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Python GUI Programming

Cookbook

Second Edition

Develop beautiful and powerful GUIs using the Python

programming language

Burkhard A. Meier

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI

Python GUI Programming Cookbook

Second Edition

Copyright © 2017 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in

a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the
case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure
the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information
contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or
implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and
distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to
be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information

about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by
the appropriate use of capitals.

However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this

information.

First published: November 2015

Second edition: May 2017

Production reference: 1190517

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham

B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78712-945-0

www.packtpub.com
Credits

Author
Copy Editor

Burkhard A. Meier

Muktikant Garimella

Reviewer

Project Coordinator

Mohit

Ulhas Kambali

Commissioning Editor

Proofreader

Kunal Parikh

Safis Editing

Acquisition Editor

Indexer

Denim Pinto

Aishwarya Gangawane

Content Development Editor

Graphics

Anurag Ghogre

Abhinash Sahu

Technical Editor
Production Coordinator

Prashant Mishra

Nilesh Mohite

About the Author

Burkhard A. Meier has more than 17 years of professional

experience working in the software industry as a software tester and
developer, specializing in software test automation development,
execution, and analysis. He has a very strong background in Python 3
software test automation development, as well as in SQL relational
database administration, the development of stored procedures, and
debugging code.

While experienced in Visual Studio .NET C#, Visual Test,

TestComplete, and other testing languages (such as C/C++), the
main focus of the author over the past five years has been
developing test automation written in Python 3 to test the leading
edge of FLIR ONE (now in its third generation) infrared cameras for
iPhone and Android smart phones and handheld tablets, as well as
assuring the quality of FLIR bolometer IR camera platforms.

Being highly appreciative of art, beauty, and programming, the

author developed GUIs in C# and Python to streamline everyday test
automation tasks, enabling these automated tests to run unattended
for weeks, collecting very useful data to be analyzed, automatically
plotted in graphs, and e-mailed to upper management upon
completion of nightly automated test runs.

His previous jobs include working as a senior test automation

engineer and designer for InfoGenesis (now Agilysys), QAD, InTouch
Health, and FLIR Systems.

You can get in touch with him through his LinkedIn account,
https://www.linkedin.com
/pub/burkhard-meier/5/246/296.

I would like to thank all truly great artists, such as Leonardo da Vinci,
Charles Baudelaire, Edgar Allan Poe, and so many more for bringing
the presence of beauty into our human lives. This book is about
creating very beautiful GUIs written in the Python programming
language, and it was inspired by these truly great artists.

I would like to thank all of the great people that made this book
possible. Without any of you, this book would only exist in my mind. I
would like to especially thank all of my editors at Packt Publishing:
Sonali, Anurag, Prashant, Vivek, Arwa, Sumeet, Saurabh, Pramod,
Nikhil, and so many more. I would also like to thank all of the
reviewers of the code of this book. Without them, this book would be
harder to read and apply to real-world problems. Last but not least,
I'd like to thank my wife, our daughter, and our parents for the
emotional support they provided so successfully during the writing of
the second edition of this book. I'd also like to give thanks to the
creator of the very beautiful and powerful programming language
that Python truly is. Thank you Guido.

About the Reviewer

Mohit (mohitraj.cs@gmail.com) is a Python programmer with a keen

interest in the field of information security. He completed his
bachelor’s in technology in computer science from Kurukshetra
University, Kurukshetra, and master’s in engineering (2012) in
computer science from Thapar University, Patiala. He is a C|EH, ECSA
from EC-Council USA and former IBMer. He has published several
articles in national and international magazines. He is the author of
Python Penetration Testing Essentials and Python Penetration Testing
for Developers, also by Packt Publishing.
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Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: Creating the GUI Form and Adding Widgets

