Simonides the Less staid five years in Meroë; after him, Aristocreon, Bion, and Basilis[49]. It is not then probable that men of their character omitted to ascertain the fact whether or not the place where they lived was an island. Diodorus Siculus has said, that Meroë was in the form of a shield, that is, in the figure of that triangular shield called Scutum, pointed at the bottom, and growing broader towards the top where it is square. Nothing can be more exact than this resemblance of the lower part of Atbara, that is, from Gerri to the Magiran, the part we suppose Diodorus was acquainted with, and it is scarcely possible that he could have fixed upon this resemblance without having seen some figure of it delineated upon paper.

As this must suppose a more than ordinary knowledge in Diodorus, we shall examine how the measures he has given us of the island correspond with the truth. He says, that the island is 3000 stadia long, and 1000 stadia broad. Now taking 8 stadia for a mile, we have 375 miles, and measuring with the compass from the river Falaty, where, as I have said, Atbara becomes an island by the confluence of the rivers, I find that distance to be 345 miles, of 60 miles to a degree, so that without making any allowance for the disadvantages of the country, it is impossible at this day to have a more accurate estimation. As for the breadth, it is scarcely possible to guess at what part Diodorus means it was measured, on account of the figure of the shield, as I have already observed, as constantly varying. But suppose, as is most probable, that the breadth of the island was referred to the place where the city stood, then, in place of 125 miles, the produce of 1000 stadia, I find it measures 145 miles, a difference as little to be regarded as the other.

Let us now examine what information we can learn from the report of the centurions sent on purpose by Nero to explore this unknown country, whose report has been looked upon as decisive of the distances of places through which they passed.

These travellers pretend, that between Syene and the entrance into the island of Meroë was 873 miles, and from thence to the city 70 miles; the whole distance then between Syene and the city of Meroë will be 943 miles, or 15° 43´. Now Syene was very certainly in 24°, a few minutes more or less; and from this if we take 15°, there will remain 9° of latitude for the island of Meroë, according to the report of these centurions, and this would have carried Meroë far to the southward of the fountains of the Nile, and confounded every idea of the geography of Africa. The parallel which marks 11° cuts Gojam very exactly in the middle, and this peninsula may be said to resemble the shield called Pelta; but very certainly not the Scutum, to which Diodorus has very properly likened it. Besides, their own observation condemns them, for it is about Meroë where they first saw an appearance of verdure; the reason of which is very plain, if the latitude of that city was in 16°, upon the verge of the tropical rains, where, as an eye-witness, I who have passed that dreary distance on foot can testify, those green herbs and shrubs, though they begin, as is very properly and cautiously expressed, to appear there, seem neither luxuriant nor abundant.

But had the centurions gone to Gojam, they would have passed a hundred miles of a more verdant and more beautiful country before arriving there. The psittaci aves, or the paroquets, which they very properly observed were first seen in Meroë, that is, in Atbara, would have been sought for in vain in Gojam, a cold country; whereas the paroquet's delight is in the low, or hot country, where there is always variety of fruit; neither could Ptolemy's observation, nor those two just mentioned by Pliny, be admitted, after any sort of modification whatever.

Strabo remarks of the situation of Meroë, that it was placed upon the verge of the tropical rains; and, with his usual accuracy and good sense, he wonders the regularity of these tropical rains, as to their coming and duration, was not known earlier, when so many occasions had offered to observe them at Meroë before his time. The same author says, that the sun is vertical at Meroë forty-five days before the summer solstice; so that this too will place that island in lat. 16° 44´, very little different from the latitude that Ptolemy gives it. From all which circumstances we may venture to maintain, that very few places in ancient geography have their situations more strictly defined, or by a greater variety of circumstances, than the island of Atbara or Meroë. But supposing the case were otherwise, there is not one of these circumstances that I know of, that could be adduced with any effect to prove Gojam to be Meroë, as Le Grande and the Jesuits have vainly asserted.

