DEPARTURE FOR THE SETTITE.

before leaving ; and they arrived in crowds, and were greatly enchanted. As a termination to the entertainment, we let off a couple of rockets and a Bengal-light. One of the rockets did not go off properly, and ignited some grass ; which fortunately, however, had been so much eaten down by immense herds of cattle, sheep, and goats, that we were easily able to extinguish it.

The year before, Suleiman, in carelessly throwing away the end of a cigarette, had set fire to the grass. He was ahead of us at the time, with the caravan. The fire spread very rapidly, and burnt miles of country, spreading even to the tops of some high hills. The camels got frightened, and many of them threw off their loads, and bolted ; and a great scene of confusion took place. George, who was present, was much terrified, and as quickly as possible got the luggage and camels into the sandy bed of a khor, where he buried the gunpowder. There was no real danger; but it looked sufficiently alarming, and reminded one of a chapter in one of Capt. Mayne Reid's novels. We despatched a messenger to Cassala, with a large budget of letters for the post, and on the same day, Feb. 27, made a start south for the Settite. We had fully explained to the sheik where we wished to go, and had told him that we did not care to visit the Hamran country, which has of late years been so frequently shot over by Europeans, as to have very little game left. He promised that we should strike the river at its junction with Khor Meheteb, a khoj- that runs into the Settite from the north. This we understood was the farthest point in that direction where European travellers had succeeded in making a camp ; as it was on the borders of the Base country, and the Hamrans and the Base are deadly enemies. We had hoped, commencing from here, to shoot for some distance up the river, and expected to find a tract of country which, though small, had not been previously shot over.