Let the reader now recollect all the perils to which we had been exposed in escaping from the wreck of the frigate to the shores of the Desert--all that we had suffered during our four days' voyage--and he will perhaps have a just notion of the various sensations we felt on getting on shore on that strange and savage land. Doubtless the joy we experienced at having escaped, as by a miracle, the fury of the floods, was very great; but how much was it lessened by the feelings of our horrible situation! Without water, without provisions, and the majority of us nearly naked, was it to be wondered at that we should be seized with terror on thinking of the obstacles which we had to surmount, the fatigues, the privations, the pains and the sufferings we had to endure, with the dangers we had to encounter in the immense and frightful Desert we had to traverse before we could arrive at our destination? Almighty Providence! it was in Thee alone I put my trust. CHAPTER VIII. THE SHIPWRECKED PARTY FORM THEMSELVES INTO A CARAVAN TO GO BY LAND TO SENEGAL--THEY FIND WATER IN THE DESERT--SOME PEOPLE OF THE CARAVAN PROPOSE TO ABANDON THE PICARD FAMILY--GENEROUS CONDUCT OF AN OLD OFFICER OF INFANTRY--DISCOVERY OF AN OASIS OF WILD PURSLAIN--FIRST REPAST OF THE CARAVAN IN THE DESERT--THEY FALL IN WITH A SMALL CAMP OF ARABS--M. PICARD PURCHASES TWO KIDS--THE MOORS OFFER THEIR SERVICES TO THEM--ARRIVAL AT LAST AT THE GREAT CAMP OF THE MOORS--M. PICARD IS RECOGNISED BY AN ARAB--GENEROUS PROCEEDING OF THAT ARAB--SUDDEN DEPARTURE OF THE CARAVAN--THEY HIRE ASSES. After we had a little recovered from the fainting and fatigue of our getting on shore, our fellow-sufferers told us they had landed in the forenoon, and had cleared the breakers by the strength of their oars and sails; but they had not all been so lucky as we were. One unfortunate person, too desirous of getting quickly on shore, had his legs broken under the Shallop, and was taken and laid on the beach, and left to the care of Providence. M. Espiau, commander of the shallop, reproached us for having doubted him when he wished to board us to take our family along with him. It was most true he had landed sixty-three people that day. A short while after our refusal, he took the passengers of the yawl, who would infallibly have perished in the stormy night of the 6th and 7th. The boat named the Senegal, commanded by M. Maudet, had made the shore at the same time with M. Espiau. The boats of MM. Schmaltz and Lachaumareys were the only ones which continued the route for Senegal, whilst nine-tenths of the Frenchmen intrusted to these gentlemen were butchering each other on the raft, or dying of hunger on the burning sands of Sahara.