At half past eleven o'clock in the forenoon of the 21st of October, having spent the whole day in winding through vallies, and the bare hills of the Acaba, we alighted in a wood about a mile from the river. This side of the Nile, along which we travelled to-day, is quite bare, the other full of trees and corn, where are several large villages.

On the 22d, in the afternoon, we left this place, which is called Hor-Gibbaity, and passed through several villages of the Macabrab, named Dow-Dowa, and three miles further came to Demar, a town belonging to Fakir Wed Madge Doub, who is a saint of the first consequence among the Jaheleen. They believe that he works miracles, and can strike whom he pleases with lameness, blindness, or madness; for which reason they stand very much in awe of him, so that he passes the caravans in safety through this nest of robbers, such as the Macabrab are, and always have been, though there are caravans who chuse rather to pass unseen under the cloud of night, than trust to the veneration these Jaheleen may have of Wed Madge Doub's sanctity. After these are Eliab, their habitation four miles on our left at Howiah.

On the 25th, at three quarters past six in the morning we left Demar, and at nine came to the Tacazzè, five short miles distant from Demar, and two small villages built with canes and plaistered with clay, called Dubba-beah; these are allies of the Macabrab, as coming from Demar. They took it in their heads to believe that we were a caravan going to Mecca, in which they were confirmed by a son of Wed Madge Doub, whom I brought with me, and it was neither my business nor inclination to undeceive them, but just the contrary.

The Tacazzé is here about a quarter of a mile broad, exceedingly deep, and they have chosen the deepest part for the ferry. It is clear as in Abyssinia, where we had often seen it. It rises in the province of Angot, in about lat. 9°, but has lost all the beauty of its banks, and runs here thro' a desert and barren country. I reflected with much satisfaction upon the many circumstances the sight of this river recalled to my mind; but still the greatest was, that the scenes of these were now far distant, and that I was by so much the more advanced towards home. The water of the Tacazzé is judged by the Arabs to be lighter, clearer, and wholesomer than that of the Nile. About half a mile after this ferry it joins with that river. Though the boats were smaller, the people more brutish, and less expert than those at Halifoon, yet the supposed sanctity of our characters, and liberal payment, carried us over without any difficulty. These sons of Mahomet are very robust and strong, and, in all their operations, seemed to trust to that rather than to address or flight. We left the passage at a quarter after three, and at half past four arrived at a gravelly, waste piece of ground, and all round it planted thick with large trees without fruit. The river is the boundary between Atbara and Barbar, in which province we now are. Its inhabitants are the Jaheleen of the tribe of Mirifab.

On the 26th, at six o'clock, leaving the Nile on our left about a mile, we continued our journey over gravel and sand, through a wood of acacia-trees, the colour of whose flowers was now changed to white, whereas all the rest we had before seen were yellow. At one o'clock we left the wood, and at 40 minutes past three we came to Gooz, a small village, which nevertheless is the capital of Barbar. The village of Gooz is a collection of miserable hovels composed of clay and canes. There are not in it above 30 houses, but there are six or seven different villages. The heat seemed here a little abated, but everybody complained of a disease in their eyes they call Tishash, which often terminates in blindness. I apprehend it to be owing to the simoom and fine sand blowing through the desert. Here a misfortune happened to Idris our Hybeer, who was arrested for debt, and carried to prison. As we were now upon the very edge of the desert, and to see no other inhabited place till we should reach Egypt, I was not displeased to have it in my power to lay him under one other obligation before we trusted our lives in his hands, which we were immediately to do. I therefore paid his debt, and reconciled him with his creditors, who, on their part, behaved very moderately to him.

