THESOURCE OF THENILE. 403 
~who could not there protec& us; therefore we were to truf— 
to ourfelves, and admit of no parley; for if we patied, we 
fhould pafs with applaufe, as if the king’s force had con- 
‘ducted us; and if we mifcarried, the blame would be 
laid upon ouffelves, as having ventured, fo thinly attended, 
through a country laid wafte by rebel Arabs, exprefsly in 
‘defiance of government. He added,that ‘he did not believe 
it was in Shekh Fidele’s power, from want of time, to do us 
any injury upon the road; thatthe people in Teawa were 
in general well-affected to us, and afraid we fhould bring 
Yafine and the Daveina upon them, and fo were the Jehai- 
na; and as for the pack of gracelefs foldiers that were then 
about the Shekh, their belief that we had really no money 
“with us, and the laft exhibition I had fhewn them on horfe< 
back, had perfectly cured them of venturing their lives jor - 
little, againft people fo much fuperier to them in the ma- 
nagement of arms ; ‘yet he withed us to be active and vigi- 
dant like men, and truft in nothing ull we had feen the 
Shekh of Beyla, and net to lofe a moment on the road. 
- Our journey, for the firt feven hours, was «through a 
barren, bare, and fandy plain, without finding a vettige 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 eaft- 
ward of fouth, to enter through very broken ground intoa 
narrow defile, between two hills of no confiderable height. 
This pafs is called Mattina. One of our camel-drivers de- 
¢tljared that he faw. two men run into the buthes before him, 
_ upon which our people took all to their flings, throwing 
many ftones before them into the buthes, directed nearly to ! 
aman’sheight, At their earneft defire I ordered I{mael to 
Vou. IV. Bear fire 
