Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/289

Rh delivered a message from Sidi Hassan, that my people had killed a man; they desired that the murderer might be delivered to them, and that I should come to his tent, and see justice done. "I told them, that none of my people, however provoked, would put a man to death in my absence, unless in defence of their own lives; that, if I had been there, I should certainly have ordered them to fire upon a thief catched in the act of stealing within my tent; but, since he was dead, I was satisfied as to him, only expected that Sidi Hassan would give me up his companion, who had fled; that, as it was near morning, I should meet him when the caravan decamped, and hear what he had to say in his defence. In the mean time I forbade any person to come near my tent, or quarters, on any pretence whatever, till-day light." Away they went murmuring, but what they said I did not understand. We heard no more of them, and none of us slept. All of us, however, repeated our vows of standing by each other; and we since found, that we had stood in the way of a common practice, of stripping these poor strangers, the Turks, who come every year this road to Mecca.

dawn of day, the caravan was all in motion. They had got intelligence, that two days before, about 300 Atouni had watered at Terfowey; and, indeed, there were marks of great resort at the well, where we filled the water. We had agreed not to load one of our camels, but let the caravan go on before us, and meet the Atouni first; that I only should go on horseback, about two hundred yards into the plain from the tent, and all the rest follow me on foot with arms in their hands.