Introduction

Creating our first Python GUI

Getting ready

How to do it…

10

How it works…
10

There's more…

11

Preventing the GUI from being resized

12

Getting ready

12

How to do it…

12

How it works…

13

Adding a label to the GUI form

14

Getting ready

14

How to do it…

14

How it works…

15

There's more…
16

Creating buttons and changing their text property

16

Getting ready

17

How to do it…

17

How it works…

18

There's more…

18

Text box widgets

19

Getting ready

19

How to do it…

19

How it works…

20

Setting the focus to a widget and disabling widgets

21

Getting ready

21

How to do it…

21

How it works…

23

There's more…

23

Combo box widgets

24

Getting ready

24

How to do it…

24

How it works…

25

There's more…

26

Creating a check button with different initial states

26

Getting ready

26

How to do it…

27

How it works…

28

Using radio button widgets

28

Getting ready

29

How to do it…

29

How it works…

30

There's more…

31

Using scrolled text widgets

31

Getting ready
31

How to do it…

32

How it works…

33

Adding several widgets in a loop

34

Getting ready

34

How to do it…

34

How it works…

35

There's more…

35

Chapter 2: Layout Management

36

Introduction

36

Arranging several labels within a label frame widget

Exploring the Variety of Random
Documents with Different Content
speedily as possible, without taking time to tie the mouth of the
girba, which we found in the morning with scarce a quart of water in
it.
On the 15th, at a quarter past seven in the morning we left
Waadi Dimokea, keeping a little to the westward of north, as far as I
could judge, just upon the line of Syene. The same ridge of hills
being on our right and left as yesterday, in the center of these
appeared Del Aned. At twenty minutes past two o'clock in the
afternoon we came to an opening in the ridge of rocks; the passage
is about a mile broad, through which we continued till we alighted at
the foot of the mountain Del Aned. The place is called Waadi Del
Aned.
The same appearance of moving pillars of sand presented
themselves to us this day in form and disposition like those we had
seen at Waadi Halboub, only they seemed to be more in number,
and less in size. They came several times in a direction close upon
us; that is, I believe, within less than two miles. They began,
immediately after sun-rise, like a thick wood, and almost darkened
the sun: His rays shining through them for near an hour, gave them
an appearance of pillars of fire. Our people now became desperate:
The Greeks shrieked out, and said it was the day of judgment.
Ismael pronounced it to be hell, and the Tucorories, that the world
was on fire. I asked Idris if ever he had before seen such a sight? He
said he had often seen them as terrible, though never worse; but
what he feared most was that extreme redness in the air, which was
a sure presage of the coming of the simoom. I begged and
entreated Idris that he would not say one word of that in the
hearing of the people, for they had already felt it at Imhanzara in
their way from Ras el Feel to Teawa, and again at the Acaba of
Gerri, before we came to Chendi, and they were already nearly
distracted at the apprehension of finding it here.
At half past four o'clock in the afternoon we left Waadi Del
Aned, our course a little more to the westward than the direction of
Syene. The sands which had disappeared yesterday scarcely shewed
themselves at all this day, and at a great distance from the horizon.
This was, however, a comfort but of short duration. I observed Idris
took no part in it, but only warned me and the servants, that, upon
the coming of the simoom, we should fall upon our faces, with our
mouths upon the earth, so as not to partake of the outward air as
long as we could hold our breath. We alighted at six o'clock at a
small rock in the sandy ground, without trees or herbage, so that
our camels fasted all that night. This place is called Ras el Seah, or,
by the Bishareen, El Mout, which signifies death, a name of bad
omen.
On the 16th, at half past ten in the forenoon we left El Mout,
standing in the direction close upon Syene. Our men, if not gay,
were however in better spirits than I had seen them since we left
Gooz. One of our Barbarins had even attempted a song; but Hagi
Ismael very gravely reproved him, by telling him, that singing in
such a situation was a tempting of Providence. There is, indeed,
nothing more different than active and passive courage. Hagi Ismael
would fight, but he had not strength of mind to suffer. At eleven
o'clock, while we contemplated with great pleasure the rugged top
of Chiggre, to which we were fast approaching, and where we were
to solace ourselves with plenty of good water, Idris cried out, with a
loud voice, Fall upon your faces, for here is the simoom. I saw from
the S. E. a haze come, in colour like the purple part of the rainbow,
but not so compressed or thick. It did not occupy twenty yards in
breadth, and was about twelve feet high from the ground. It was a
kind of blush upon the air, and it moved very rapidly, for I scarce
could turn to fall upon the ground with my head to the northward,
when I felt the heat of its current plainly upon my face. We all lay
flat on the ground, as if dead, till Idris told us it was blown over. The
meteor, or purple haze, which I saw, was indeed passed, but the
light air that still blew was of heat to threaten suffocation. For my
part, I found distinctly in my breast that I had imbibed a part of it,
nor was I free of an asthmatic sensation till I had been some months
in Italy, at the baths of Poretta, near two years afterwards.
 An universal despondency had taken possession of our people.
They ceased to speak to one another, and when they did, it was in
whispers, by which I easily guessed their discourse was not
favourable to me, or else that they were increasing each others
fears, by vain suggestions calculated to sink each others spirits still
further, but from which no earthly good could possibly result. I called
them together, and both reprimanded and exhorted them in the
strongest manner I could; I bade them attend to me, who had
nearly lost my voice by the simoom, and desired them to look at my
face, so swelled as scarcely to permit me to see; my neck covered
with blisters, my feet swelled and inflamed, and bleeding with many
