Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 4.djvu/627

 as a mark of duty to my sovereign, that, with those that knew and esteemed me, I should be obliged to run in debt for the credit of a whole narrative of circumstances, which ought, from their importance to history and geography, to have a better foundation than the mere memory of any man, considering the time and variety of events which they embraced; and, above all, I may be allowed to say, I felt for my country, that chance alone, in this age of discovery, had robbed her of the fairest garland of this kind she ever was to wear, which all her fleets, full of heroes and men of science, in all the oceans they might be destined to explore, were incapable of replacing upon her brow. These sad reflections were mine, and confined to myself. Luckily my companions were no sharers in them; they had already, in their own sufferings, much more than their little stock of fortitude, philosophy, or education enabled them to bear.

three o'clock in the afternoon of the 27th we saw two kites, or what are called Haddaya, very numerous in Egypt; about a quarter of an hour afterwards, another of the same sort, known to be carrion-birds, probably going in search of the dead camels. I could not conceal my joy at what I regarded as a happy omen. We went five hours and a half this day, and at night came to Waadi el Arab, where are the first trees we had seen since we left El Haimer.

the 28th, at half past seven in the morning we left Waadi el Arab, and entered into a narrow defile, with rugged, but not high mountains on each side. About twelve o'clock we came to a few trees in the bed of a torrent. Ill