CHAP. IX. 
RETURN TO TRIPOLI. 
329 
bearing evident marks of having been recently passed over by our 
camels. Following this sure guide, I soon found myself once more 
in the safe path, and my feehngs at such unlooked for and provi- 
dential dehverance may be more easily imagined than described. 
As I was riding slowly along, I discovered, out of the track, a poor 
Negress lying under a bush, where, overcome by fatigue and iUness, 
she had stopped behind, unregarded, to die. 
Having myself so recently escaped the horrors of a hngering 
death, I felt tenfold commiseration for this poor helpless being ; and 
having with some difficulty placed her on my horse, I took her 
quietly along ; at such a pace indeed, as much to retard coming 
up with my people, whom I found in great alarm about me. They 
feared I must have strayed on the desert, or have fallen on the 
road from sickness ; and such were their kind feelings towards me, 
that they sent a camel and a supply of water, provisions, and a 
carpet, with two men, to seek for me in all directions. I met them 
at 5. SO. soon after they set out, and found that the Kaffle had, on 
my account, stopped for the night two hours before. 
When I took the slave to her master, who was not aware of her 
being missing, he gave me no thanks, nor allowed the poor exhausted 
creature any food or refreshment ; and had I not been present to pre- 
vent it, he would no doubt have added to her sufferings by a severe 
beating. We had made, as nearly as I could judge from our 
winding roads, N. 15°. E. twenty-five miles. 
Friday, March 10th. — At seven we set off ; road over small stony 
hillocks. As Hadge Mohammed, who was master of the Negress, 
preferred riding his camel to letting her do so, I gave her up 
my horse. We passed through many Wadeys full of bushes — a 
light shower at noon, with the wind from the northward — saw 
several hares ; and many snakes, not venemous, were killed by the 
people. I astonished them by taking one or two live ones in my 
u u 
