568 ‘TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
new ones at Sennaar, which were to defend them’ from’the 
fimoom and the fand, and.all the dangers of the defert. That 
they might not foil thefein filling the water, they had taken 
them from their arms,-and laid them on the brink of the 
well before they went down. Upon looking for thefe after 
the girbas-were.filled, they were not to be found. This double 
aitempt was.an indication of a number of people being in the 
neighbourhood, in which cafe our prefent fituation was one 
ef the.moft. defperate that could be figured. We were in — 
the middle of the moft barren, inhofpitable defert in the 
world, and | it was with the utmoft difficulty that, from day 
to day, we could carry wherewithal to affuage our thirft. 
We had-with us the only bread it was poflible to procure 
for fome hundred miles; lances and {words were not nes 
ceflary to deftroy us, the burfting or tearing of a girba, the 
lamenefs..or.death of a.camel, a thorn or fprain in the foot 
which might difable us from walking, were as certain death 
to us as a fhot from a-cannon. There was no ftaying for 
one another; to-lofe time was to die, becaufe, with the ut- 
snoft exertion our camels could make, we f{carce could carry 
along with us a fcanty .provifion.of bread and -water fuffi- 
cient to keep us alive. 
Tuat defert, which -did not afford inhabitants for the af- — 
fiftance or relief of travellers, had greatly more than fufi-- 4708 
cient for deftroying them. Large tribes of Arabs, two or } 
three thoufand, encamped together, were cantoned, as it 
were, in different places of this defert, where there was wa- 
ter enough to ferve their numerous herds of cattle, and thefe, 
as their occafion required, traverfed in parties all that wide 
expanfe of folitude, from the mountains near the Red Sea 
.eaft, to the banks.of the Nile on.the weit, accordin gas their 
» ; i feveral 
