tops often feparated from the bodies; and these, once disjoined, difperfed in the air, and did not appear more. Sometimes they were broken near the middle, as if ftruck with a large cannon fhot. About neon they began to advance with confiderable fwiftnefs upon us, the wind being very strong at north. Eleven of them ranged alongfide of us about the distance of three miles. The greatest diameter of the largest appeared to me at that diftance as if it would measure ten feet. They retired from us with a wind at S. E. leaving an impreffion upon my mind to which I can give no name, though furely one ingredient in it was fear, with a confiderable deal of wonder and astonishment. It was in vain to think of flying, the swiftest horie or fastest failing fhip could be of no ufe to carry us out of this danger; and the full perfuafion of this rivetted me as if to the spot where I flood, and let the camels gain on me fo much in my state of lameness, that it was with fome difficulty I could overtake them.'

The fame appearance of moving pillars of fand prefented themfelves to us this day in form and difpofition like those we had feen at Waadi Halboub, only they feemed to be more in number and lefs in lize. They came feveral times in a direction close upon us, that is, I believe, within less than two miles. They began immediately after fun-rife, like a thick wood, and almost darkened the fun: his rays fhining through them for near an hour, gave them an appearance of pillars of fire. Our people now became defperate: the Greek fhrieked out, and faid it was the day of judgment. Ifmael pronounced it to be hell, and the Tucorories, that the world was on fire. I asked Idris if ever he had before feen fuch a fight? He said he had often feen them as terrible, though never worfe; but what he feared most was that extreme redrefs in the air, which was a fure prefage of the coming of the fimoom.'

At eleven o'clock while we contemplated with great pleasure the rugged top of Chiggrè, to which we were faft approaching, and where we were to folace ourfelves with plenty of good wa ter, Idris cried out with a loud voice, fall upon your faces, for here is the fimoom. I faw from the S. E. a haze come, in colour like the purple part of the rainbow, but not fo compreffed or thick. It did not occupy twenty yards in breadth, and was about twelve feet high from the ground. It was a kind of blush upon the air, and it moved very rapidly, for I fearce could turn to fall upon the ground with my head to the northward, when I felt the heat of its current plainly upon my face. We all lay flat on the ground as if dead, till Idris told us it was blown over. The meteor or purple haze which I faw, was indeed paffed, but the light air that ftill blew was of heat to threaten fuffocation. For my part, I found dinin&tly in my breast that I had imbibed a part of it, nor was I free of an authmatic fenfation till I had been fome months in Italy, at the baths of Poretta, near two years afterwards.'

Thefe

Thefe wonderful phænomena we have brought into one view, as they contribute to illuftrate each other. But we may remark in paffing on, what we are furprised has escaped our author, viz. that these appearances ftrongly illuftrate the paffage of Exodus, where a pillar of fire preceded and gave light to the Ifraelites. Thefe pillars appeared in the day; but we have little doubt of their being fometimes feen in the night. In the compafs of an article it cannot be expected that we should give a philofophical explanation of thefe appearances, nor indeed would it be eafy, within any limits. Let us juft remark, that the pillars were feen in the curvature of the Nile may we not then fuppofe the air in these spots was highly electrical, and that the fluid had a free communication with the neighbouring ftrata of air while they continued. moift; but when at fome distance from the river, it met with a fervid atmosphere, which is a non-conductor, the refiftance to its paffage occafioned the whirlwinds which raised the fand into the form of pillars? In thefe circumftances, the electric fluid would be feen sparkling along the edges of the pillar from one particle of fand to another, and give the light that was observed; and the red haze in the air which preceded the fimoom, would proceed from the diffused electrified fand. From thefe frequent difcharges of the electrical fluid, the air must be vitiated with a mixture of inflammable and phlogifticated airs, which will flow to that fide of the atmosphere in which they find leaft refiftance, that is, to the fide of the defert, for the river preferves the atmosphere over it cool, and confequently more denfe. The peftilential wind is evidently, from its effects, of the kind which we have pointed. out, and which we know, in our experiments, refults from discharging the electrical spark in common air.

