will not be deemed too minute, when the reader recollects that I am not attempting to give any general picture of it, but only of such facts and circumstances as fell within my own observation, and form incidents in my own life.

CHAPTER V.

Desertion-Thirst and sufferings-Mecca-The Kaaba -Pilgrims-Ceremonies-Vale of Arafat-Sacrifice -Interview with Mahomet Ali-Journey to Taifa— Djibbel Kara-Tossoon Pasha defeated at TarabaHis Camp at Ciulla-Barusce-Ill success and retreat -Two Wahabee Chiefs taken, and executed-The

enemy combine - Mahomet Ali expected in the Camp.

TOWARDS the end of the last chapter I spoke of the departure of the four officers, sent from Lid to Mahomet Ali Pasha, and of the state of anxious suspense in which the troops there were waiting, to know what could be done, and who would be set over them.

As to their present condition, there was no sort of order or discipline amongst

them, and the continual annoyance which they were exposed to from the enemy made their existence both uncomfortable and precarious, so that I heartily wished myself with any other portion of the army. Not a day passed without our being more or less engaged with the Wahabees, who were collected about us in great numbers, so as in a manner to surround our position, which was not even in itself a very strong

one.

With respect to cavalry we had none, for, when we fled from Confûta, they all left us, and made their escape by land, so we saw no more of them, nor even knew where they were, but supposed them at Mecca.

We were suffering cruelly from the want of provisions, of water especially, so doubly

VOL. I.

R

necessary in that parched and burning climate. The wells were at a great distance from us, and could not be approached without the utmost risk; but what was yet worse, they were rendered disgusting and unwholesome by the number of bodies of our dead comrades, which the enemy had thrown into them for the purpose.

There was no remedy for this evil, for we could neither discover other springs as a substitute, nor so purify them as to make them tolerably potable; and some among the soldiers nauseated such a beverage to that degree, that they preferred to die for want rather than continue it.

A great many deserted: so many, that the ranks were very materially thinned, and especially of the corps which I myself belonged to.

Nay, in a state of so much misery, I began to envy those who had taken that course, and was even preparing to follow their example: not that the step, on my part at least, had the character of a complete desertion, since I intended to join the main body of the army.

I took care, therefore, to provide whatever I thought I should stand in need of, and especially a skin, which might contain water for me in my flight.

If ever there was a resolution conceived and acted upon in despair, it was this; for I was to set out alone, a foreigner in an enemy's country, with which I was unacquainted, in a torrid climate, and very poorly supplied with the common necessaries of life; but at the time of lifting my wallet and water-skin on my shoulder,