40 
JOURNEY FROM 
the same time grateful to the feelings ; and one may here dream 
delightfully of undisturbed tranquillity and independence, and of 
freedom from all the cares, the follies, and the vices of the world. 
^Vhenever the wind is cool, without being too strong, the purity of 
the air is at once refreshing and exhilarating ; and, if his stock of 
water be not very low, the traveller feels disposed to be well pleased 
with every thing 
Such was precisely the feeling with which our party entered upon 
the tract of sandy desert before them. We were glad to escape from 
the continual din and bustle which had attended our preparations at 
Tripoly ; and the very absence of harassing workmen and tradesmen 
was alone a source of real satisfaction : the coolness of the sea-breeze 
was unusually refreshing, at least, we persuaded ourselves that it 
was so ; and the anticipation of an interesting journey was acting 
very strongly upon our minds. 
After quitting the cultivated grounds of Tagiura, the traveller is 
left to pursue his course (in going eastward) as his experience or his 
compass may direct — there being no indication whatever of any track 
in the sands of the wide plain before him. As our principal object, 
in this part of our journey, was to obtain a correct dehneation of the 
coast, we pursued our route along the margin of the sea ; which 
from Tagiura to Cape Sciarra takes the form of a bay, at the head of 
which lies Wady Kamleh. It was late in the afternoon of the sixth 
•f- These solitary enjoyments are by no means overdrawn ; every traveller accustomed 
to desert journeys must have experienced them : and the late lamented Burckhardt has 
frequently been heard to declare, that his most pleasant hours in travelling have been 
passed in the desert. 
