140 MESSENGER FROM SIDI-ALY'S CAMP. 
heard a musket- shot at a distance ; this noise did not sur- 
prise us^ as we knew that Sidi-Aly had gone on before from 
el-Guedea^ to fix upon a spot where his camp might be 
pitched, and we expected that he would send some one to 
meet us and conduct us thither. Several Moors ran imme- 
diately towards the point whence the sound proceeded : it 
was actually a Moor sent to us by Sidi-Aly, who informed 
us that in two days we should reach the camp of the Moors 
of el-Harib. He was the bearer of letters for several mem- 
bers of the caravan, acquainting them with the state of the 
country and the prices of merchandise and provisions ; part 
of the evening was employed in reading them publicly, so 
that the whole caravan shared the benefit of the news. We 
set out again at ten in the evening, taking a northerly course; 
and travelled all night over a gravelly soil. 
On the 28th, about seven in the morning, we descended 
a very steep hill, bestrewed with rocks of granite, soft and 
crumbling, in strata from twelve to eighteen inches thick. 
The road was very difficult and even dangerous for the beasts 
of burden. About ten in the morning, we pitched our 
tents in a plain, upon a stony soil^ and surrounded by hills 
of granite of the most arid appearance. 
I was not suffered quietly to enjoy the shelter which 
this halt offered us ; for the Moors incessantly tormented 
me. Sidi-Body, the same who proposed to Sidi-Molut to 
sell me, carried his indignities so far as to strike me. I was 
obliged to take refuge under another tent, where I lay down 
for the remainder of the day. The wind blew with violence; 
I was very thirsty and could obtain no water from my com- 
panions. The strangers to whom I applied pitied my situa- 
tion and gave me a little. I passed the day, without eating ; 
in the evening I was indebted for a handful of rice to the 
generosity of my new hosts, who awoke me that I might 
share their meal. 
As we approached the encampment of el-Harib, some 
