558 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
new ones at Sennaar, which were to defend them from the fimoom and the fand, and all the dangers of the defert. That they might not foil thefe in filling the water, they had taken them from their arms, and laid them on the brink of the well before they went down. Upon looking for thefe after the girbas were filled, they were not to be found. This double attempt v/as an indication of a number of people being in the neighbourhood, in which cafe our prefcnt fituaiion was one of the moft defperate that could be figured. We were in the middle of the moft barren, inhofpitable defert in the world, and it was with the utmoft difficulty that, from day to day, we could carry wherewithal to afi^uage our thirft. We had with us the only bread it was pofilble to procure for fome hundred miles ; lances and fwords were not ne- ceflary to deftroy us, the burfiing or tearing of a girba, the lamencfs or death of a camel, a thorn or fprain in the foot which might difable us from walking, were as certain death to us as a fliot from a cannon. There was no flaying for one another ; to lofe time was to die, becaufe, with the ut- moft exertion our camels could make, we fcarce could cany along with us a fcanty provifion .of bread and water fuffi- ,cient to keep us alive.
That defert, which did not afford inlialiitants for the at fiftance or relief of travellers, had greatly more than fufii- cient for deftroying them. Large tribes of Arabs, two or three thotifand, cncam.ped together, were cantoned, as it were, in different places of this defert, where there was wa- ter enough to fcrve their numerous herds of cattle, and thefe, as their occafion required, traverfed in parties all that wide expanfe of folitude, frcm the mountains near the Red Sea ,eaft, to the ba^ks of the Nile on the wtft, according as their ^ feveral
