595 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



But Providence had already decreed that we fliould not ter- 

 minate this dangerous journey by our own ordinary fore^ 

 fight and contrivance, but owe it entirely to his vifible fujy- 

 port and interpofition. 



On the 27th, at half paft five in the morning we attempr- 

 ed to raife our camels at Saffieha by every method that 

 ■we could devife, but all in vain, only one of them could 

 get upon his legs, and that one did not Hand two minutes 

 till he kneeled down, and could never be raifed afterwards. 

 This the Arabs all declared to be the effccfts of cold ; and yet 

 Fahrenheit's thermometer, an hour before day, flood at 42°. 

 Every way we turned ourfelves death now flared us in the 

 face. We had neither time nor Itrength to waile, nor pro- 

 vifions to fupport us. We then took the fmall fkins that 

 had contained our water, and filled them as far as we 

 thought a man could carry them with eafe ; but after all 

 thefe Ihifts, there was not enough to ferve us three days, at 

 which 1 had eftimated our journey to Syene, which flill 

 however was uncertain. Finding, therefore, the camels 

 ■would not rife, we killed two of them, and took fo much 

 llefh as might ferve for the deficiency of bread, and, from 

 the flomach of each of the camels, got about four gallons 

 of water, which the Bifhareen Arab managed with great 

 dexterity. It is known to people converfant with natural 

 hiftory, that the camel has within him refervoirs in which 

 he can preferve drink for any number of days he is ufed 

 to. In thofe caravans, of long courfe, which come from the 

 Niger acrofs the defert of Selima, it is faid that each camel, 

 by drinking, lays in a flore of water that will fupport him 

 for forty days. I will by no means be a voucher of this ac- 

 count, which carries with it an air of exaggeration ; but 



fourteen 



