5290 TRAVELS IN THE SAHARA. 
ed them their liberty, and allowed them to return 
to France by Tangier, from which they sailed on 
the 31st of July 1784. The acquaintance with 
the manners of the Arabs of the desert, which 
M. Saugnier obtained during his residence in the 
Sahara, proved afterwards, as we have seen, of the 
greatest utility in his voyage up the Senegal to 
Gallam, when one of his vessels was stranded on 
the territory of the Trasarts, a Moorish tribe, and 
enabled him to preserve his property. 
M. DE Brisson, after having made several voy- 
ages to Africa, was wrecked a little to the north 
of Cape Blanco, and fell into the hands of the 
Labdesseba Arabs. After escaping the shoals, 
his companions and he ascended the rocks on 
the shore, from the summits of which they saw 
the country expand in an immense plain, cover- 
ed with white sand, over which were thinly scat- 
tered a few creeping plants resembling branches 
of coral. The seed of these plants was similar 
in form to that of mustard, but extremely small. 
The Arabs, who collect it to form an edible 
paste, term it wcezoiid. The distant hills, cover- 
ed with wild fern, presented the appearance of 
an extensive forest. Proceeding towards some 
camels which they observed, they were discover- 
ed by some children tending the goats, and the 
alarm was soon spread to the tents of the Arabs^ 