wounds. In answer to the lamentation that the water was
exhausted, and that we were upon the point of dying with thirst, I
ordered each man a gourd full of water more than he had the
preceding day, and shewed them, at no great distance, the bare,
black, and sharp point of the rock Chiggre, wherein was the well at
which we were again to fill our girbas, and thereby banish the fear
of dying by thirst in the desert. I believe I never was at any time
more eloquent, and never had eloquence a more sudden effect.
They all protested and declared their concern chiefly arose from the
situation they saw me in; that they feared not death or hardship,
provided I would submit a little to their direction in the taking a
proper care of myself. They intreated me to use one of the camels,
and throw off the load that it carried, that it would ease me of the
wounds in my feet, by riding at least part of the day. This I positively
refused to do, but recommended to them to be strong of heart, and
to spare the camels for the last resource, if any should be taken ill
and unable to walk any longer.
This phænomenon of the simoom, unexpected by us, though
foreseen by Idris, caused us all to relapse into our former
despondency. It still continued to blow, so as to exhaust us entirely,
though the blast was so weak as scarcely would have raised a leaf
from the ground. At twenty minutes before five the simoom ceased,
and a comfortable and cooling breeze came by starts from the north,
blowing five or six minutes at a time, and then falling calm. We were
now come to the Acaba, the ascent before we arrived at Chiggre,
where we intended to have stopt that night, but we all moved on
with tacit consent, nor did one person pretend to say how far he
guessed we were to go.
At thirteen minutes past eight we alighted in a sandy plain
absolutely without herbage, covered with loose stones, a quarter of
a mile due north of the well, which is in the narrow gorge, forming
the southern outlet of this small plain. Though we had travelled
thirteen hours and a quarther this day, it was but at a slow pace, our
camels being famished, as well as tired, and lamed likewise by the
sharp stones with which the ground in all places was covered. The
country, for three days past, had been destitute of herbage of any
kind, entirely desert, and abandoned to moving sands. We saw this
day, after passing Ras el Seah, large blocks and strata of pure white
marble, equal to any in colour that ever came from Paros.
Chiggre is a small narrow valley, closely covered up and
surrounded with barren rocks. The wells are ten in number, and the
narrow gorge which opens to them is not ten yards broad. The
springs, however, are very abundant. Wherever a pit is dug five or
six feet deep, it is immediately filled with water. The principal pool is
about forty yards square and five feet deep; but the best tasted
water was in the cleft of a rock, about 30 yards higher, on the west
side of this narrow outlet. All the water, however, was very foul, with
a number of animals both aquatic and land. It was impossible to
drink without putting a piece of our cotton girdle over our mouths,
to keep, by filtration, the filth of dead animals out of it. We saw a
great many partridges upon the face of the bare rock; but what they
fed upon I could not guess, unless upon insects. We did not dare to
shoot at them, for fear of being heard by the wandering Arabs that
might be somewhere in the neighbourhood; for Chiggre is a haunt of
the Bishareen of the tribe of Abou Bertran, who, though they do not
make it a station, because there is no pasture in the neighbourhood,
nor can any thing grow there, yet it is one of the most valuable
places of refreshment, on account of the great quantity of water,
being nearly half way, when they drive their cattle from the borders
of the Red Sea to the banks of the Nile; as also in their expeditions
from south to north, when they leave their encampments in Barbar,
to rob the Ababdé Arabs on the frontiers of Egypt.
Our first attention was to our camels, to whom we gave that
day a double feed of dora, that they might drink for the rest of their
journey, should the wells in the way prove scant of water. We then
washed in a large pool, the coldest water, I think, I ever felt, on
account of its being in a cave covered with rock, and was
inaccessible to the sun in any direction. All my people seemed to be
greatly recovered by this refrigeration, but from some cause or
other, it fared otherwise with the Tucorory; one of whom died about
an hour after our arrival, and another early the next morning.
Subordination, if now not entirely gone, was expiring, so that I
scarcely expected to have interest enough with my own servants to
help me to set up my large quadrant: Yet I was exceedingly curious
to know the situation of this remarkable place, which Idris the
Hybeer declared to be halfway to Assouan. But it seems their
curiosity was not less than mine; above all, they wanted to prove
that Idris was mistaken, and that we were considerably nearer to
Egypt than we were to Barbar. While Idris and the men filled the
skins with water, the Greeks and I set up the quadrant, and, by
observation of the two bright stars of Orion, I found the latitude of
Chiggre to be 20° 58´ 30´´ N.; so that, allowing even some small
error in the position of Syene in the French maps, Idris's guess was
very near the truth, and both the latitude and longitude of Chiggre
and Syene seemed to require no further investigation.
During the whole time of the observation, an antelope of a very
large kind, went several times round and round the quadrant; and at
the time when my eyes were fixed upon the star, came so near as to
bite a part of my cotton cloth which I had spread like a carpet to
kneel on. Even when I stirred, it would leap about two or three yards
from me, and then stand and gaze with such attention, that it would
have appeared to by-standers (had there been any) that we had
been a long time acquainted. The first idea was the common one, to
kill it. I easily could have done this with a lance; but it seemed so
interested in what I was doing, that I began to think it might
perhaps be my good genius which had come to visit, protect, and
encourage me in the desperate situation in which I then was.
 C H A P. XII.

