4 
THE MOORS OF SAHARA. 
ing flame seems to circulate throug-li the air we breathe ; 
and the water we drink to quench the continual thirst which 
torments us, seems but to provoke it anew. The frightful 
silence which reigns throughout desolate nature is interrupted 
only by the lengthened groans of panting herds ; and the 
Moor, shut up in his tent, has no means of allaying the fire 
which consumes him, but by remaining in a state of complete 
torpor. 
What people would have dared to inhabit such a region, 
had not necessity compelled them there to seek an asylum 
from their enemies ? It was this necessity which obliged the 
Moors, expelled from Spain, and persecuted in the Barbary 
states, to pitch their tents here, where, however, they cannot 
exist otherwise than scattered and in small numbers. 
With the dry season, the Moors repair to the banks of 
the Seneo'al, The rains drive back some of them even to the 
foot of the Atlas. 
It is not astonishing that these people, constantly exposed 
to the danger of becoming the prey of famine or of being 
surprised by enemies, should be cruel and perfidious. Wher- 
ever the soil is ungrateful, man is gloomy, barbarous, and 
greedy of plunder ; the spoils of the victims which necessity 
or ferocity impel him to immolate, are the only harvests 
which he reaps in these desolate regions. 
To live in so frightful a country, requires a strength of 
constitution greatly superior to that of other people. This 
