Three distinct caravans are employed in bringing slaves, and other commodities, from the interior of Africa to Kahira. One of them comes straight from Murzûk, the capital of Fezzân, another from Sennaar, and the third from Fûr. They do not arrive at fixed periods, but after a greater or less interval, according to the success they may have had in procuring slaves, and such other articles as are fitted to the market, the orders of their respective rulers, and various other accidental circumstances. The Fezzân caravan is under the best regulations. The merchants from that place employ about fifty days in their passage from Murzûk to Kahira; which city they as often as possible contrive to reach a little before the commencement of Ramadan, that such as find themselves inclined to perform the pilgrimage, may be prepared to accompany the Emîr of Misr. The sale of their goods seldom employs them in the city much more than two months; after the expiration of which, those who have no design of visiting Mecca return to their native country. The arrival of this caravan is generally annual. The other two are extremely various in their motions; sometimes not appearing in Egypt for the space of two or even three years, sometimes two or more distinct caravans arriving in the same year. The perpetual changes in their several governments, and the caprices of their despots, are in a great degree the occasion of this irregularity. The road also between these two places and Kahira, is often infested by bodies of independent Arabs, as that of Sennaar, by the Ababdé and Shaikié, and that of Fûr by the Cubba-Beesh and Bedeiât: the latter is however for the most part much safer than the former. The departure of a caravan from Dar-Fûr forms an important event. It engages the attention of the whole country for a time, and even serves as a kind of chronological epocha. The period of their arrival in Kahira is as uncertain as that of their departure; for they travel indifferently either in winter or summer. The journey from Assûan to Sennaar requires much less time than that from Assiût to Dar-Fûr.