The valley and the well of Chiggrè afforded our travellers confiderable relief. They drank of its water, they bathed in it, and if they could have been fecure from the Arabs, they might have been greatly, refreshed; but, from the fame wants, the Arabs must often refort to thefe wells in their paffage from the Nile to the Red Sea. The fimoom, however, which, from its debilitating power, delayed their journey, and the time which was fpent at Chiggrè, faved their lives; for now being nearer the Nile, which, in this latitude, affumes an easterly direction, the pillars were found in the track of their journey. At their next ftage, when the increasing cold. gave confiderable pain to the feet, and when our author's mind was harraffed with apprehenfions, that Syene might be more to the west than was fuppofed-in this ftate what must be Mr. Bruce's feelings at the following appearance, when the lofs of

Y y 3

his

his camels must have been neceffarily attended with a lingering death, or a more cruel termination of his life in the tortures of Arabian slavery?

• Muling then upon the geographical difficulties just mentioned, and gazing before me without any particular intention or fufpicion, I heard the chain of the camels clink, as if fomebody was unloofing them, and then at the end of the gleam made by the fire, I faw diftinctly a man pafs swiftly by, stooping as he went along, his face almost to the ground. A little time after this I heard another clink of the chain, as if from a pretty sharp blow, and immediately after a movement among the camels; I then rofe, and cried in a threatening tone in Arabic, "I charge you, on your life, whoever you are, either come up to me directly, or keep at a diftance till day, but come that way no more; why fhould you throw your life away?" In a minute after he repaffed in the fhade among the trees, pretty much in the manner he had done before. As I was on guard between the baggage and the camels, I was confequently armed, and advanced deliberately fome teps, as far as the light of the fire fhone, on purpose to discover how many they were, and was ready to fire upon the firft I faw." If you are an honest man, cried I aloud, and want any thing, come up to the fire and fear not, I am alone; but if you approach the camels or the baggage again, the world will not be able to fave your life, and your blood be upon your own head." Mahomet, Idris's nephew, who heard me cry, came running up from the well to fee what was the matter. We went down together to where the camels were, and upon examination, found that the links of one of the chains had been broke, but the opening not large enough to let the corresponding whole link through to feparate it. A hard blue ftone was driven through a link of one of the chains of another camel, and leit flicking there, the chain not, being entirely broke through; we faw befides the print of a man's foot in the fand.'

This double attempt, (fome marks of petty plunder) was an indication of a number of people being in the neighbourhood, in which cafe our prefent fituation was one of the most defperate that could be figured. We were in the middle of the molt barren inhospitable defert in the world, and it was with the utmost difficulty that from day to day we could carry where withal to affuage our thirst. We had with us the only bread it was poffible to procure for fome hundred miles; lances and fwords were not neceffary to deftroy us, the bursting or tearing of a girba, the lamencfs or death of a camel, a thorn or sprain in the foot which might difable us from walking, were as certain death to us as a fhot from a cannon. There was no flaying for one another: to lofe time was to die, because, with the utmost exertion our camels could make, we fearce could carry along with us a fcanty provifion of bread and water fufficient to keep us alive.'

6

The

The travellers were accordingly in readiness for an attack at break of day; but day appeared and no enemy was feen.. They then found the print of a man's foot, and traced it beyond the point of a rock, where they faw an Arab with two women and a child, left by the party, with a lame camel. Inftant death, for fear of difcovery, was immediately announced; but Mr. Bruce, with more wifdom and coolness, availed himself of the accident to procure an additional guide. If, therefore, he would accompany the travellers, a reward was offered, and fome provifion was to be left with his family; but he was to be conftantly linked to one of the party, and immediate death was to follow any danger that might appear to proceed from his information. We may here add, that he accepted the terms with gratitude, terms fan above his deferts, for by his condu&t he had deliberately defined the whole party to the most miferable death; fulfilled his engagement, and wondered what kind of men he had engaged with, who had kept their words without aiming at fubterfuge or fraud, when they might have deprived him of the reward without danger. After their departure, they again faw marks of the fimoom, due fouth, towards the fouthern curvature of the Nile. The haze was now less compressed, and had with it a fhade of blue. The edges were not accurately defined, but refembled a thin fmoke. It paffed with a gently rufiling wind, and left them fo weak that they were fcarcely able to load their camels. One of the camel's died, partly famifhed and partly worn. down with extreme fatigue. They afterwards met with a dead corpfe and two dead camels on the ground. Their weight was greatly reduced by the exhalation of the moisture, but no vermin had touched them, as in this whole defert there is neither worm, fly, nor any thing, that has the breath of life.

