The Moors Who Had Arrived At The Well,
Rightly Guessing That We Were Lost, Sent One Of Their Company To
Look For Us, Whom We Heard Shouting In The Woods, But Durst Make No
Answer For Fear Of The Galles.
At length he found us, and conducted
us to the rest; we instantly forgot our past calamities, and had no
other care than to recover the patriarch's attendants.
We did not
give them a full draught at first, but poured in the water by drops,
to moisten their mouths and throats, which were extremely swelled:
by this caution they were soon well. We then fell to eating and
drinking, and though we had nothing but our ordinary repast of honey
and dried flesh, thought we never had regaled more pleasantly in our
lives.
We durst not stay long in this place for fear of the Galles, who lay
their ambushes more particularly near this well, by which all
caravans must necessarily pass. Our apprehensions were very much
increased by our suspicion of the camel-drivers, who, as we
imagined, had advertised the Galles of our arrival. The fatigue we
had already suffered did not prevent our continuing our march all
night: at last we entered a plain, where our drivers told us we
might expect to be attacked by the Galles; nor was it long before
our own eyes convinced us that we were in great danger, for we saw
as we went along the dead bodies of a caravan who had been lately
massacred, a sight which froze our blood, and filled us with pity
and with horror. The same fate was not far from overtaking us, for
a troop of Galles, who were detached in search of us, missed us but
an hour or two. We spent the next night in the mountains, but when
we should have set out in the morning, were obliged to a fierce
dispute with the old Moor, who had not yet lost his inclination to
destroy us; he would have had us taken a road which was full of
those people we were so much afraid of: at length finding he could
not prevail with us, that we charged the goods upon him as belonging
to the Emperor, to whom he should be answerable for the loss of
them, he consented, in a sullen way, to go with us.
The desire of getting out of the reach of the Galles made us press
forward with great expedition, and, indeed, fear having entirely
engrossed our minds, we were perhaps less sensible of all our
labours and difficulties; so violent an apprehension of one danger
made us look on many others with unconcern; our pains at last found
some intermission at the foot of the mountains of Duan, the frontier
of Abyssinia, which separates it from the country of the Moors,
through which we had travelled.
Here we imagined we might repose securely, a felicity we had long
been strangers to. Here we began to rejoice at the conclusion of
our labours; the place was cool and pleasant, the water was
excellent, and the birds melodious.
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