two miles they
dropped fast into the rear. Under the fiery blast of the midnight sirocco
the cry for water, uttered feebly and with difficulty by numbers of
parched throats, now became incessant; and the supply for the whole party
falling short of a gallon and a half, it was not long to be answered. A
tiny sip of diluted vinegar for a moment assuaged the burning thirst which
raged in the vitals; but its effects were transient, and, after struggling
a few steps, they sank again, declaring their days to be numbered, and
their resolution to rise up no more. Dogs incontinently expired upon the
road, horses and mules that once lay down were abandoned to their fate;
while the lion-hearted soldier, who had braved death at the cannon's
mouth, subdued and unmanned by thirst, lay gasping by the wayside, hailing
approaching dissolution with delight, as the termination of tortures which
were no longer to be endured. As another day dawned, and the "round red
sun" again rose over the lake of salt, the courage even of those who had
borne up against this fiery trial began to flag: "a dimness came before
the drowsy eyes, giddiness seized the brain, and the hope held out by the
guides, of water in advance, seemed like the delusion of a dream."

In this crisis, at which our chief wonder is, that Major Harris and his
explorers were ever heard of again, or had left any memorials of
themselves but their bones, a wild Bedouin was seen, "like a delivering
angel," hurrying forward with a large skin, filled with muddy water. This
well-timed supply was divided among the fainting people: a quantity was
poured over the face and down the throat of each; and at a late hour,
"ghastly, haggard, and exhausted, like men who had escaped from the jaws
of death, the whole had contrived to straggle into a camp, which, but for
the foresight and firmness of the son of Ali Abi,(who had sent the water,)
few individuals would have reached alive."

After traversing this terrible desert of fifty miles--a barrier to all
general and commercial intercourse, which we should think impassable,
however it might be overcome by a small party of bold and hardy men, well
led, furnished with every supply, water excepted, which could sustain them
through its horrors, (and which yet, through that single want, had nearly
perished)--they persued a long and dlifficult march through a dreary
country, scantily peopled, dotted with robber clans, and exhibiting
impediments of all kinds