“‘Turning northward, for days and days we seemed to do nothing but drift and drift, the weather all the time becoming warmer and warmer. Then, just as if an intervening screen had been pulled suddenly and swiftly away, there below us lay the great Desert of Sahara. Far, far down, a thin stream of camels, heavily laden, were wending their way in the peculiar, tortuous, twisting fashion which is common to them. Upon the camels’ backs were gaily-coloured coverings fringed and tasseled with red and gold. On certain of the camels, in a kind of tent, rode a number of dark-eyed ladies, dressed in the most gorgeous silks and satins, their faces partly veiled, their little feet encased in dainty slippers, but always their flashing teeth and shining eyes to show that they were happy. “‘All at once the scene is changed. A broad line of swiftly-moving horses comes, as it were, from nowhere—grey horses, whose arching necks, slim legs, and small round feet, show them to be Arab thoroughbreds. Astride these horses there are dark-browed men in cloak-like white burnooses, racing forward in such a way that it is plainly their intention to surround, and, maybe, murder, those connected with the camels. “‘But not without a struggle will they be permitted to do as they please, for as soon as they are seen, the camels are drawn into a circle, and the dark-eyed ladies set within its very centre. Inside the ring, behind their animals, who have been told to lie down, are crouched the grim, alert, and silent merchants. In their hands are their rifles, ready loaded. Everything is death-like in its stillness. Even the thudding of the horses’ hoofs, at all times faint upon the sand, is, by the gentle breeze blown in the opposite direction. “‘Suddenly there comes a yell from the charging horsemen, and, at the very same instant, a flash of guns from the merchants. But, alas! in less time than it takes to describe it, the horsemen are victorious, the merchants are dead or captive, the dark-eyed ladies tied with silken cords, and the whole train—camels, horses and human beings—set in motion towards the desert City, wherein those of the merchants who are still alive will be turned into slaves, their goods and camels sold to the highest bidders, and their ladies taken into the harems of the Arabs rich enough to buy them. “‘Northward still we go, until Mount Vesuvius is reached. Oh, what a smoke and heat! I nearly dropped with suffocation! Indeed, I should have fallen straight into the great red yawning crater, with its awful fires, had it not been for the soft but strong hold by which the cloud upheld me. Never again do I want to see that burning place. The very memory of it, even now, causes me to tremble....