s--aye, thousands--of ships, in all ages, whose
misfortune it has been to sail unsuspectingly along the western shores
of the Ethiopian continent.

Even at the present day the castaways upon this desert shore are by no
means rare, notwithstanding the warnings that at close intervals have
been proclaimed for a period of three hundred years.

While I am writing, some stranded brig, barque, or ship may be going to
pieces between Bojador and Blanco; her crew making shorewards in boats
to be swamped among the foaming breakers; or, riding three or four
together upon some severed spar, to be tossed upon a desert strand, that
each may wish, from the bottom of his soul, should prove _uninhabited_!

I can myself record a scene like this that occurred not ten years ago,
about midway between the two headlands above named--Bojador and Blanco.
The locality may be more particularly designated by saying: that, at
half distance between these noted capes, a narrow strip of sand extends
for several miles out into the Atlantic, parched white under the rays of
a tropical sun--like the tongue of some fiery serpent, well represented
by the Saaera, far stretching to seaward; ever seeking to cool itself in
the crystal waters of the sea.

CHAPTER II.

TYPES OF THE TRIPLE KINGDOM.

Near the tip of this tongue, almost within "licking" distance, on an
evening in the month of June 18--, a group of the kind last alluded
to--three or four castaways upon a spar--might have been seen by any eye
that chanced to be near.

Fortunately for them, there was none sufficiently approximate to make
out the character of that dark speck, slowly approaching the white
sand-spit, like any other drift carried upon the landward current of the
sea.

It was just possible for a person standing upon the summit of one of the
sand "dunes" that, like white billows, rolled off into the interior of
the continent--it was just possible for a person thus placed to have
distinguished the aforesaid speck without the aid of a glass; though
with one it would have required a prolonged and careful observation to
have discovered its character.

The sand-spit was full three miles in length. The hills stood back from
the shore another. Four miles was sufficient to screen the castaways
from the observation of anyone who might be straying along the coast.

For the individuals themselves it appeared very improbable that there
could be any one observing them. As far as eye c