THE SOURCE OF THE NILE 438 
pafling the Nile at the mouth of the lake ; and two men, the 
king’s fervants, had perifhed there likewife. He came in 
great hurry, full of the news from Begemder, and of the 
particulars of the confpiracy, fuch as have been already 
ftated. With Ayto Adigo came the king’s cook, Sebaftos, 
an old Greek, near feventy, who had fallen fick with fa- 
tigue. After having fatisfied his inquiries, and given him 
-what refrefhment we could fpare, he left Sebaftos with us, 
and purfued his journey to the camp. 
On the 24th, at our ordinary time, when the fun began 
to be hot, we continued our route due fouth, through a very 
plain, flat country, which, by the conftant rains that now 
fell, began to ftand in large pools, and threatened to turn all 
into a lake. We had hitherto loft none of our beafts of car- 
riage, but we now were fo impeded by ftreams, brooks, and 
quagmires, that we defpaired of ever bringing one of them 
tojoin the camp. The horfes, and beafts of burthen that car- 
ried the baggage of the army, and which had paffed before 
-us, had fpoiled every ford, and we faw to-day a number of 
dead mules lying about the fields, the houfes all reduced 
to ruins,.and {moking like fo many kilns;;even the erafs, or 
wild oats, which were grown very high, were burnt in large 
plots of a hundred acres together; every thing bore the 
marks that Ras Michael was gone before, whilft nota living 
creature appeared in thofe extenfive, fruitful, and once well- 
inhabited plains. An awful filence reigned everywhere a- 
round, interrupted only at’ times by thunder, now become 
daily, and the rolling of torrents produced by local fhowers 
in the hills, which ceafed with the rain, and were but the 
children of an hour. Amiudft this univerfal filence that pre- 
wailed all over this fcene of extenfive defolation, I could not 
gi2 help 
