HORNEMAN. 109 



Joseph Banks immediately wrote, " If Mr. Homeman be 

 really the character you describe, he is the very person 

 whom we are in search of." On receiving this encourage- 

 ment, Homeman immediately applied his mind to the study 

 of natural history and the Arabic language, and otherwise 

 sought to fit himself for supporting the character, which he 

 intended to assume, of an Arab and a Moslem, under which 

 he hoped to escape the effects of that ferocious bigotry 

 which had opposed so fatal a bar to the progress of his pre- 

 decessors. 



In May, 1797, Homeman repaired to London, where his 

 appointment was sanctioned by the Association ; and hav- 

 ing obtained a passport from the Directory, who then 

 governed France, he visited Paris, and was introduced 

 to some leading members of the National Institute. He 

 reached Egypt in September, spent ten days at Alexan- 

 dria, and set out for Cairo, to wait the departure of the 

 Rashna caravan. The interval was employed in acquiring 

 the language of the Mograbin Arabs, a tribe bordering on 

 Egypt. While he was at Cairo, tidings arrived of Buona- 

 parte's having landed in that country, when the just indig- 

 nation of the natives vented itself upon all Europeans, and 

 among others on Horneman, who was arrested and con- 

 fined in the castle. He was relieved upon the victorious 

 entry of the French commander, who immediately set him 

 at liberty, and very liberally offered money and every other 

 supply which might contribute to the success of his mission. 



It was the 5th of September, 1798, before Horneman 

 could find a caravan proceeding to the westward, when he 

 joined the one destined for Fezzan. The travellers soon 

 passed the cultivated land of Egypt, and entered on an ex- 

 panse of sandy waste, such as the bottom of the ocean 

 might exhibit if the waters were to retire. This desert 

 was covered with the fragments, as it were, of a petrified 

 forest ; large trunks, branches, twigs, and even pieces of 

 bark, being scattered over it. Sometimes these stony remains 

 were brought in by mistake as fuel. When the caravan halted 

 for the night, each individual dug a hole in the sand, gathered 

 a few sticks, and prepared his victuals after the African 

 fashion of kouskous, soups, or puddings. Horneman, ac- 

 cording to his European habits, at first employed the ser- 

 vices of another ; but finding himself thus exposed to con- 

 K 



