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Updated: June 9, 2025
His hopes were but slight, and sprang rather from a knowledge of his own necessities, and of what the women ought to have done, than what they were likely to do. Old Bill had heard too much of the character of these hags of the Saara, and their mode of conducting themselves towards any unfortunate castaway who might be drifted among them, to expect any great hospitality at their hands.
As each in turn got filled, it was taken back to the tribe to which it belonged; for the united hordes had by this time become separated into two distinct parties, preparatory to starting off on their respective routes. Our adventurers could now perceive a marked difference between the two bands of Saara wanderers into whose hands they had unfortunately fallen.
And no wonder; on that inhospitable seaboard thousands of his fellows have found a watery grave; and thousands of others a doom far more deplorable than death! There are two great deserts: one of land, the other of water the Saara and the Atlantic their contiguity extending through ten degrees of the earth's latitude an enormous distance.
They all knew enough of the sea to be aware how rapidly the tide sets in, especially on some foreign shores, and there was nothing to assure them that the seaboard of the Saara was not beset by the most treacherous of tides. On the contrary, it was just this, a tidal current, that had forced their vessel among the breakers, causing them to become what they now were, castaways!
They managed to learn from him that he had once been in an English ship, and had made a voyage along the African coast, trading for palm-oil. While on board he had picked up a smattering of English. He was afterwards shipwrecked in a Portuguese brig, cast away on the shores of the Saara, just as our adventurers had been, and had passed four years in the desert, a slave to its denizens.
It is proper to observe, that on keeping to the southwards, from the Straits of Gibraltar, the coast of exterior Barbary is inhabited no farther than Cape Cantin , from whence to Cape Branco is the sandy country or desert, called Saara or Saharra by the natives, which is divided from Barbary or Morocco on the north by the mountains of Atlas, and borders on the south with the country of the Negroes, and would require a journey of fifty days to cross, in some places more, in others less.
"If such an accomplished individual," reasoned they, "has been for ten years a slave in the Saara, unable to escape or reach any place where his liberty might be restored, what hope is there for us?" Every hour of the journey presented some additional evidence that the kafila was leaving the Great Desert behind, and drawing near a land that might be considered fertile.
He had kept his suspicions to himself, not imparting them even to his own special followers. By the laws of the Saara, a slave taken by any one of the tribe belongs not to its chief but to the individual who makes the capture. For this reason had the cunning sexagenarian kept his thoughts to himself, and fallen solus into the rear of the returning horde.
The footmarks of the three mids were still easily traceable, even on the ground already trampled by the Arabs, their horses, and maherries. The "cloots" of a camel would not have been more conspicuous in the mud of an English road, than were the shoe-prints of the three young seamen in the sands of the Saara.
Our adventurers, on being allowed some breakfast, were commanded to eat it in all haste, and then assist in preparing the animals for the road. They were also informed that they were to be taken back to the Saara, and sold. "Shall we go, or die?" asked Colin. "I, for one, had rather die than again pass through the hardships of a journey in the desert."
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