the

green faded; it first became of a yellow tinge, then brown, then grey, then black; when death put an end to the experiment, and the sufferings of the wretched animal. The cameleon, at liberty, sits motionless among leaves of his own colour, and puts out his tongue, which is glutinous, till it be covered with insects; when he draws it in with great rapidity, and swallows his prey. The eye of the cameleon not only projects farther from the head than that of any other animal, but it is of a conical form. He possesses the faculty of moving his eyes in every direction, totally independent of

each other.

The author of whom I have ventured to say that I believe what he asserts he has seen, asserts that he has seen a green peroquet with a black head, a species common in the environs of the Gambia and the Senegal, which repeated dialogues, consisting of more than twenty questions and answers; which whistled, and sung three couplets of a drinking song; and which concluded this exhibition of its vocal powers with immoderate bursts of laughter. Whether any part of its performance depended on the imagination of its hearers, I will not take upon me to determine.

I now quitted the Senegal, and at passing over the bar, I had a proof of the attachment of the negroes. They came to conduct me, and stood naked on the deck, ready to plunge into the sea, in case of an accident. I wished to reward their zeal, but could not prevail upon them to accept any thing.

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CHAPTER XIII.

THE SAHARA, OR GREAT DESERT.

IT was not my intention to visit the Sahara; that vast expanse of sand and stone, on which no human being could exist but an Arab, and no beast but a camel, for the horses of the Arabs must perish, without the milk which their camels afford; but fogs and currents have obliged many Europeans to visit the Sahara without their intending to do so, and I was of the number; the vessel in which I sailed being wrecked on its shore.

We were driven on shore a little to the northward of Cape Blanco; and myself, and eleven other persons, travelled to the southward along the beach, under high cliffs and impending rocks, during two days; happy, if we could find, at night, a spot of sand above high water mark, for our bed, On the third day, we came to a valley formed by a high cliff on the south, and hills of sand, which shut it out from the sea, on the north. Here we found a party of Arabs, watering their camels at a well. Though we knew that plunder and slavery awaited us; in our situation it was a happiness to meet with men, and we approached these in an attitude of submission.

One of the Arabs ran towards me, with his drawn scymitar in his hand, as if he would have

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cut me to the ground; but it appeared that his design was upon my clothes, of which he stripped me. Thirty or forty other Arabs were now arriving, some running, and others riding upon swift camels; and six or eight of these were disputing for the possession of my person, and pulling me different ways at once. They cut at each other over my head, and on every side of me, till their heads, arms, and sides, were streaming with blood; while I expected to be cut to pieces before it could be decided to whom I belonged. The contest lasted nearly an hour; but, happily for the disputants, their wounds were of less consequence than I imagined; for, after the dried blood had been rubbed from them with sand, no attention whatever was paid to them. The point being settled, I was delivered into the hands of two old women, who drove me forward with sticks. When we drew near the well, they gave me a bowl of water, I begged for food, but these people had none for themselves.

There were, assembled at the well, about a hundred persons, men, women and children, and from four to five hundred camels, large and small. The men were drawing water for the camels, which drank an incredible quantity. A considerable number of goat-skins were then filled with water, and slung on each side of the camels; and paniers, for the women and children to ride in, were slung on each side afterwards. The paniers were made of the skin of the camel, stretched out at the top with a wooden rim, and each was capable of containing three or four women and children. The men rode on small saddles placed before the hump of the animal.

My place was behind the hump, on the bare back, whose bone was as sharp as the edge of an oar's blade, and as steep as the roof of a house; the sides of the animal were distended with water. This seat would not have been enviable if it had been stationary; but, when put in motion, the violent trot of the camel rendered it intolerable; and, after some time, I slipped down, and chose to walk on my bare feet.

My master, who was a tall old man, nearly as black as a negro, and two young men, his sons, were on foot as well as myself. I walked my best, but this was not well enough to satisfy the Arab, who, on the fourth day of our march, came behind me, and gave me repeated blows with a stout stick. One of his sons then gave me his double-barrelled gun and accoutrements to carry. This added to my fatigue, but I found it was done to serve me; for, after this, my master urged me no more, but left me to follow at my leisure. The face of the Desert resembled that of a calm, unruffled ocean, and camels could be seen in any direction, as they came above the horizon.

We passed the night in a valley, where, for the first time, I was permitted to lie down in the shade of the tent; but the women spit at me, and drove me away. In mitigation of their unkindness it must be owned that my appearance was not less repulsive than their manners; my feet were bleeding, my face and body were scorched by the sun, and my person was reduced to skin and bone by hunger, thirst, and fatigue. At night I begged to be allowed to go under a corner of the tent, and my master pointed out the place where I might lie; but the women would not consent. At mid

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night, however, the hour of milking the camels, they brought me a quart of milk, and when they were asleep, the young man whose musket I had carried made me creep under the tent, where I had a bed of soft sand. When the women awoke, they would have driven me, but the old Arab ordered them to let me remain, and, after this, I was an established lodger under the tent.

We had now travelled seven days and a half, to the south-east, on a solid desert, with sharp stones bedded in it; water we carried with us, and our sustenance had been the milk of our camels; our resting places had been hollows, which afforded a few thorny bushes for their support. But, as we proceeded, these hollows became less frequent, and more shallow, and the thorny bushes more scanty and parched, and, as these failed, the milk failed also. In some places, we found a small bitter plant, and in others, a root, about the size of a small walnut, which was distinguished by a single blade of grass three inches high. When these could be found, they were eagerly devoured, both by the Arabs and myself.

The next day, four mares that were of the party, and were fed with camel's milk, and had water given them every two days, drank the last of the water; and the rain, which was now expected, not coming, a council was held, at which it was determined to return to the well near the sea, at which I had first met with the Arabs. In the eight days and a half we had travelled, exclusive of one day that we had rested, I calculated the space passed over to be about two hundred miles.

Our course in returning was first north-east, and afterwards north-west. We entered a small valley