When trade flourished here, and the caravans went regularly, Gooz was of some consideration, as being the first place where they stopped, and therefore got the first offer of the market; but now no commerce remains, nor is it worth while for stated guides to wait there to conduct the caravans through the desert, as they did formerly. Gooz is situated fifteen miles from the junction of the two rivers, the Nile and Tacazzé. By many observations of the sun and stars, and by a mean of these, I found it to be in lat. 17° 57´ 22´´; and by an immersion of the first satellite of Jupiter observed there the 5th of November, determined its longitude to be 34° 20´ 30´´ east of the meridian of Greenwich. The greatest height of Fahrenheit's thermometer was, at Gooz, the 28th day of October, at noon, 111°.

Having received all the assurances possible from Idris that he would live and die with us, after having repeated the prayer of peace, we put on the best countenance possible, and committed ourselves to the desert. There were Ismael the Turk, two Greek servants besides Georgis, who was almost blind and useless. Two Barbarins, who took care of the camels, Idris, and a young man, a relation of his, who joined him at Barbar, to return home; in all nine persons, eight only of whom were effective. We were all well-armed with blunderbusses, swords, pistols, and double-barrelled guns, except Idris and his lad, who had lances, the only arms they could use. Five or six naked wretches of the Tucorory joined us at the watering place, much against my will, for I knew that we should probably be reduced to the disagreeable necessity of seeing them die with thirst before our eyes; or by assisting them, should any accident happen to our water, we ran a very great risk of perishing with them.

It was on the 9th of November, at noon, we left Gooz, and set out for the sakia, or watering-place, which is below a little village called Hassa. All the west side of the Nile is full of villages down to Takaki, but they are all Jaheleen, without government, and perpetually in rebellion. At half past three in the afternoon we came to the Nile to lay in our store of water. We filled four skins, which might contain altogether about a hogshead and a half. As for our food, it consisted in twenty-two large goats skins stuffed with a powder of bread made of dora here at Gooz, on purpose for such expeditions. It is about the size and shape of a pancake, but thinner. Being much dried, rather than toasted at the fire, it is afterwards rubbed between the hands into a dust or powder, for the sake of package; and the goat's skin crammed as full as possible, and tied at the mouth with a leather thong. This bread has a sourish taste, which it imparts to the water when mingled with it, and swells to six times the space that it occupied when dry. A handful, as much as you could grasp, put into a bowl made of a gourd sawed in two, about twice the contents of a common tea-bason, was the quantity allowed to each man every day, morning and evening; and another such gourd of water divided, one half two hours before noon, the other about an hour after. Such were the regulations we all of us subscribed to; we had not camels for a greater provision. The Nile at Hassa runs at the foot of a mountain called Jibbel Ateshan, or the Mountain of Thirst; the men, emphatically enough, considering that those who part from it, entering the desert, take there the first provisions against thirst, and there those that come to it from the desert first assuage theirs.

On the 11th, about eleven o'clock in the forenoon we left Hassa. It required a whole day to fill our skins, and soak them well in the water, in order to make an experiment, which was of the greatest consequence of any one we ever made, whether these skins were water-tight or not. I had taken the greatest care while at Chendi to dawb them well over with grease and tar, to secure their pores on the outside; but Idris told us this was not enough, and that soaking the inside with water, filling them choak-full, and tying their mouths as hard as possible, was the only way to be certain if they were water-tight without.

While the camels were loading, I bathed myself with infinite pleasure for a long half hour in the Nile, and thus took leave of my old acquaintance, very doubtful if we should ever meet again. We then turned our face to N. E. leaving the Nile, and entering into a bare desert of fixed gravel, without trees, and of a very disagreeable whitish colour, mixed with small pieces of white marble, and pebbles like alabaster. At a quarter past four we alighted in a spot of high bent grass, where we let our camels feed till eight o'clock, and at three quarters past ten we halted for the night in another patch of grass; the place is called Howeela. Jibbel Ateshan bore S. W. and by W. of us, the distance about seven miles. I inquired of Idris, if he knew, to point out to me, precisely where Syene lay, and he shewed me without difficulty. I set it by the compass, and found it to be N. and by W. very near the exact bearing it turned out upon observation afterwards. He said, however, we should not keep this tract, but should be obliged to vary occasionally in search of water, as we should find the wells in the desert empty or full.

