432 horneman's travels. 
tinued there till the arrival of Buonaparte, who 
no sooner learned the situation and destination of 
Horneman, than he sent for him, supplied him 
with passports, and made liberal offers of money, 
or whatever else might be necessary for his pro- 
gress. 
Horneman set out with the caravan, on the 5th 
of September 1799, from the neighbourhood of 
Cairo, and on the 8th entered the Libyan desert. 
In this journey, the Arabs travelled the whole 
day, without stopping either for rest or for meals. 
In the evening they halted, made a small hole in 
the sand, and, having collected some wood, kin- 
dled a fire to cook their victuals. These consist- 
ed chiefly of flour, kouskous, onions, mutton suet, 
and oil or butter, which are boiled together, and 
made into different species of soups or puddings. 
Each cooked his own victuals, and Horneman 
finding, that by employing the services of ano- 
ther he exposed himself to contempt or suspicion, 
followed the example of the rest. 
The surface of the sandy waste over which they 
travelled, precisely resembled a shore from which 
the waters have retired after a storm. It was 
covered with innumerable fragments of petrified 
wood, sometimes whole trunks of trees, twelve 
feet in circumference, sometimes merely branches 
and twigs, or even pieces of bark. Fragments of 
masts have been supposed to be discovered 5 but 
