580 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 
the camels we leave here, they are fhe-ones, and neceflary te 
give the women food. They are not lame, it is faid, but we 
fhall lame them in earneft, fo that they fhall not be able to 
carry a meflenger to the Bifhareen before they die with 
thirft in she way, both they and their riders; if they fhould 
attempt it.” 
An univerfal applaufe followed this fpeeeh ; Idris, above 
all, declared his warmeft approbation. The man and the 
women were fent for, and had their fentence repeated to- 
them. They all fubfcribed to the conditions chearfully 
and the woman declared fhe would as foon fee her child 
die as be an inftrument of any harm befalling us, and that, 
if a thoufand Bifhareen fhould pafs, fhe knew how to mif- 
lead them all, and that none of them fhould follow us till 
we were far out of danger. : 
Isenr two Barbarins to lame the camels effectually, but 
not fo as to make them paft recovery. After which, for the 
nurfe and the child’s fake, I took twelve handfuls of the 
bread which was our only food, and indeed we could 
fearely {pare it, as we faw afterwards, and left it to this mi- 
ferable family, with this agreeable reflection, however, that 
we fhould be to them in the end a much greater blefling 
than in the beginning we had been an affliction, provided | 
only they kept their faith, and on their part deferved it. 
On the 2oth, at eleven o’clock we left the well at Terfowey, 
after having warned the women, that their chance of feeing 
their hufband again depended wholly upon his and their 
faithful conduc&t. We took our prifoner with us, his right 
- hand beingchained to the left of one of the Barbarins. We had 
no 
