More sandy Desert--Fatiguing March--Water and
Herbage--Water-drinking--Sight the Plateau over the Mourzuk--Hot
Wind--Arrival in El-Wady--Tuaricks--Laghareefah--Fezzanees--The Chaouches
astray--The Sheikh Abd-el-Hady--Description of the Oasis--Tempest--Native
Huts--Official Visits--Desert News--Camel-drivers--Ruins of Azerna--Move
on--The Kaïd--Modest Requests--Ladies of the Wady--Leave the Oasis--Vast
Plain--Instinct of the Camel--Reach Agar--Reception--Precede the
Caravan--Reach Mourzuk--Mr. Gagliuffi--Honours paid to the Mission--Acting
Pasha--Climate--Route from Tripoli--Its Division into Zones--Rain in the
Desert.


On the 1st of May we had an arduous piece of work to perform. The
khafilah was in motion fourteen entire hours, over heavy sand, with the
hot wind breathing fiercely upon it. No amateur walking was indulged in.
Every one kept sullenly to his camel; and those who were obliged to
advance on foot dragged slowly along, seeming every moment as if they
were about to abandon all exertion in despair, and lie down to perish.
Our course lay mostly south, as usual; but varied occasionally from
south-east to south-west. The scene was one of the most singular that
could be imagined. Camels and men were scattered along the track,
treading slowly but continually forward, and yet not seeming to advance
at all. Instead of the cheering cry of "_Isa! Isa!_" which urges on the
burdened beasts over rocky deserts, the dull, prolonged sound of
"_Thurr! Thurr!_" was substituted. Beyond this there was no noise. The
men had no strength to talk or to sing, and the tread of many feet
awaken no echo in the sandy waste. Waves of red and yellow, or of
dazzling whiteness, swelled round in a circle of ever-varying diameter
as we rose and fell. Here and there stretched great stains of black