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Updated: June 25, 2025


At daybreak I set out with four Arab matchlock-men, and taking a direction nearly due west, waded and walked over an alluvial plain flooded by every high tide. On our way we passed lines of donkeys and camels carrying water-skins from the town; they were under guard like ourselves, and the sturdy dames that drove them indulged in many a loud joke at our expense.

The water-skins and camel-tanks were all filled, for but little water had been left at the zareba; and the men, although they had scarcely eaten any food for the last forty-eight hours, started in good spirits, perfectly ready for another fight should the enemy try to stop them.

We had for two days been travelling through a wild and mountainous country, skirting the base of the Cordilleras, which served as our guide, and looking out for a pass known to Pedro, by which we might cross them. Our provisions were expended, though we had frequent opportunities of replenishing our water-skins, which enabled us the better to support our fatigue.

Squatting among the rocks, or lying thickly in the shadow, they peered out at the slow-moving square beneath them, while women with water-skins and bags of dhoora fluttered from group to group, calling out to each other those fighting texts from the Koran which in the hour of battle are maddening as wine to the true believer.

They had brought water-skins with them, and Edgar received his share. They started at daybreak again, and travelling the whole day came down at night upon a small village at a short distance from the river. Here the sheik had evidently friends, for he was warmly greeted as they entered.

"I have just seen Clinton," he said, "and the rumours are going to be fulfilled at last. They did not inspect our water-skins, arms, and accoutrements for nothing to-day. We are to start on the 30th across the desert. There is no secret about it, or of course Clinton wouldn't have told me. There are to be our regiment, a squadron of Hussars, the Mounted Infantry, and Engineers.

The road lay over very elevated ground, and so low was the temperature in the morning, that the water in their shallow vessels was crusted with thin flakes of ice, and the water-skins themselves were frozen as hard as a board. The horses and camels stood shivering with cold. Dr Oudney also became extremely ill, probably from the low temperature.

Many people, of course, in Ghadames, never saw a Christian before me; but they are quite as much astonished to see a Christian eat and drink in the Ramadan, as to see the Christian himself. This afternoon I was very thirsty, and went to drink a little water from one of the water-skins suspended in a square. A woman, of half-caste, going by at the time, cried out, "Why, why?"

"I see," said the professor, nodding his head; "and they are filling water-skins?" "Yes, Excellency, and I am told to do the same." "Then we are going to strike right out into the desert, of course." "Yes, Excellency, to take the shortest ways; and it looks like flight."

No, really, John, dear, I am quite well not even very thirsty, for our party filled their water-skins at the Nile, and they let me have as much as I wanted. But I don't see Mr. Headingly and Mr. Brown. And poor Mr. Stuart what a state he has been reduced to!" "Headingly and Brown are out of their troubles," her husband answered.

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