journey down the river; and, according to the custom of those who travel on this river, we provided a small bark for the conveyance of ourselves and our goods.  These boats are flat-bottomed, because the river is shallow in many places; and when people travel in the months of July, August, and September, the water being then at the lowest, they have to carry a spare boat or two along with them, to lighten their own boats in case of grounding on the shoals.  We were twenty-eight days upon the river in going between Bir and Feluchia, at which last place we disembarked ourselves and our goods.

During our passage down the Euphrates, we tied our boat to a stake every night at sun-set, when we went on land and gathered some sticks to make a fire, on which we set our pot, with rice or bruised wheat; and when we had supped, the merchants went on board to sleep, while the mariners lay down for the night on the shore, as near the boats as they could.  At many places on the river side we met with troops of Arabs, of whom we bought milk, butter, eggs, and lambs, giving them in barter, for they care not for money, glasses, combs, coral, amber, to hang about their necks; and for churned milk we gave them bread and pomegranate peels, with which they tan their goat skins which they use for churns.  The complexion, hair, and apparel of these Arabs, are entirely like to those vagabond Egyptians who heretofore used to go about in England.  All their women, without one exception, wear a great round ring of gold, silver, or iron, according to their abilities, in one of their nostrils, and about their legs they have hoops of gold, silver, or iron.  All of them, men, women, and children, are excellent swimmers, and they often brought off in this manner vessels with milk on their heads to our barks.  They are very thievish, as I proved to my cost, for they stole a casket belonging to me, containing things of good value, from under my man’s head as he lay asleep.

At Bir the Euphrates is about as broad as the Thames at Lambeth, in some places broader, and in others narrower, and it runs very swiftly, almost as fast as the Trent.  It has various kinds of fish, all having scales, some like our barbels, as large as salmon.  We landed at Feluchia on the 28th of June, and had to remain there seven days for want of camels to carry our goods to Babylon, [Bagdat,] the heat at that season being so violent that the people were averse from hiring their camels to travel.  Feluchia is a village of some hundred houses, and is the place appointed for discharging such goods as come down the river, the inhabitants being all Arabs.  Not being able to procure camels, we had to unlade our goods, and hired an hundred asses to carry our English merchandize to New Babylon, or Bagdat, across a short desert, which took us eighteen hours of travelling, mostly in the night and morning, to avoid the great heat of the day.