o a declivity, which led
to a place, where they expected to hide me from the sight of their
companions. Suddenly I observed our flocks, and our little caravan, to
the number of twenty persons, in a valley which surrounded the
mountains. I luckily escaped out of the hands of my plunderers, and
found as much strength, as enabled me to reach to my old man. The
vagabonds affrighted, took to their heels.

My master reprimanded me severely, and charged me never to separate from
him again. I complained on my part, that he had not stopped me, when he
observed that the road which I pursued, was not that which he himself
was to take, and by his silence, I supposed I was right; in a word, that
he had gone off without calling me back, and that he had not sent any
person in search of me. He gave me for answer, that he had not stopped
me in the road I had taken, because he intended to follow me
immediately; but he had been under the necessity of going after the
camels, who had strayed through the valley, eating the green herbs, of
which they had been long deprived. "I was preparing to overtake you,"
said he, "at the very moment, when the sound of your voice reached me,
and apprised me both of your danger, and of that to which I would have
been exposed in following you. But I durst not risk my camels, nor
hazard my own life, to preserve yours; we have, besides, no time to
lose; let us escape as quickly as possible, from a place, in which I am
in as great danger as yourself." In consequence, we doubled our pace,
for the following six hours, and made a cross-march, in order to deceive
those who might be disposed to follow us. We eat no food the next and
following day, until the evening. I had taken nothing for my support for
two days, but a few handfuls of wild succory, which I had gathered in
the fatal valley.

The day following, we were in an open country. We had passed over the
hills, and travelled through plains, filled with calcined flint-stones,
which resembled smith's charcoal. Above these stones, arose at a little
distance, a whitish earth, upon which we saw great trunks of trees,
heaped upon one another, the roots of which were torn off. The bark was
entirely stripped off, and the branches, brittle as glass, were twisted
like cords. The wood was of a yellowish colour, like the wood of
liquorice, and besides, the inside of these trees was filled with a
powder, very hard to the touch. All this announced to me a very
extraordina