ing them as beasts of burden.

On June 26 we arrived at El Geyf, an environ of Souakin--the town
itself, which consists of 600 houses, being on one of the islands in the
bay of Souakin. The inhabitants of Souakin are a motley race, and are
governed by the Emir el Hadherebe, a chief of the Bisharein tribe on the
neighbouring mainland, who is chosen by the five first families of the
tribe, but is nominally dependent upon the pasha of Djidda.

The manners of the people partake of the vices of their neighbours in
the desert, and in cruelty surpass them, and the law of the strongest is
alone respected. I was ill-treated by the aga, the representative of the
Turkish Government, until I produced the firmans which I had concealed
in a secret pocket, given me by Mohammed Aly, the viceroy of Egypt, and
by Ibrahim Pasha, his son. When the aga saw these with their handsome
seals, he regarded me as a great personage; but I refused to take up my
abode in his house, which hospitality he offered, and continued to live
in the camp of the black merchants on the mainland.

I had intended proceeding to Mokha by ship and then on to Sana, the
capital of the Yemen, from which place to make the pilgrimage to Mekka.
However, having heard of the war in the Hedjaz in Arabia, I abandoned my
project, and sailed from Souakin, on July 6, for Djidda, where I arrived
on July 16, and afterwards joined Mohammed Aly.

SIR RICHARD BURTON

Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Meccah

_I.--The Pilgrim Ship_

Sir Richard F. Burton, K.C.M.G., was born at Barham House,
Hertfordshire, England, March 19, 1821. He was intended
for the Church, and spent a year at Oxford; but showed no
clerical leanings, and found a more congenial profession
when he obtained a cadetship in the Indian Army in 1842.
During the next few years he acquired an extraordinary
knowledge of Mohammedan usages and languages that was
afterwards to serve him in good stead. In 1849 he returned
to England; in 1851 published three books on Indian
subjects, and in April, 1853, set forth on his cherished
and daring project of visiting in disguise the sacred
cities of Islam. The voyage was a particularly dangerous
one, Burton frequently having to defend his life, though
in so doing he never took another life during the whole of
the journey. The account of his "Pilgrimage to El Medinah
and Meccah" was published in 1855. Afterwards he travelled
in Somaliland, C