when we came into camp. Our men had been as anxious about us as we were about them. We found dinner awaiting us, after which we strolled out to call upon our neighbors: for another American party from Philadelphia, which had left the Wells of Moses in the morning, was camped near us. Indeed we camped side by side every night but one till we reached Mount Sinai. Taking the two parties together, there were twenty-seven camels, and about the same, or a larger, number of men. It was a picturesque sight to see the huge creatures stretched upon the ground, and the Arabs about their camp-fires cooking their food. All round us the sand glistened in the moonlight, white as the driven snow. In such a scene of peace, we lay down in our tents to sleep the first night on the desert.[1]
- ↑ This spot [in the Wady Sudr] where we lay down to sleep so peacefully, was five months later the scene of a fearful tragedy, the capture and massacre of Professor Palmer and his party, an event which thrilled England with horror. For a fuller account of it see Note on pages 238-240.
