1 out journ y. At our request, an Agoo (guide)-tilt horseback
2 M as ordered to It ad us through the desert. Accordingly, we
3 started at two o’clock after midnight, entrusting our Agoo with’
4 our wallet, in which our provisions (roast meat arid bread) were
5 packed ; we put also the horses’ provender under his care, and
6 left the place, hoping to reach a watering-place about nine or
7 ten in the morning, where we might likewise meet with some
8 Arab tents, and breakfast, and allov our horses to re-1; but the
9 Agoo missed, the road, and it was not till the afternoon that we
10 became aware of the fact, when we observed him deviating first
11 to the right and then to the left. The T.irtar, in a rage,
12 menaced the guide continually, arid added that he would out 'iff
13 his nose and ears. I did my best to appease him, making him
14 understand that the guide, who was already perplexed, would get
15 still more puzzled by bis continued threats, and that lie ought to
16 consider that he had not intentionally misled us; but my
17 admonitions were of no avail. The evening was now draw¬
18 ing near, and in the darkness of fie night our guide de¬
19 camped . Imagine our state! in a desert, without a guide,
20 not knowing the way, even by daylight, no human being
21 visible, forsaken by all the world, riding hungry, thirsty and
22 exhausted horses, without nutriment for either man at beast,
23 and, above all, the anxiety as to whether we. should ever get
24 out of that maze. The sky was clouded, it was raining, and
25 we were chilled by the cold, it being the end of the year. Tn
26 the heavens not a star was visible, to guide us; we were like blind
27 n.-n, not knowing whither to direct our steps. We left the horses
28 to their own instinct, but, like ourselves, they did not. know the
29 way. In this desperate dilemma, my happy star, beneath whose
30 influence, perhaps, I was horn, and which has often guided
31 me in difficulties, shone again. We obseived at some distance,
32 a small fire, towards which we directed our steps with re
33 newed courage; but it appeared and disappeared, as the rain and
34 wind either extinguished or revived it. We heard, also, in the
35 stillness of th. desert, the harking of a dog. We followed tiie
36 sound till wo arrived at s thicket, which we had some trouble in
37 getting through, found a river, and perceiving (hat the fire and