Their society was not very agreeable to me, for they were
well armed, and looked very savage. I should have preferred waiting
until daybreak, and going without them, but my guide assured me that
they were honest people; and trusting more to my good fortune than
his word, I mounted my horse about 1 o'clock at night.
4th August. I soon lost my fear, for we frequently met small
parties of three or four persons, who would scarcely have ventured
to travel at night if the road had been dangerous. Large caravans
also, of several hundred camels, passed us and took up the road in
such a way, that we were obliged to wait for half an hour to allow
them to pass.
Towards noon we entered a valley in which lay a town, which was
certainly large, but of such an unpretending appearance, that I did
not at once inquire what was its name. The nearer we approached the
more ruined it appeared. The walls were half fallen, the streets
and squares full of heaps of rubbish, and many of the houses were in
ruins; it seemed as if a pestilence or an enemy had destroyed it.
At last I asked its name, and could hardly believe that I had
understood it rightly when I was told that it was Tebris.
My guide conducted me to the house of Mr. Stevens, the English
consul, who, to my vexation, was not in the town, but ten miles away
in the country. A servant, however, told me that he would go
directly to a gentleman who could speak English. In a very short
time he came, and his first questions were: "How did you come here,
_alone_? Have you been robbed? Have you parted from your company
and only left them in the town?" But when I gave him my pass, and
explained everything to him, he appeared scarcely to believe me. He
thought it bordered upon the fabulous that a woman should have
succeeded, without any knowledge of the language, in penetrating
through such countries and such people. I also could not be too
thankful for the evident protection which Providence had afforded
me. I felt myself as happy and lively as if I had taken a new lease
of my life.
Doctor Cassolani showed me to some rooms in Mr. Stevens's house, and
said that he would immediately send a messenger to him, and I might
meanwhile make known my wants to him.
When I expressed to him my astonishment at the miserable appearance
and ugly entrance to this town, the second in the country, he told
me that the town could not be well seen from the side at which I
came in, and that the part which I saw was not considered the town,
but was chiefly old and, for the most part, deserted.
