the desert, however, is seldom visited, except where the caravans pursue their laborious and dangerous route.  In other parts, the disconsolate wanderer, wherever he turns, sees nothing around him but a vast indeterminable expanse of sand and sky; a gloomy and barren void, where the eye finds no particular object to rest upon, and the mind is filled with painful apprehensions of perishing with thirst.  Surrounded by this dreary solitude, the traveller sees the dead bodies of birds, that the violence of the wind has brought from happier regions; and as he ruminates on the fearful length of his remaining passage, listens with horror to the voice of the driving blast, the only sound that interrupts the awful repose of the desert.

The antelope and the ostrich are the only wild animals of these regions of desolation, but on the skirts of the desert are found lions, panthers, elephants, and wild boars.  Of domestic animals the camel alone can endure the fatigue of crossing it:  by the conformation of his stomach, he can carry a supply of water for ten or twelve days; his broad and yielding foot is well adapted for treading the sand; his flesh is preferred by the Moors to any other, and the milk is pleasant and nourishing.  On the evening of the 25th of May, Mr. Park’s horse and accoutrements were sent to him by order of Ali.  He had already taken leave of queen Fatima, who most graciously returned him part of his apparel, and early on the 20th, he departed from the camp of Bubaker, accompanied by Johnson and Demba, and a number of moorish horsemen.

Early in the morning of the 28th of May, Mr. Park was ordered to get in readiness to depart, and Ali’s chief slave told the negro boy, that Ali was to be his master in future; then turning to Mr. Park, he said, the boy and every thing but your horse go back to Bubaker, but you may take the old fool (meaning Johnson, the interpreter) with you to Jarra.  Mr. Park, shocked at the idea of losing the boy, represented to Ali, that whatever imprudence he had himself been guilty of, in coming into Ludamar, he thought he had been sufficiently punished by being so long detained, and then plundered of his property.  This, however, gave him no uneasiness, compared to the present injury.  The boy seized on was not a slave, and accused of no offence.  His fidelity to his master had brought him into his present situation, and he, as his protector, could not see him enslaved without deprecating the cruelty and injustice of the act.  Ali, with a haughty and malignant smile, told his interpreter, that if Mr. Park did not depart that instant, he would send him back likewise.  Finding it was vain to expect redress, Mr. Park shook hands with his affectionate boy, who was not less affected than himself, and having blended his tears with those of the boy, assured him he would spare no pains to effect his release.  Poor Demba was led off by three of Ali’s slaves towards the camp at Bubaker.