the immediate curfe of Heaven. 

 At twelve o'clock at night we turned a little to the caft- 

 ward of fouth, to enter through very broken ground into a 

 narrow defile, between two hills of no confiderable height. 

 This pafs is called Mattina. One- of our camel-drivers de- 

 clared that he law two men run into the bufhes before him, 

 upon which our people took all to their fling;!, throwing 

 many Hones before them into tlie buflies, directed nearly to 

 a man's height. At their earneit defire I ordered Ifmael to 

 Vol. IV. ' F fire 



