Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/254

 beasts they rode, were not very unlike the Midianites who bought Joseph of his brethren, and sold him into Egypt. We met also several parties of the Tawarah tribe returning from Gaza, loaded with grain, two sacks to a camel, each sack containing several bushels. Their appearance was such as we suppose that of the sons of Jacob to have been when they went down into Egypt to buy corn. expeditions. But their enterprise was soon to come to an end. They had made but a single day's march from the Wells of Moses to Wady Sudr, from which a pass leads through the mountain range towards Nukhl, which probably they were to take. As they reached this camping-ground, the Bedaween [not of the Tawarah tribe, who were our escort, but of other tribes, of which I shall have occasion to speak hereafter] gathered round them; and seeing how few they were, took them prisoners, and the next morning conducted them into the mountains, where it was said at the time that they were taken to the edge of a precipice, and given their choice — to throw themselves over or be shot; and that Professor Palmer covered his face with his hands, and took the fatal leap, while Captain Gill and Lieutenant Charrington, with the instinct of soldiers, chose to be shot, and fell with their face to the foe. But further investigation seems to show that they had not even a choice of the mode of death. There was nothing to relieve it from the character of a brutal massacre. This terrible affair was for some time unknown; but as no report was received from the expedition, alarm began to be felt, and Colonel Warren, with a force large enough for its own protection, was sent in search. The fate of the missing party was soon learned, as the bodies of the murdered men were found in the ravine below the precipice where they perished. Colonel Warren found the desert full of hostility, and his own party was threatened with attack. But this reign of terror continued only with the power of Arabi Pasha in Egypt. With the triumph of English arms, the murderers were brought to justice. Five who were proved to have taken part in the massacre, were executed in the presence of a large number of sheikhs of different tribes, who were brought in from the desert to witness this signal retribution. After such a proof of English power, it is to be hoped that travellers will again be safe to pass through the Peninsula of Sinai.