FEELINGS OF THE AUTHOR. 
107 
and bales of goods of all sorts ; on the other, camels carrying- 
on their backs negroes, men, women, and children, who 
were on their way to be sold at the Morocco market; and 
further on, men prostrate on the ground, invoking the pro- 
phet. 
This spectacle touched and excited my feelings, and 
in imitation of the devout Musulmans, I fell on my knees; 
but it was to pray to the God of the Christians : with my 
eyes turned to the north, towards my country, my relations, 
and friends, I besought the Almighty to remove from my 
path the obstacles which had stopped so many other tra- 
vellers; in the ardour of my wishes, I imagined that my 
prayer was granted, and that I should be the first European 
who had set out from the south of Africa, to cross this ocean 
of sand, and succeeded in the undertaking. The thought 
electrified me ; and while a gloom hung on all other faces, 
mine was radiant with hope and joy. Full of these senti- 
ments 1 hastened to mount my camel, and to penetrate 
fearlessly into the deserts which separate the fertile Soudan 
from the regions of northern Africa. I felt as if 1 was 
mounting the breach of an impregnable fort, and that it 
was incumbent upon me to sustain the honour of my na- 
tion, by divesting myself of every kind of fear and braving 
this new peril. 
A boundless horizon was already expanded before us, 
and we could distinguish nothing but an immense plain of 
shining sand, and over it a burning sky. At this sight the 
camels uttered long moans, the slaves became sullen and 
silent, and, with their eyes turned towards heaven, they ap- 
peared to be tortured with regret for the loss of their country, 
and with the recollection of the verdant plains from which 
avarice and cruelty had snatched them. 