On the 12th, at seven o'clock in the morning we quitted Howeela, continuing our journey through the desert in the same direction, that is to the N. E.; our reason was, to avoid as much as possible the meeting any Arab that could give intelligence of our being on our journey, for nothing was so easy for people, such as the Bishareen, to way-lay and cut us off at the well, where they would be sure we must of necessity pass. At twenty minutes past eight we came to Waadi el Haimer, where there are a few trees and some bent grass, for this is the meaning of the word Waadi in a desert. The Arabs, called Sumgar, are here on the west of us, by the river side. At half past twelve we alighted on a spot of grass. Takaki from this distance will be twenty-four miles, between the points N. W. and N. N. W. and from Takaki to Dongola ten short days journeys, I suppose 180 miles at most. We are now in the territory of the Bishareen, but they were all retired to the mountains, a high even ridge, that is something above two days distance from us, and runs parallel to our course, on the right hand of us, all the way into Egypt.

At half past eight we alighted in a sandy plain without trees or grass. Our camels, we found, were too heavily loaded, but we comforted ourselves that this fault would be mended every day by the use we made of our provisions; however, it was very much against them that they were obliged to pass this whole night without eating. This place is called Umboia. We left Umboia, still stretching farther into the desert at N. E. At nine we saw a hill called Assero-baybe, with two pointed tops N. of us, which may be about twelve or fourteen miles distant, perhaps more. This is the next Hybeer's mark, by which he directs his course. On the east is Ebenaat, another sharp-pointed rock, about ten miles distant. All this day, and the evening before, our road has been through stony, gravelly ground, without herb or tree. Large pieces of agate and jasper, mixt with many beautiful pieces of marble, appear everywhere on the ground.

At two o'clock in the afternoon we came to Waadi Amour, where we alighted, after we had gone six hours this day with great diligence. Waadi Amour has a few trees and shrubs, but scarce enough to afford any shade, or night's provision for our camels. Being now without fear of the Arabs who live upon the Nile, from which we were at a sufficient distance, we with the same view to safety, declined approaching the mountains, but held our course nearly N. to a small spot of grass and white sand, called Assa-Nagga. Here our misfortunes began, from a circumstance we had not attended to. Our shoes, that had needed constant repair, were become at last absolutely useless, and the hard ground, from the time we passed Amour, had worn the skin off in several places, so that our feet were very much inflamed by the burning sand.

About a mile north-west of us is Hambily, a rock not considerable in size, but, from the plain country in which it is situated, has the appearance of a great tower or castle, and south of it two hillocks or little hills. These are all land-marks of the utmost consequence to caravans in their journey, because they are too considerable in size to be covered at any time by the moving sands. At Assa Nagga, Assiro-baybe is square with us, and with the turn which the Nile takes eastward to Korti and Dongola. The Takaki are the people nearest us, west of Assa Nagga, and Assero-baybe upon the Nile. After these, when the Nile has turned E. and W. are the Chaigie, on both sides of the river, on to Korti, where the territory called the kingdom of Dongola begins. As the Nile no longer remains on our left, but makes a remarkable turn, which has been much misrepresented in the maps, I put my quadrant in order, and by a medium of three observations, one of Procyon, one of Rigel, and one of the middle star of the belt of Orion, I found the latitude of Assa Nagga to be 19° 30´, which being on a parallel with the farthest point of the Nile northward, gives the latitude of that place where the river turns west by Korti towards Dongola, and this was of great service to me in fixing some other material points in my map.