Distresses in the Desert—Meet with Arabs—Camels die—Baggage

abandoned—Come to Syene.

On the 17th of November, at half past ten in the forenoon, we

left the valley and pool of Chiggre. Ismael, and Georgis the blind
Greek, had complained of shivering all night, and I began to be very
apprehensive some violent fever was to follow. Their perspiration
had not returned but in small quantity ever since their coming out of
the water, and the night had been excessively cold, the thermometer
standing at 63°. The day, however, was insufferably hot, and their
complaints insensibly wore off to my great comfort. A little before
eleven we were again terrified by an army (as it seemed) of sand
pillars, whose march was constantly south, and the favourite field
which they occupied was that great circular space which the Nile
makes when opposite to Assa Nagga, where it turns west to Korti
and Dongola. At one time a number of these pillars faced to the
eastward, and seemed to be coming directly upon us; but, though
they were little nearer us than two miles, a considerable quantity of
sand fell round us. I began now to be somewhat reconciled to this
phænomenon, seeing it had hitherto done us no harm. The great
magnificence it exhibited in its appearance, seemed, in some
measure, to indemnify us for the panic it had first occasioned: But it
was otherwise with the simoom; we all of us were firmly persuaded
that another passage of the purple meteor over us would be
attended with our deaths.
At half past four we alighted in a vast plain, bounded on all
sides by low sandy hills, which seemed to have been transported
hither lately. These hillocks were from seven to thirteen feet high,
drawn into perfect cones, with very sharp points and well-
proportioned bases. The sand was of an inconceivable fineness,
having been the sport of hot winds for thousands of years. There
could be no doubt that the day before, when it was calm, and we
suffered so much by the simoom between El Mout and Chiggre, the
wind had been raising pillars of sand in this place, called Umdoom;
marks of the whirling motion of the pillars were distinctly seen in
every heap, so that here again, while we were repining at the
simoom, Providence was busied keeping us out of the way of
another scene, where, if we had advanced a day, we had all of us
been involved in inevitable destruction.
On the 18th we left Umdoom at seven in the morning, our
direction N. a little inclined to W.; at nine o'clock we passed through
a sandy plain, without trees or verdure. About 300 yards out of our
way, to the left, among some sandy hillocks, where the ground
seems to be more elevated than the rest, Idris the Hybeer told me,
that one of the largest caravans which ever came out of Egypt,
under the conduct of the Ababdé and the Bishareen Arabs, was
there covered with sand, to the number of some thousands of
camels. There are large rocks of grey granite scattered through this
plain. At ten o'clock we alighted at a place called Erboygi, where are
some trees, to feed our camels. The trees I have so often mentioned
in our journey thro' the desert are not timber, or tall-growing trees;
there are none of these north of Sennaar, except a few at Chendi.
The trees I speak of, which the camels eat, are a kind of dwarf
acacia, growing only to the height of bushes; and the wood spoken
of likewise is only of the desert kind, ate almost bare by the camels.
There are some high trees, indeed, on the banks of the Nile. At half
past one o'clock we left Erboygi, and came to a large wood of doom
(Palma cuciofera). Here, for the first time, we saw a shrub which
very much resembled Spanish broom. The whole ground is dead
sand, with some rocks of reddish granite. Exactly at five o'clock we
alighted in the wood, after having travelled a moderate pace. The
place is called El Cowie, and is a station of the Bishareen in the
summer months; but these people were now east of us, three days
journey, towards the Red Sea, where the rains had fallen, and there
was plenty of pasture. At forty minutes past twelve we left El Cowie,
and at five o'clock in the evening alighted in a wood, called
Terfowey, full of trees and grass. The trees are the tallest and largest
we had seen since leaving the Nile. We had this day enjoyed, as it
were, a holiday, free from the terrors of the sand, or dreadful
influence of the simoom. This poisonous wind had made several
attempts to prevail this day, but was always overpowered by a cool
breeze at north.
On the 19th we left the west end of the wood, or rather
continued the whole length of it, and at a quarter past eight in the
evening arrived at the well. It is about four fathoms deep, but the
spring not very abundant. We drained it several times, and were
obliged to wait its filling again. These last two days, since we were
at El Cowie, we had seen more verdure than we had altogether since
we left Barbar. Here, particularly at Terfowey, the acacia-trees are
tall and verdant, but the mountains on each side appear black and
barren beyond imagination.
As soon as we alighted at Terfowey, and had chosen a proper
place where our camels could feed, we unloaded our baggage near
them, and sent the men to clean the well, and wait the filling of the
skins. We had lighted a large fire. The nights were excessively cold,
though the thermometer was at 53°; and that cold occasioned me
inexpressible pain in my feet, now swelled to a monstrous size, and
everywhere inflamed and excoriated. I had taken upon me the
charge of the baggage, and Mahomet, Idris's young man, the care of
the camels; but he too was gone to the well, though expected to
return immediately.
A doubt had arisen in my mind by the way, which was then
giving me great uneasiness. If Syene is under the same meridian
with Alexandria, (for so Eratosthenes conceived when he attempted
to measure the circumference of the earth), in this case, Alexandria
being supposed to lye in long. 30°, Syene must be in 30° likewise;
but Gooz being in 34°, it is impossible that Syene can be within a
trifle north of Gooz; and therefore we must have a much greater
quantity of westing to travel than Idris the Hybeer imagines, who
places Syene a very little west of the meridian of Gooz, or
immediately under the same meridian, and due north from it.
Our camels were always chained by the feet, and the chain
secured by a padlock, lest they should wander in the night, or be
liable to be stolen and carried off. Musing then upon the
geographical difficulties just mentioned, and gazing before me,
without any particular intention or suspicion, I heard the chain of the
camels clink, as if somebody was unloosing them, and then, at the
end of the gleam made by the fire, I saw distinctly a man pass
swiftly by, stooping as he went along, his face almost to the ground.
A little time after this I heard another clink of the chain, as if from a
pretty sharp blow, and immediately after a movement among the
camels. I then rose, and cried in a threatening tone, in Arabic, "I
charge you on your life, whoever you are, either come up to me
directly, or keep at a distance till day, but come that way no more;
why should you throw your life away?" In a minute after, he
repassed in the shade among the trees, pretty much in the manner
he had done before. As I was on guard between the baggage and
the camels, I was consequently armed, and advanced deliberately
some steps, as far as the light of the fire shone, on purpose to
discover how many they were, and was ready to fire upon the next I
saw. "If you are an honest man, cried I aloud, and want any thing,
come up to the fire and fear not, I am alone; but if you approach the
camels or the baggage again, the world will not be able to save your
life, and your blood be upon your own head." Mahomet, Idris's
nephew, who heard me cry, came running up from the well to see
what was the matter. We went down together to where the camels
were, and, upon examination, found that the links of one of the
chains had been broke, but the opening not large enough to let the
corresponding whole link through to separate it. A hard blue stone
was driven through a link of one of the chains of another camel, and
left sticking there, the chain not being entirely broken through; we
saw, besides, the print of a man's feet on the sand. There was no
need to tell us after this that we were not to sleep that night; we
made therefore another fire on the other side of the camels with
branches of the acacia-tree, which we gathered. I then sent the man
back to Idris at the well, desiring him to fill his skins with water
before it was light, and transport them to the baggage where I was,
and to be all ready armed there by the dawn of day; soon after
which, if the Arabs were sufficiently strong, we were very certain
they would attack us. This agreed perfectly with Idris's ideas also, so
