and I calculated with intense interest how many inches additional rise would utterly destroy our goods, and how many inches more peril our lives.  The most gloomy forebodings troubled me.  I had always looked forward to Aheer as a haven of safety, and instead thereof it had proved to be a place of persecution.  When men had ceased to fight against us, nature began.  I thought I could hear the fanatical people of Tintaghoda say one to the other, “Ah! they saved their lives by money, but now God comes in to punish and destroy them.”  Yet whilst I stood apart and tortured myself in this wise, our people, children of the day, who take no thought for the morrow, satisfied that the waves had not yet reached them, were full of merriment and laughter, and seemed to mock the flood, that still rose and rose, bending the largest trees, sweeping away the brushwood, and roaring angrily around the margin of the islands.  Perhaps they knew that their lives, at least, were safe; whilst I reflected that, if even we could swim to shore, leaving our property to the wild mercies of the waves, we should land in an enemy’s country, without the means of satisfying the cupidity of the first bandit who chose to attack us, and would most probably soon be sacrificed.

I was anxiously watching the progress of the inundation when at last it seemed to be checked, and no longer to rise.  God had not, then, abandoned us, and we were not driven from the fire to the waters to perish!  The flood remained stationary for awhile, still rolling along the valley, which it seemed to fill from side to side; then we noticed a slight decrease, then a progressive and rapid one:  hope buoyed up our spirits, and we thanked the Almighty for our deliverance.  As I have mentioned, I have seen floods before, but never one on so grand a scale as this, which was truly African in its magnitude and character.

As if Providence were now resolved to visit us with marked favour, just at the moment when the waters began visibly to decrease, and patches of land to appear here and there, the escort sent by Sultan En-Noor came riding over the neighbouring heights.  Our people discovered them, and shouted, “See, the Kailouees! the Kailouees!”

The waters rose above the general surface of the wady full two feet and a-half.  Had this deluge come during the night we should scarcely have saved ourselves; or, at any rate, the greater part of our property and our camels must have perished.  The power of such a body of water rushing along is tremendous.  A great number of houses of Tintaghoda were carried away, and the inhabitants declared that they never remembered such an occurrence to have happened before.  I can well believe them, otherwise the site of the town would have been changed for higher ground.  Trees numberless were uprooted, and brought down by the mighty current, which must have considerably altered the appearance of the valley.  We could already see that the earth was ploughed up in all directions; and when the inundation was at its height, serious fears were entertained lest the island on which we stood should itself be swept from under our feet.