On the 14th, at seven in the morning we left Assa Nagga, our course being due north. At one o'clock we alighted among some acacia-trees at Waadi el Halboub, having gone twenty-one miles. We were here at once surprised and terrified by a sight surely one of the most magnificent in the world. In that vast expanse of desert, from W. and to N. W. of us, we saw a number of prodigious pillars of sand at different distances, at times moving with great celerity, at others stalking on with a majestic slowness; at intervals we thought they were coming in a very few minutes to overwhelm us; and small quantities of sand did actually more than once reach us. Again they would retreat so as to be almost out of sight, their tops reaching to the very clouds. There the tops often separated from the bodies; and these, once disjoined, dispersed in the air, and did not appear more. Sometimes they were broken near the middle, as if struck with a large cannon shot. About noon they began to advance with considerable swiftness upon us, the wind being very strong at north. Eleven of them ranged alongside of us about the distance of three miles. The greatest diameter of the largest appeared to me at that distance as if it would measure ten feet. They retired from us with a wind at S. E. leaving an impression upon my mind to which I can give no name, though surely one ingredient in it was fear, with a considerable deal of wonder and astonishment. It was in vain to think of flying; the swiftest horse, or fastest sailing ship, could be of no use to carry us out of this danger, and the full persuasion of this rivetted me as if to the spot where I stood, and let the camels gain on me so much in my state of lameness, that it was with some difficulty I could overtake them.

The effect this stupendous sight had upon Idris was to set him to his prayers, indeed rather to his charms; for, besides the name of God and Mahomet, all the rest of the words were mere gibberish and nonsense. This created a violent altercation between him and Ismael the Turk, who abused him for not praying in the words of the Koran, maintaining, with apparent great wisdom at the same time, that nobody had charms to stop these moving sands but the inhabitants of Arabia Deserta.

The Arabs to whom this inhospitable spot belongs are the Adelaia. They, too, are Jaheleen, or Arabs of Beni Koreish. They are said to be a harmless race, and to do no hurt to the caravans they meet; yet I very much doubt, had we fallen in with them they would not have deserved the good name that was given them. We went very slowly to-day, our feet being sore and greatly swelled. The whole of our company were much disheartened, (except Idris) and imagined that they were advancing into whirl-winds of moving sand, from which they should never be able to extricate themselves; but before four o'clock in the afternoon these phantoms of the plain had all of them fallen to the ground and disappeared. In the evening we came to Waadi Dimokea, where we passed the night, much disheartened, and our fear more increased, when we found, upon wakening in the morning, that one side was perfectly buried in the sand that the wind had blown above us in the night.

From this day, subordination, though not entirely ceased, was fast on the decline; all was discontent, murmuring, and fear. Our water was greatly diminished, and that terrible death by thirst began to stare us in the face, and this was owing in a great measure to our own imprudence. Ismael, who had been left centinel over the skins of water, had slept so soundly, that this had given an opportunity to a Tucorory to open one of the skins that had not been touched, and serve himself out of it at his own discretion. I suppose that, hearing somebody stir, and fearing detection, he had withdrawn himself as speedily as possible, without taking time to tie the mouth of the girba, which we found in the morning with scarce a quart of water in it.

On the 15th, at a quarter past seven in the morning we left Waadi Dimokea, keeping a little to the westward of north, as far as I could judge, just upon the line of Syene. The same ridge of hills being on our right and left as yesterday, in the center of these appeared Del Aned. At twenty minutes past two o'clock in the afternoon we came to an opening in the ridge of rocks; the passage is about a mile broad, through which we continued till we alighted at the foot of the mountain Del Aned. The place is called Waadi Del Aned.

The same appearance of moving pillars of sand presented themselves to us this day in form and disposition like those we had seen at Waadi Halboub, only they seemed to be more in number, and less in size. They came several times in a direction close upon us; that is, I believe, within less than two miles. They began, immediately after sun-rise, like a thick wood, and almost darkened the sun: His rays shining through them for near an hour, gave them an appearance of pillars of fire. Our people now became desperate: The Greeks shrieked out, and said it was the day of judgment. Ismael pronounced it to be hell, and the Tucorories, that the world was on fire. I asked Idris if ever he had before seen such a sight? He said he had often seen them as terrible, though never worse; but what he feared most was that extreme redness in the air, which was a sure presage of the coming of the simoom. I begged and entreated Idris that he would not say one word of that in the hearing of the people, for they had already felt it at Imhanzara in their way from Ras el Feel to Teawa, and again at the Acaba of Gerri, before we came to Chendi, and they were already nearly distracted at the apprehension of finding it here.