that, contenting themselves with a lesser quantity of water than they
first intended to have taken, they lifted the skins upon the camels I
sent them, and were at the rendezvous, near the baggage, a little
after four in the morning.
The Barbarins, and, in general, all the lower sort of Moors and
Turks, adorn their arms and wrists with amulets; these are charms,
and are some favourite verse of the Koran wrapt in paper, neatly
covered with Turkey leather. The two Barbarins that were with me
had procured for themselves new ones at Sennaar, which were to
defend them from the simoom and the sand, and all the dangers of
the desert. That they might not soil these in filling the water, they
had taken them from their arms, and laid them on the brink of the
well before they went down. Upon looking for these after the girbas
were filled, they were not to be found. This double attempt was an
indication of a number of people being in the neighbourhood, in
which case our present situation was one of the most desperate that
could be figured. We were in the middle of the most barren,
inhospitable desert in the world, and it was with the utmost difficulty
that, from day to day, we could carry wherewithal to assuage our
thirst. We had with us the only bread it was possible to procure for
some hundred miles; lances and swords were not necessary to
destroy us, the bursting or tearing of a girba, the lameness or death
of a camel, a thorn or sprain in the foot which might disable us from
walking, were as certain death to us as a shot from a cannon. There
was no staying for one another; to lose time was to die, because,
with the utmost exertion our camels could make, we scarce could
carry along with us a scanty provision of bread and water sufficient
to keep us alive.
That desert, which did not afford inhabitants for the assistance
or relief of travellers, had greatly more than sufficient for destroying
them. Large tribes of Arabs, two or three thousand, encamped
together, were cantoned, as it were, in different places of this
desert, where there was water enough to serve their numerous
herds of cattle, and these, as their occasion required, traversed in
parties all that wide expanse of solitude, from the mountains near
the Red Sea east, to the banks of the Nile on the west, according as
their several designs or necessities required. These were Jaheleen
Arabs, those cruel, barbarous fanatics, that deliberately shed so
much blood during the time they were establishing the Mahometan
religion. Their prejudices had never been removed by any mixture of
strangers, or softened by society, even with their own nation after
they were polished; but buried, as it were, in these wild deserts, if
they were not grown more savage, they had at least preserved, in
their full vigour, those murdering principles which they had brought
with them into that country, under the brutal and inhuman butcher
Kaled Ibn el Waalid, impiously called The Sword of God. If it should
be our lot to fall among these people, and it was next to a certainty
that we were at that very instant surrounded by them, death was
certain, and our only comfort was, that we could die but once, and
that to die like men was in our own option. Indeed, without
considering the bloody character which these wretches naturally
bear, there could be no reason for letting us live: We could be of no
service to them as slaves; and to have sent us into Egypt, after
having first rifled and destroyed our goods, could not be done by
them but at a great expence, to which well-inclined people only
could have been induced from charity, and of that last virtue they
had not even heard the name. Our only chance then remaining was,
that their number might be so small, that, by our great superiority in
fire-arms and in courage, we might turn the misfortune upon the
aggressors, deprive them of their camels and means of carrying
water, and leave them scattered in the desert, to that death which
either they or we, without alternative, must suffer.
I explained myself to this purpose, briefly to the people, on
which a great cry followed, "God is great! let them come!" Our arms
were perfectly in order, and our old Turk Ismael seemed to move
about and direct with the vigour of a young man. As we had no
doubt they would be mounted on camels, so we placed ourselves a
little within the edge of the trees. The embers of our two fires were
on our front; our tents, baggage, and boxes, on each side of us,
between the opening of the trees; our camels and water behind us,
the camels being chained together behind the water, and ropes at
their heads, which were tied to trees. A skin of water, and two
wooden bowls beside it, was left open for those that should need to
drink. We had finished our breakfast before day-break, and I had
given all the men directions to fire separately, not together, at the
same set of people; and those who had the blunderbusses to fire
where they saw a number of camels and men together, and
especially at any camels they saw with girbas upon them, or where
there was the greatest confusion.
The day broke; no Arabs appeared; all was still. The danger
which occurred to our minds then was, left, if they were few, by
tarrying we should give them time to send off messengers to bring
assistance. I then took Ismael and two Barbarins along with me, to
see who these neighbours of ours could be. We soon traced in the
sand the footsteps of the man who had been at our camels; and,
following them behind the point of a rock, which seemed calculated
for concealing thieves, we saw two ragged, old, dirty tents, pitched
with grass cords.
The two Barbarins entered one of them, and found a naked
woman there. Ismael and I ran briskly into the largest, where we
saw a man and a woman both perfectly naked, frightful, emaciated
figures, not like the inhabitants of this world. The man was partly
sitting on his hams; a child, seemingly of the age to suck, was on a
rag at the corner, and the woman looked as if she wished to hide
herself. I sprung forward upon the man, and, taking him by the hair
of the head, pulled him upon his back on the floor, setting my foot
upon his breast, and pointing my knife to his throat; I said to him
sternly, "If you mean to pray, pray quickly, for you have but this
moment to live." The fellow was so frightened, he scarce could beg
us to spare his life; but the woman, as it afterwards appeared, the
mother of the sucking child, did not seem to copy the passive
disposition of her husband; she ran to the corner of the tent, where
was an old lance, with which, I doubt not, she would have
sufficiently distinguished herself, but it happened to be entangled
with the cloth of the tent, and Ismael felled her to the ground with
the butt-end of his blunderbuss, and wrested the lance from her. A
violent howl was set up by the remaining woman like the cries of
those in torment. "Tie them, said I, Ismael; keep them separate, and
carry them to the baggage till I settle accounts with this camel-
stealer, and then you shall strike their three heads off, where they
intended to leave us miserably to perish with hunger; but keep them
separate." While the Barbarins were tying the woman, the one that
was the nurse of the child turned to her husband, and said, in a
most mournful, despairing tone of voice, "Did I not tell you, you
would never thrive if you hurt that good man? did not I tell you this
would happen for murdering the Aga?"
Our people had come to see what had passed, and I sent the
women away, ordering them to be kept separate, out of the hearing
of one another, to judge if in their answers they did not prevaricate.
The woman desired to have her child with her, which I granted. The
little creature, instead of being frightened, crowed, and held out its
little hands as it passed me. We fastened the Arab with the chain of
the camels, and so far was well; but still we did not know how near
the Bishareen might be, nor who these were, nor whether they had
sent off any intelligence in the night. Until we were informed of this,
our case was little mended. Upon the man's appearing, all my people
declared, with one general voice, that no time was to be lost, but
that they should all be put to death as soon as the camels were
loaded, before we set out on our journey; and, indeed, at first view
of the thing, self-preservation, the first law of nature, seemed
strongly to require it. Hagi Ismael was so determined on the
execution that he was already seeking a knife sharper than his own.
"We will stay, Hagi Ismael, said I, till we see if this thief is a liar also.
If he prevaricates in the answers he gives to my questions, you shall
then cut his head off, and we will consign him with the lie in his
mouth, soul and body to hell, to his master whom he serves." Ismael
answered, "The truth is the truth; if he lies, he can deserve no
