fused to answer even to the diving rod.
They saw catacombs--the Tombs of the Kings--some of which were scrawled
with graffiti, laboured perhaps by some idle Nabathaean boy in the time
of Christ. They found remains of furnaces, picked up some coins, and saw
undoubted evidences of ancient opulence. That was all. Thence they made
for Makna, passing on their way a catacombed hill called "the Praying
Place of Jethro," and a shallow basin of clay known as Moses' Well.
From Makna, where they found their gunboat waiting for them, they then
cruised to El Akabah, the ancient Eziongeber, in whose waters had ridden
the ships of Solomon laden with the merchandise of India and Sheba. They
reached Moilah again on February 13th. The second journey, which took
them due East as far as the arid Hisma, lasted from February 17th to
March 8th. Burton considered the third journey the most important, but
as they found nothing of any consequence it is difficult to understand
why. First they steamed to El Wijh, in the "Sinnar," which had taken the
place of the Mukhbir, and then marched inland to the ancient mines of
Abul Maru. But Burton now saw the futility of attempting to proceed
further. On April 10th they were back again at El Wijh, on the 18th at
Moilah and on the 20th at Suez.

In the meantime, Mrs. Burton had left Trieste, in order to join her
husband. She stayed a week at Cairo, where she met General Gordon, who
listened smilingly to her anticipations respecting the result of the
expedition, and then she went on to Suez. Writing to her nieces, the
Misses Stisted, 23rd March 1878, she said: "I have taken a room looking
across the Red Sea and desert towards Midian, and hope at last to finish
my own book [A.E.I., Arabia, Egypt and India]. What on earth Paul is
doing with Richard's Midian [308] God only knows. I have written and
telegraphed till I am black in the face, and telegrams cost 2s. 6d. a
word." At last on 20th April, while Mrs. Burton was in church, a slip of
paper was put into her hand: "The 'Sinnar' is in sight."

Determined that the Khedive should have something for his money,
Burton and his company had, to use Mrs. Burton's expression, "returned
triumphantly," with twenty-five tons of minerals and numerous objects of
archaeological interest. The yield of the argentiferous and cupriferous
ores, proved, alas! to be but poor. They went in search of gold, and
found graffiti! But was Burton really disappointed? Hardly. In reading