At half past four o'clock in the afternoon we left Waadi Del Aned, our course a little more to the westward than the direction of Syene. The sands which had disappeared yesterday scarcely shewed themselves at all this day, and at a great distance from the horizon. This was, however, a comfort but of short duration. I observed Idris took no part in it, but only warned me and the servants, that, upon the coming of the simoom, we should fall upon our faces, with our mouths upon the earth, so as not to partake of the outward air as long as we could hold our breath. We alighted at six o'clock at a small rock in the sandy ground, without trees or herbage, so that our camels fasted all that night. This place is called Ras el Seah, or, by the Bishareen, El Mout, which signifies death, a name of bad omen.

On the 16th, at half past ten in the forenoon we left El Mout, standing in the direction close upon Syene. Our men, if not gay, were however in better spirits than I had seen them since we left Gooz. One of our Barbarins had even attempted a song; but Hagi Ismael very gravely reproved him, by telling him, that singing in such a situation was a tempting of Providence. There is, indeed, nothing more different than active and passive courage. Hagi Ismael would fight, but he had not strength of mind to suffer. At eleven o'clock, while we contemplated with great pleasure the rugged top of Chiggre, to which we were fast approaching, and where we were to solace ourselves with plenty of good water, Idris cried out, with a loud voice, Fall upon your faces, for here is the simoom. I saw from the S. E. a haze come, in colour like the purple part of the rainbow, but not so compressed or thick. It did not occupy twenty yards in breadth, and was about twelve feet high from the ground. It was a kind of blush upon the air, and it moved very rapidly, for I scarce could turn to fall upon the ground with my head to the northward, when I felt the heat of its current plainly upon my face. We all lay flat on the ground, as if dead, till Idris told us it was blown over. The meteor, or purple haze, which I saw, was indeed passed, but the light air that still blew was of heat to threaten suffocation. For my part, I found distinctly in my breast that I had imbibed a part of it, nor was I free of an asthmatic sensation till I had been some months in Italy, at the baths of Poretta, near two years afterwards.

An universal despondency had taken possession of our people. They ceased to speak to one another, and when they did, it was in whispers, by which I easily guessed their discourse was not favourable to me, or else that they were increasing each others fears, by vain suggestions calculated to sink each others spirits still further, but from which no earthly good could possibly result. I called them together, and both reprimanded and exhorted them in the strongest manner I could; I bade them attend to me, who had nearly lost my voice by the simoom, and desired them to look at my face, so swelled as scarcely to permit me to see; my neck covered with blisters, my feet swelled and inflamed, and bleeding with many wounds. In answer to the lamentation that the water was exhausted, and that we were upon the point of dying with thirst, I ordered each man a gourd full of water more than he had the preceding day, and shewed them, at no great distance, the bare, black, and sharp point of the rock Chiggre, wherein was the well at which we were again to fill our girbas, and thereby banish the fear of dying by thirst in the desert. I believe I never was at any time more eloquent, and never had eloquence a more sudden effect. They all protested and declared their concern chiefly arose from the situation they saw me in; that they feared not death or hardship, provided I would submit a little to their direction in the taking a proper care of myself. They intreated me to use one of the camels, and throw off the load that it carried, that it would ease me of the wounds in my feet, by riding at least part of the day. This I positively refused to do, but recommended to them to be strong of heart, and to spare the camels for the last resource, if any should be taken ill and unable to walk any longer.

This phænomenon of the simoom, unexpected by us, though foreseen by Idris, caused us all to relapse into our former despondency. It still continued to blow, so as to exhaust us entirely, though the blast was so weak as scarcely would have raised a leaf from the ground. At twenty minutes before five the simoom ceased, and a comfortable and cooling breeze came by starts from the north, blowing five or six minutes at a time, and then falling calm. We were now come to the Acaba, the ascent before we arrived at Chiggre, where we intended to have stopt that night, but we all moved on with tacit consent, nor did one person pretend to say how far he guessed we were to go.