better."
The reader will easily understand the necessity of my speaking
at that moment in terms not only unusual for a Christian, but even in
any society or conversation; and if the ferocity and brutality of the
discourse should shock any, especially my fair readers, they will
remember, that these were intended for a good and humane
purpose, to produce fear in those upon whom we had no other tie,
and thereby extort a confession of the truth; which might answer
two purposes, the saving the effusion of their blood, and providing
for our own preservation. "You see, said I, placing the man upon his
knees, your time is short, the sword is now drawn which is to make
an end of you, take time, answer distinctly and deliberately, for the
first trip or lie that you make, is the last word that you will utter in
this world. Your wife shall have her fair chance likewise, and your
child; you and all shall go together, unless you tell me the naked
truth. Here, Ismael, stand by him, and take my sword, it is, I
believe, the sharpest in the company."
"Now I ask you, at your peril, Who was the good man your wife
reproached you with having murdered? where was it, and when, and
who were your accomplices?" He answered trembling, and
indistinctly, through fear, "It was a black, an Aga from Chendi."
"Mahomet Towash, says Ismael; Ullah Kerim! God is merciful!" "The
same," says the Bishareen. He then related the particulars of his
death in the manner in which I shall have occasion to state
afterwards. "Where are the Bishareen? continued I; where is Abou
Bertran? how soon will a light camel and messenger arrive where he
now is?" "In less than two days; perhaps, says he, in a day and a
half, if he is very diligent and the camel good." "Take care, said I,
you are in danger. Where did you and your women come from, and
when?" "From Abou Bertran, says he; we arrived here at noon on
the 5th day[50], but the camels were all she-camels; they are
favourite camels of Shekh Seide; we drove them softly; the two you
saw at the tents are lame; besides there were some others unsound;
there were also women and children." "Where did that party, and
their camels, go to from this? and what number of men was there
with them?" "There were about three hundred camels of all sorts,
and about thirty men, all of them servants; some of them had one
lance, and some of them two; they had no shields or other arms."
"What did you intend last night to do with my camels?" "I intended
to have carried them, with the women and child, to join the party at
the Nile." "What must have become of me in that case? we must
have died?" He did not answer. "Take care, said I, the thing is now
over, and you are in my hands; take care what you say." "Why,
certainly, says he, you must have died, you could not live, you could
not go anywhere else." "If another party had found us here, in that
case would they have slain us?" He hesitated a little, then, as if he
recollected himself, said, "Yes, surely, they murdered the Aga, and
would murder any body that had not a Bishareen with them." A
violent cry of condemnation immediately followed. "Now attend and
understand me distinctly, said I, for upon these two questions hangs
your life: Do you know of any party of Bishareen who are soon to
pass here, or any wells to the north, and in what number? and have
you sent any intelligence since last night you saw us here?" He
answered, with more readiness than usual, "We have sent nobody
anywhere; our camels are lame; we were to follow, as soon as they
could be able to travel, to join those at the Nile. The parties of the
Bishareen are always passing here, sometimes more, sometimes
less; they will not come till they hear from the Nile whether the
grass is grown. They have with them two dromedaries, who will
carry the news from the Nile in three days, or they will come in small
parties like the last, for they have no fear in these parts. The wells
to the north belong to the Ababdé. When they pass by them with
cattle they are always in great numbers, and a Shekh along with
them; but those wells are now so scanty they have not water for any
number, and they must therefore all pass this way."
I got up, and called on Ismael. The poor fellow thought he was
to die. Life is sweet even to the most miserable. He was still upon
his knees, holding his hands clasped round the back of his neck, and
already, I suppose, thought he felt the edge of Ismael's knife. He
swore that every word he had spoken was truth; and if his wife was
brought she could not tell another story.
I thereupon left him, and went to his wife, who, when, she saw
Hagi Ismael with a drawn sword in his hand, thought all was over
with her husband, and fell into a violent fit of despair, crying out,
"That all the men were liars and murderers, but that she would have
told the truth if I had asked her first." "Then go, Hagi Ismael, said I,
tell them not to put him to death till I come, and now you have your
chance, which if you do not improve by telling the truth, I will first
slay your child with my own hand before your face, and then order
you all to be cruelly put to death together." She began with great
earnestness to say, "She could not tell who killed Mahomet Towash,
for she only heard it in conversation from her husband, who was
there, after he had come home." I then, word for word, put those
questions to her that I had done to her husband, and had precisely
the same answers. The only difference was, that she believed a
party of the Ababdé would pass Chiggre soon; but seeing me rise to
go away, she burst out into a flood of tears, and tore her hair in the
most violent excess of passion; shrieking out, to have mercy upon
her, and pressing the little child to her breast as if to take leave of it,
then laying it down before me, in great agony and bitterness of
heart, she again shrieked out, "If you are a Turk, make it a slave,
but do not kill my child, and spare my husband."
Though I understood Arabic well, I did not, till that day, know it
had such powers, or that it contained expressions at once so forcible
and so simple. I found myself so much moved, and my tears came
so fast, that it was in vain to endeavour to carry on a farce under
such tragical appearances, "Woman, said I, I am not a Turk, nor do I
make slaves, or kill children. It is your Arabs that force me to this; it
was you that attacked me last night, it was you that murdered
Mahomet Towash, one of your own religion, and busied in his duty. I
am a stranger, seeking my own safety, but you are all murderers and
thieves."—"It is true, says she, they are all murderers and liars, and
my husband, not knowing, may have lied too. Only let me hear what
he told you, and I will tell you whether it is truth or not." Day was
now advancing apace, and no resolution taken, whilst our present
situation was a very unsafe one. We carried the three prisoners
bound, and set George, the Greek, centinal over them. I then called
the people together.
I stated fairly, in a council held among ourselves, the horror of
slaughtering the women and child, or even leaving them to starve
with hunger by killing their camels, from whom they got their only
sustenance; for, though we should not stain our hands with their
blood, it was the same thing to leave them to perish: that we were
strangers, and had fallen upon them by accident, but they were in
their own country. On the contrary, suppose we only slew the man,
any of the women might mount a camel, and, travelling with
diligence, might inform the Bishareen, who would send a party and
cut us off at the next well, where we must pass, and where it would
be impossible to escape them. I must say, there was a considerable
majority for sparing the women and child, and not one but who
willingly decreed the death of the man, who had confessed he was
endeavouring to steal our camels, and that he intended to carry
them to his party at the Nile; in which case the loss of all our lives
was certain, as we should have been starved to death, or murdered
by the Arabs.
The very recital of this attempt so enraged Hagi Ismael that he
desired he might have the preference in cutting off his head. The
Barbarins, too, were angry for the loss of their bracelets. Indeed
every one's opinion was, that the Arab should die, and especially
since the account of their behaviour to Mahomet Towash, whose
death I, for my own part, cannot say I thought myself under any
obligation to revenge. "Since you are differing in your opinions, and
there is no time to lose, said I, allow me to give you mine. It has
appeared to me, that often, since we began this journey, we have
been preserved by visible instances of God's protection, when we
should have lost our lives if we had gone by the rules of our own
judgment only. We are, it is true, of different religions, but all
