290 CROCODILES. 



and made for the boat ; but the traveller, far from being 

 disconcerted, took up his double-barrelled gun, and told 

 the swimmer that if he dared to approach he would 

 blow his brains out, and send him to rejoin the wretched 

 slave. The frightened merchant remained for a mo- 

 ment undecided, and seeing the cool and determined 

 air of the Englishman, he thought it prudent to gain 

 the shore and to follow the boat on foot, in the hope 

 that the terrible traveller would soon show himself 

 more reasonable. He rejoined us at the station. The 

 Englishman had grown calm, and returned into his 

 own boat, which was inacie fast to that of the jellab. 

 He pretended not to pay any attention to the arrival of 

 the merchant ; but on the following day, when he was 

 on the point of starting, he went into his boat, and told 

 him that he was going to sail alongside of him until 

 they reached Cairo, and that if he did not treat his 

 slaves with more humanity he should take upon himself 

 to revenge them. We set sail the same time as the 

 jellab, and followed him up to Cairo. In spite of the 

 irritation and anger of their master, the slaves enjoyed 

 some repose, and, thanks to the rough but energetic 

 intervention of the English traveller, none but dead 

 bodies were afterwards thrown to the crocodiles. : ' 



Enough of this : let us now see man in his character 

 as the destroyer of monsters. 