At thirteen minutes past eight we alighted in a sandy plain absolutely without herbage, covered with loose stones, a quarter of a mile due north of the well, which is in the narrow gorge, forming the southern outlet of this small plain. Though we had travelled thirteen hours and a quarther this day, it was but at a slow pace, our camels being famished, as well as tired, and lamed likewise by the sharp stones with which the ground in all places was covered. The country, for three days past, had been destitute of herbage of any kind, entirely desert, and abandoned to moving sands. We saw this day, after passing Ras el Seah, large blocks and strata of pure white marble, equal to any in colour that ever came from Paros.

Chiggre is a small narrow valley, closely covered up and surrounded with barren rocks. The wells are ten in number, and the narrow gorge which opens to them is not ten yards broad. The springs, however, are very abundant. Wherever a pit is dug five or six feet deep, it is immediately filled with water. The principal pool is about forty yards square and five feet deep; but the best tasted water was in the cleft of a rock, about 30 yards higher, on the west side of this narrow outlet. All the water, however, was very foul, with a number of animals both aquatic and land. It was impossible to drink without putting a piece of our cotton girdle over our mouths, to keep, by filtration, the filth of dead animals out of it. We saw a great many partridges upon the face of the bare rock; but what they fed upon I could not guess, unless upon insects. We did not dare to shoot at them, for fear of being heard by the wandering Arabs that might be somewhere in the neighbourhood; for Chiggre is a haunt of the Bishareen of the tribe of Abou Bertran, who, though they do not make it a station, because there is no pasture in the neighbourhood, nor can any thing grow there, yet it is one of the most valuable places of refreshment, on account of the great quantity of water, being nearly half way, when they drive their cattle from the borders of the Red Sea to the banks of the Nile; as also in their expeditions from south to north, when they leave their encampments in Barbar, to rob the Ababdé Arabs on the frontiers of Egypt.

Our first attention was to our camels, to whom we gave that day a double feed of dora, that they might drink for the rest of their journey, should the wells in the way prove scant of water. We then washed in a large pool, the coldest water, I think, I ever felt, on account of its being in a cave covered with rock, and was inaccessible to the sun in any direction. All my people seemed to be greatly recovered by this refrigeration, but from some cause or other, it fared otherwise with the Tucorory; one of whom died about an hour after our arrival, and another early the next morning.

Subordination, if now not entirely gone, was expiring, so that I scarcely expected to have interest enough with my own servants to help me to set up my large quadrant: Yet I was exceedingly curious to know the situation of this remarkable place, which Idris the Hybeer declared to be halfway to Assouan. But it seems their curiosity was not less than mine; above all, they wanted to prove that Idris was mistaken, and that we were considerably nearer to Egypt than we were to Barbar. While Idris and the men filled the skins with water, the Greeks and I set up the quadrant, and, by observation of the two bright stars of Orion, I found the latitude of Chiggre to be 20° 58´ 30´´ N.; so that, allowing even some small error in the position of Syene in the French maps, Idris's guess was very near the truth, and both the latitude and longitude of Chiggre and Syene seemed to require no further investigation.

During the whole time of the observation, an antelope of a very large kind, went several times round and round the quadrant; and at the time when my eyes were fixed upon the star, came so near as to bite a part of my cotton cloth which I had spread like a carpet to kneel on. Even when I stirred, it would leap about two or three yards from me, and then stand and gaze with such attention, that it would have appeared to by-standers (had there been any) that we had been a long time acquainted. The first idea was the common one, to kill it. I easily could have done this with a lance; but it seemed so interested in what I was doing, that I began to think it might perhaps be my good genius which had come to visit, protect, and encourage me in the desperate situation in which I then was.