THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 435'
palling the Nile at the mouth of the lake ; and two men, the king's fervants, had perifhed there likewife. He came in great hurry, full of the news from Begcmder, and of the particulars of the confpiracy, fuch as have been already ftated. With Ayto Adigo came the king's cook, Sebaftos, an old Greek, near feventy, who had fallen fick with fa- tigue. After having fatisfied his inquiries, and given him what refrelhment we could fpare, he left Sebaftos with us, and purfued his journey to the camp.
On the 24th, at our ordinary time, when the fun began to be hot, we continued our route due fouth, through a very plain, flat country, which, by the conftant rains that now fell, began to ftand in large pools, and threatened to turn all into a lake. We had hitherto loft none of our beafts of car- riage, but we now were fo impeded by ftreams, brooks, and quagmires, that we defpaired of ever bringing one of them to join the camp. The horfes, and beafts of burthen that car- ried the baggage of the army, and which had palled before us, had fpoiled every ford, and we faw to-day a number of dead mules lying about the fields, the houfes all reduced to ruins, and lmoking like fo many kilns; even the grafs, or wild oats, which were grown very high, were burnt in large plots of a hundred acres together; every thing bore the marks that Ras Michaelwas gone before, whilft not a living creature appeared in thole extenfive, fruitful, and once well- inhabited plains. An awful filence reigned everywhere a- round, interrupted only at times by thunder, now become daily, and the rolling of torrents produced by local fliowers in the hills, which ceafed with the rain, and were but the •children of an hour. Amidft this univerfal filence that pre- vailed all over this fcene of extenfive dcfolation, I could not
g I 2 help
