THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 569 
feveral defigns or neceffities required. Thefe were Jaheleen 
Arabs, thofe cruel, barbarous fanatics, that deliberately fhed 
fo much blood during the time they were eftablifhing the 
Mahometan religion. “Their prejudices had never been re- 
moved by any mixture of ftrangers, or foftened by fociety, 
_ even with their own nation after they were polifhed; but 
buried, as it were, in thefe wild deferts, if they were not 
grown more favage, they had at leaft preferved, in their 
full vigour, thofe murdering principles which they had 
brought with them into that country, under the brutal and 
inhuman butcher Kaled Ibn el Waalid, impioufly called 
The Sword of God. If it fhould be our lot to fall among thefe - 
_ people, and it was next to a certainty that we were at that 
very inftant furrounded by them, death was certain, and 
-our only comfort was, that we could die but once, and that 
to die like men was in our own option. Indeed, without 
confidering the bloody character which thefe wretches na- 
turally bear, there could be no reafon for letting us live: 
We could be of no fervice to them as flaves; and to have 
 fent us into Egypt, after having firft rifled and deftroyed our 
goods, could net be done by them but at a great expence, 
to which well-inclined people only could have been induced 
from charity, and of that laft virtue they had not even heard 
the name. Our only chance then remaining was, that their 
number might be fo fmall, that, by our great fuperiority in 
fire-arms and in courage, we might turn the misfortune 
upon the aggreffors, deprive them of their camels and 
_ means of carrying water, and leave them fcattered in the 
defert, to that death which either they or we, without al. 
ternative, muft fuffer, 
Vo. IV. 4°C T EXPLAINED | 