On the 21ft, at fix in the morning, having filled the girbas with water, we fet out from Naibey, our direction due north, and as we thought, in a course almost straight upon Syene. The first hour of our journey was through tharp-pointed rocks, which it was very eafy to forefee would very foon finith our camels. About eight we had a view of the defert to the we ward as before, and faw the fands had already begun to rife in immenfe twilted pillars, which darkened the heavens. The rifing of thefe in the morning fo early, we began now to obferve, was a fure fign of a hot day, with a brisk wind at north; and that heat, and the early riling of the fands, was as fure a fign of its falling calm about mid-day, and its being followed by two hours of the poisonous wind. That laft confideration was what made the greatest impreffion, for we had felt its effects, it had filled us with fear and abforbed the last remnant of our ftrength; whereas the fand, though a destruction to us if it had involved us in its compafs, had as yet done us no other harm than terrifying us the first days we had seen it.

Y94

• It

It was this day more magnificent than any we had as yet feen. The fun fhining through the pillars, which were thicker and contained more fand apparently than any of the preceding days, feemed to give thofe nearest us an appearance as if spotted with ftars of gold. I do not think at any time they feemed to be nearer than two miles. The most remarkable circumftance was, that the fand seemed to keep in that vaft circular space furrounded by the Nile on our left, in going round by Chaigie towards Dongola, and seldom was obferved much to the eastward of a meridian, paffing along the Nile through the Magiran, before it takes that turn; whereas the fimoon was always on the opposite side of our courfe, coming upon us from the fouth-east.”

We pointed out this appearance chiefly to remark that it may feem to contradict our explanation of the fimoom, as it comes from the oppofite fide to the pillars; but this is of litthe importance, for if the course of the Nile be obferved, it will be feen, that on this fide alfo it must come from the neighbourhood: as it is certainly connected with the pillars, it is not likely that thefe only appeared in front, and their caufe was certainly not a local one. If it be contended that this oppofite direction shows that the air flows in to counterbalance a vacuum, the fource of the poisonous fiuid must be different from that of the pillars, and it remains to be examined whether it may not have a fimilar fource in another spot.

When their fatigue and the fimoom had contributed to deprefs their strength and fpirits, when the wounds and ulcers of their feet had rendered life fcarcely bearable, they had another caufe of diftrefs; the water that they most commonly met with was brackish. A dejection had already feized them, and it is not eafy to fay how far it would have proceeded, but that they met with an object that roufed the latent spark of that fondness for life ufually implanted in every one, viz. the body of Mahomet Towah. With him Mr. Bruce was to have gone, and he had taken away all the Hybeers: by their treachery he was murdered by the Bifhareens, one of which was the guide they had taken with the women from the defert. This object urged him on, and they met afterwards with a fmall tribe of Arabs, who, by means of Idris, their only guide that they had taken from Chendi, paffed them on friendly terms. Their miferies foon after came to their utmoft height; their wounds were intolerably painful, their camels exhaufted could not rife from the ground, their provifions almof spent, and the end of their journey ftill uncertain. In this ftate, the fight of fome kites raised their spirits, and they made another effort on the ftrength of their remaining provifions, having already thrown away their baggage. They then came to the mountains, which confine the torrent of the Nile in its inundations: they at last hear the cataracts of the Nile. In 5

the