As I have already said, we see nothing on this journey but many and large companies of camels, which march one behind the other, while their drivers shorten the way with dreary inharmonious songs.  Half-devoured carcasses of these “ships of the desert” lie every where, with jackals and vultures gnawing at them.  Even living camels are sometimes seen staggering about, which have been left to starve by their masters as unfit for further service.  I shall never forget the piteous look of one of these poor creatures which I saw dragging itself to and fro in the desert, anxiously seeking for food and drink.  What a cruel being is man!  Why could he not put an end to the poor camel’s pain by a blow with a knife?  One would imagine that the air in the vicinity of these fallen animals was poisoned; but here this is less the case than it would be in more temperate regions, for the pure air and the great heat of the desert rather dry up than decompose corpses.

From the same cause our piece of roast beef was still good on the fifth day.  The hard-boiled eggs, which my servant packed so clumsily that they got smashed in the very first hour, did not become foul.  Both meat and eggs were shrunk and dried up.  On the third day the white bread had become as hard as ship-biscuit, so that we had to break it up and soak it in water.  Our drinking water became worse day by day, and smelt abominably of the leathern receptacles in which we were compelled to keep it.  Until we reached Suez our poor camels got not a drop to drink, and their food consisted of a scanty meal of bad provender once a day.

At eight in the morning we set off once more, and rode until about five in the afternoon.  At about four I suddenly descried the Red Sea and its shores.  This circumstance delighted me, for I felt assured that we should reach the coast in the course of another hour, and then our laborious journey to Suez would be accomplished.  I called to my servant, pointed out the sea to him, and expressed my surprise that we had sighted it so soon.  He maintained, however, that what I beheld was not the sea, but a fata morgana.  At first I refused to believe him, because the thing seemed so real.  But after an hour had elapsed we were as far from the sea as ever, and at length the mirage vanished; and I did not behold the real sea until six o’clock on the following morning, when it appeared in exactly the same way as the phantom of the previous evening.

At five in the afternoon we at length halted.  I lay down on the earth completely exhausted, and enjoyed a refreshing sleep for more than three hours, when I was awakened by my servant, who informed me that a caravan was just before us, which we should do well to join, as the remainder of our road was far less safe than the portion we had already traversed.  I was at once ready to mount my camel, and at eight o’clock we were again in motion.