worship the same God. Suppose the present case should be a trial,
whether we trust really in God's protection, or whether we believe
our safety owing to our own foresight and courage. If the man's life
be now taken away, to-morrow we may meet the Bishareen, and
then we shall all reflect upon the folly of our precaution. For my own
part, my constant creed is, that I am in God's hands, whether in the
house or in the desert; and not in those of the Bishareen, or of any
lawless spoiler. I have a clear conscience, and am engaged in no
unlawful pursuit, seeking on foot my way home, feeding on bread
and water, and have done, nor design, wrong to no man. We are
well armed, are nine in number, and have twice as many firelocks,
many of these with double-barrels, and others of a size never before
seen by Arabs, armies of whom have been defeated with fewer: we
are ragged and tattered in our clothes, and no prize to any one, nor
do I think we shall be found a party of pleasure for any set of wild
young men, to leave their own homes, with javelins and lances to
way-lay us at the well for sport and diversion, since gain and profit
are out of the question. But this I declare to you, if ever we meet
these Arabs, if the ground is such as has been near all the wells we
have come to, I will fight the Bishareen boldly and chearfully,
without a doubt of beating them with ease. I do not say my feelings
would be the same if my conscience was loaded with that most
heinous and horrid crime, murder in cold blood; and therefore my
determination is to spare the life even of this man, and will oppose
his being put to death by every means in my power."
It was easy to see, that fear of their own lives only, and not
cruelty, was the reason they sought that of the Arab. They answered
me, two or three of them at once, "That it was all very well; what
should they do? should they give themselves up to the Bishareen,
and be murdered like Mahomet Towash? was there any other way of
escaping?" "I will tell you, then, since you ask me what you should
do: You shall follow the duty of self-defence and self-preservation, as
far as you can do it without a crime. You shall leave the women and
the child where they are, and with them the camels, to give them
and their child milk; you shall chain the husband's right hand to the
left of some of yours, and you shall each of you take him by turns till
we shall carry him into Egypt. Perhaps he knows the desert and the
wells better than Idris; and if he should not, still we have two
Hybeers instead of one; and who can foretell what may happen to
Idris more than to any other of us? But as he knows the stations of
his people, and their courses at particular seasons, that day we meet
one Bishareen, the man that is chained with him, and conducts him,
shall instantly stab him to the heart, so that he shall not see, much
less triumph in, the success of his treachery. On the contrary, if he is
faithful, and informs Idris where the danger is, and where we are to
avoid it, keeping us rather by scanty wells than abundant ones, on
the day I arrive safely in Egypt I will cloath him anew, as also his
women, give him a good camel for himself, and a load of dora for
them all. As for the camels we leave here, they are she-ones, and
necessary to give the women food. They are not lame, it is said, but
we shall lame them in earnest, so that they shall not be able to carry
a messenger to the Bishareen before they die with thirst in the way,
both they and their riders, if they should attempt it."
An universal applause followed this speech; Idris, above all,
declared his warmest approbation. The man and the women were
sent for, and had their sentence repeated to them. They all
subscribed to the conditions chearfully; and the woman declared she
would as soon see her child die as be an instrument of any harm
befalling us, and that, if a thousand Bishareen should pass, she
knew how to mislead them all, and that none of them should follow
us till we were far out of danger.
I sent two Barbarins to lame the camels effectually, but not so
as to make them past recovery. After which, for the nurse and the
child's sake, I took twelve handfuls of the bread which was our only
food, and indeed we could scarecly spare it, as we saw afterwards,
and left it to this miserable family, with this agreeable reflection,
however, that we should be to them in the end a much greater
blessing than in the beginning we had been an affliction, provided
only they kept their faith, and on their part deserved it.
On the 20th, at eleven o'clock we left the well at Terfowey, after
having warned the women, that their chance of seeing their husband
again depended wholly upon his and their faithful conduct. We took
our prisoner with us, his right hand being chained to the left of one
of the Barbarins. We had no sooner got into the plain than we felt
great symptoms of the simoom, and about a quarter before twelve,
our prisoner first, and then Idris, cried out, The Simoom! the
Simoom! My curiosity would not suffer me to fall down without
looking behind me. About due south, a little to the east, I saw the
coloured haze as before. It seemed now to be rather less
compressed, and to have with it a shade of blue. The edges of it
were not defined as those of the former, but like a very thin smoke,
with about a yard in the middle tinged with those colours. We all fell
upon our faces, and the simoom passed with a gentle rustling wind.
It continued to blow in this manner till near three o'clock, so we
were all taken ill that night, and scarcely strength was left us to load
the camels and arrange the baggage. This day one of our camels
died, partly famished, partly overcome with extreme fatigue, so that,
incapable as we were of labour, we were obliged, for self-
preservation's sake, to cut off thin slices of the fleshy part of the
camel, and hang it in so many thongs upon the trees all night, and
after upon the baggage, the sun drying it immediately, so as to
prevent putrefaction.
At half past eight in the evening we alighted at a well called
Naibey, in a bare, sandy plain, where there were a few straggling
acacia-trees. We had all this day seen large blocks of fossile salt
upon the surface of the earth where we trod. This was the cause, I
suppose, that both the spring at Terfowey, and now this of Naibey,
were brackish to the taste, and especially that of Naibey. We found
near the well the corpse of a man and two camels upon the ground.
It was apparently long ago that this accident happened, for the
moisture of the camel was so exhaled that it seemed to weigh but a
very few pounds; no vermin had touched it, as in this whole desert
there is neither worm, fly, nor any thing that has the breath of life.
On the 21st, at six in the morning, having filled the girbas with
water, we set out from Naibey, our direction due north, and, as we
thought, in a course almost straight upon Syene. The first hour of
our journey was through sharp-pointed rocks, which it was very easy
to foresee would very soon finish our camels. About eight we had a
view of the desert to the westward as before, and saw the sands
had already begun to rise in immense twisted pillars, which
darkened the heavens. The rising of these in the morning so early,
we began now to observe, was a sure sign of a hot day, with a brisk
wind at north; and that heat, and the early rising of the sands, was
as sure a sign of its falling calm about mid-day, and its being
followed by two hours of the poisonous wind. That last consideration
was what made the greatest impression, for we had felt its effects; it
had filled us with fear, and absorbed the last remnant of our
strength; whereas the sand, though a destruction to us if it had
involved us in its compass, had as yet done us no other harm than
terrifying us the first days we had seen it.
It was this day more magnificent than any we had as yet seen.
The sun shining through the pillars, which were thicker, and
contained more sand apparently than any of the preceding days,
seemed to give those nearest us an appearance as if spotted with
stars of gold. I do not think at any time they seemed to be nearer
than two miles. The most remarkable circumstance was, that the
sand seemed to keep in that vast circular space surrounded by the
Nile on our left, in going round by Chaigie towards Dongola, and
seldom was observed much to the eastward of a meridian, passing
along the Nile through the Magiran, before it takes that turn;
whereas the simoom was always on the opposite side of our course,
coming upon us from the south-east.
 A little before twelve our wind at north ceased, and a
considerable quantity of fine sand rained upon us for an hour
afterwards. At the time it appeared, the description of this
phænomenon in Syphax's speech to Cato was perpetually before my
mind:—

