een able
to resist the violence of the weather, being besides, destitute of
provisions, had also been obliged to make the land on the 8th: the first,
at five in the afternoon; the second, at eleven in the morning.[B9] The
officers joined their crews, ranged them in order, and proceeded towards
Senegal; but they were in distress, destitute of resources of every kind:
without a guide, on a coast inhabited by barbarians: hunger and thirst
cruelly tormented them; the beams of a scorching sun, reflected from the
immense sandy plains, aggravated their sufferings. In the day, oppressed by
excessive heat, they could scarcely move a step: it was only in the cool of
the morning and the evening, that they could pursue their painful march.
Having, after infinite pains, crossed the downs, they met with vast plains,
where they had the good fortune to find water, by digging holes in the
sand: this refreshing beverage gave them fresh life and hope.

This manner of procuring water is mentioned by many travellers, and
practised in various countries. All along the coasts of Senegambia, and for
some distance in land, they find, by digging in the sand to the depth of
five or six feet, a white and brackish water, which is exclusively used in
these countries, both for the ordinary beverage and domestic purposes; the
water of the Senegal, may, however, be used at St. Louis at the time of the
rise or inundation.

The Moors have signs, which they have agreed upon among themselves, to
inform each other at a distance when they have found water. As the sands of
the desert lie in undulations, and the surface of these plains has the
appearance of a sea, broken in large waves, which, by some sudden
enchantment, had been fixed and suspended before they could fall back; it
is on the ridges of these motionless waves, that the Moors in general
travel, unless they run in a direction too different from that of their
intended route, in which case they are obliged to traverse them; but
besides, as these ridges themselves are not always ranged parallel to each
other, but frequently cross each other, the Moors always have some of their
party before, to serve as guides, and to point out by signs with their
hands, at every crossing, on which side they ought to go; and also every
thing which prudence requires they should know before hand, as well as the
water, or rather the moisture and verdure which are to be perceived. In
general, these people who approach the s