So, where our wide Numidian wastes extend,

Sudden th' impetuous hurricanes descend,
Wheel through the air, in circling eddies play,
Tear up the sands, and sweep whole plains away.
The helpless traveller, with wild surprise,
Sees the dry desert all around him rise,
And smother'd in the dusty whirlwind dies."
Addison.

These lines are capital, and are a fine copy, which can only
appear tame by the original having been before our eyes, painted by
the great master, the Creator and Ruler of the world.
The simoom, with the wind at S. E. immediately follows the
wind at N. and the usual despondency that always accompanied it.
The blue meteor, with which it began, passed over us about twelve,
and the rustling wind that followed it continued till near two. Silence,
and a desperate kind of indifference about life, were the immediate
effects upon us; and I began now, seeing the condition of my
camels, to fear we were all doomed to a sandy grave, and to
contemplate it with some degree of resignation. At half past eight in
the evening we alighted in a sandy flat, where there was great store
of bent grass and trees which had a considerable degree of verdure,
a circumstance much in favour of our camels. We determined to stop
here to give them an opportunity of eating their fill where they could
find it.
On the 22d, at six o'clock we set out from the sandy flat, and
one of the Tucorory was seized with a phrenzy or madness. At first I
took it for a fit of the epilepsy, by the distortions of his face, but it
was soon seen to be of a more serious nature. Whether he had been
before afflicted with it I know not. I offered to bleed him, which he
refused; neither, though we gave him water, would he drink, but
very moderately. He rolled upon the ground, and moaned, often
repeating two or three words which I did not understand. He refused
to continue his journey, or rise from where he lay, so that we were
obliged to leave him to his fortune. We went this day very diligently,
not remarkably slow nor fast; but though our camels, as we thought,
had fared well for these two nights, another of them died about four
o'clock this afternoon, when we came to Umarack.
I here began to provide for the worst. I saw the fate of our
camels approaching, and that our men grew weak in proportion; our
bread, too, began to fail us, altho' we had plenty of camels flesh in
its stead; our water, though in all appearance we were to find it
more frequently than in the beginning of our journey, was
nevertheless brackish, and scarce served the purpose to quench our
thirst; and, above all, the dreadful simoom had perfectly exhausted
our strength, and brought upon us a degree of cowardice and
languor that we struggled with in vain; I therefore, as the last effort,
began to throw away every thing weighty I could spare, or that was
not absolutely necessary, such as all shells, fossiles, minerals, and
petrefactions that I could get at, the counter-cases of my quadrant,
telescopes, and clock, and several suchlike things.
Our camels were now reduced to five, and it did not seem that
these were capable of continuing their journey much longer. In that
case, no remedy remained, but that each man should carry his own
water and provisions. Now, as no one man could carry the water he
should use between well and well, and it was more than probable
that distance would be doubled by some of the wells being found
dry; and if that was not the case, yet, as it was impossible for a man
to carry his provisions who could not walk without any burden at all,
our situation seemed to be most desperate.
The Bishareen alone seemed to keep up his strength, and was
in excellent spirits. He had attached himself, in a particular manner,
to me, and with a part of that very scanty rag which he had round
his waist he had made a wrapper, very artificially, according to the
manner his countrymen the Bishareen practice on such occasions.
This had greatly defended my feet in the day, but the pain
occasioned by the cold in the night was really scarce sufferable. I
offered to free him from the confinement of his left hand, which was
chained to some one of the company night and day; but he very
sensibly refused it, saying, "Unchain my hands when you load and
unload your camels, I cannot then run away from you; for tho' you
did not shoot me, I should starve with hunger and thirst; but keep
me to the end of the journey as you began with me, then I cannot
misbehave, and lose the reward which you say you are to give me."
At forty minutes past three o'clock we saw large stratas of
fossile salt everywhere upon the surface of the ground. At five we
found the body of Mahomet Towash, on the spot where he had been
murdered, stript naked, and lying on his face unburied. The wound
in the back-sinew of his leg was apparent; he was, besides, thrust
through the back with a lance, and had two wounds in the head with
swords. We followed some footsteps in the sand to the right, and
there saw three other bodies, whom Idris knew to be his principal
servants. These, it seemed, had taken to their arms upon the Aga's
being first wounded, and the cowardly, treacherous Bishareens had
persuaded them to capitulate upon promise of giving them camels
and provision to carry them into Egypt, after which they had
murdered them behind these rocks.
At six o'clock we alighted at Umarack, so called from a number
of rack-trees that grow there, and which seem to affect a saltish soil;
at Raback and Masuah I had seen them growing in the sea. When I
ordered a halt at Umarack, the general cry was, to travel all night, so
that we might be at a distance from that dangerous, unlucky spot.
The sight of the men murdered, and fear of the like fate, had got the
better of their other sensations. In short, there was nothing more
visible, than that their apprehensions were of two sorts, and
produced very different operations. The simoom, the stalking pillars
of sand, and probability of dying with thirst or hunger, brought on a
torpor, or indifference, that made them inactive; but the discovery of
the Arab at Terfowey, the fear of meeting the Bishareen at the wells,
and the dead bodies of the Aga and his unfortunate companions,
produced a degree of activity and irritation that resembled very
much their spirits being elevated by good news. I told them, that, of
all the places in the desert through which they had passed, this was
by far the safest, because fear of being met by troops from Assouan,
seeking the murderers of Mahomet Towash would keep all the
Bishareen at a distance. Our Arab said, that the next well belonged
to the Ababdé, and not the Bishareen, and that the Bishareen had
slain the Aga there, to make men believe it had been done by the
Ababdé. Idris contributed his morsel of comfort, by assuring us, that
the wells now, as far as Egypt, were so scanty of water, that no
party above ten men would trust their provision to them, and none
of us had the least apprehension from marauders of twice that
number. The night at Umarack was excessively cold as to sensation;
Fahrenheit's thermometer was however at 49° an hour before day-
light.
On the 23d we left Umarack at six o'clock in the morning, our
road this day being between mountains of blue stones of a very fine
and perfect quality, through the heart of which ran thick veins of
jasper, their strata perpendicular to the horizon. There were other
mountains of marble of the colour called Isabella. In other places the
rock seemed composed of petrified wood, such as we had seen in
the mountains near Cosseir. At a quarter past eleven, going due N.
we entered a narrow valley, in which we passed two wells on our
left, and following the windings through this valley, all of deep sand,
we came to a large pool of excellent water, called Umgwat, sheltered
from the rays of the sun by a large rock which projected over it, the
upper part of which was shaped like a wedge, and was composed all
of green marble, without the smallest variety or spot of other colour
in it.
Through this whole valley, to-day, we had seen the bodies of
the Tucorory who had followed Mahomet Towash, and been
scattered by the Bishareen, and left to perish with thirst there. None
of them, however, as far as we could observe, had ever reached this
well. In the water we found a bird of the duck kind called Teal, or
Widgeon. The Turk Ismael was preparing to shoot at it with his
blunderbuss, but I desired him to refrain, being willing, by its flight,
to endeavour to judge something of the nearness of the Nile. We
raised it therefore by sudden repeated cries, which method was
likely to make it seek its home straight, and abandon a place it must
have been a stranger to. The bird flew straight west, rising as he
flew, a sure proof his journey was a long one, till at last, being very
high and at a distance, he vanished from our sight, without
descending or seeking to approach the earth; from which I drew an
unpleasant inference that we were yet far from the Nile, as was
really the case.
Here we threw away the brackish water that remained in our
girbas, and filled them with the wholesome element drawn from this
pool of Umgwat. I could not help reproaching Idris with the
inaccuracy of the information he had pretended to give us the day
before, that no party above ten men could meet us at any of these
wells, as none of them could supply water for more; whereas in this
pool there was certainly enough of excellent water to serve a whole
tribe of Arabs for a month. He had little to say, further than that
Haimer, though near, was a scanty well, and perhaps we should not
find water there at all. He trusted, however, if our people would take
heart, we were out of all danger from Arabs, or any thing else.
At a quarter past three we left the well, and continued along a
sandy valley, which is called Waadi Umgwat. This night it was told
me that Georgis, and the Turk Ismael, were both so ill, and so
desponding, that they had resolved to pursue the journey no farther,
but submit to their destiny, as they called it, and stay behind and
die. It was with the utmost difficulty I could get them to lay aside
this resolution, and the next morning I promised they should ride by
turns upon one of the camels, a thing that none of us had yet
attempted. They had, indeed, often desired me to do so, but I well
knew, if I had set them that example, besides destroying the camels,
it would have had the very worst effect upon their dastardly spirits;
and, indeed, we very soon saw the bad effects of this humane
consideration for the two invalids.
On the 24th, at half past six in the morning we left Umgwat,
following the windings of sandy valleys between stony hills. At half
past nine we found Mahomet Aga's horse dead. The poor creature
seemed, without a guide, to have followed exactly enough the tract
of the wells and way to Egypt, and had survived all his fellow-
travellers. At eleven o'clock we came to some plains of loose, moving
sand, and saw some pillars in motion, which had not wind to sustain
them for any time, and which gave us, therefore, little concern. At
one we alighted near the well Mour, which was to the N. E. of us. At
four we left the well Mour: At forty minutes after four passed the
well itself, which was then dry; and at a quarter past six we found a
dead man, whose corpse was quite dry, and had been so a
considerable time. At seven o'clock in the evening we alighted at El
Haimer, where are the two wells in a large plain of sand. The water
is good. There is another well to the west of us, but it is bitter and
saltish, though more abundant than either of the other two, which,
by filling our skins, we had several times drained.
On the 25th, at half past seven in the morning we left the well
El Haimer, and at ten o'clock alighted among some acacia-trees, our
camels having ate nothing all night, except the dry bitter roots of
that drug, the senna. While we were attending the camels, and
resting ourselves on the grass, we were surprised at the appearance
of a troop of Arabs all upon camels, who looked like a caravan, each
camel having a small loading behind him. They had two gentle
ascents before they could arrive at the place where we were. The
road is between two sandy hills, at the back of which our camels
were feeding in a wood; and near the road was the well El Haimer,
where our skins were lying full of water. It was necessary then to
understand one another before we allowed them to pass between
the sandy hills. Upon the first alarm, my people all repaired to me,
bringing their arms in their hands, as well those that they carried
upon them, as the spare arms, all of which were primed and
charged.