return with greater violence, and now became a tertian fever, while the vomiting still continued, accompanied by occasional faintings, and ended in a total prostration of strength. I was now unable to rise from my carpet, without the assistance of my slave, a poor fellow, who by habit [p.319] and nature was more fitted to take care of a camel, than to nurse his drooping master. I had by this time lost all hope of returning to Egypt, and had prepared myself for dying here. Despondency had seized me, from an apprehension that, if the news of my death should arrive in England, my whole Hedjaz journey would, perhaps, be condemned as the unauthorised act of an imprudent, or at least over-zealous missionary; and I had neither books, nor any society, to divert my mind from such reflections: one book only was in my possession, a pocket edition of Milton, which Captain Boag, at Djidda, had kindly permitted me to take from his cabin-library, and this I must admit was now worth a whole shelf full of others. The mistress of my lodgings, an old infirm woman, by birth an Egyptian, who during my stay took up her quarters in an upper story, from which she could speak to me without being seen, as it opened into my own room below, used to converse with me for half an hour every evening; and my cicerone, or Mezowar, paid me occasional visits, in order, as I strongly suspected, to seize upon part of my baggage in case of my death. Yahya Effendi left the town in the month of March, with the army of Tousoun Pasha, which marched against the Wababys. About the beginning of April, the returning warmth of the spring put a stop to my illness; but it was nearly a fortnight before I could venture to walk out, and every breeze made me dread a return of the fever. The bad climate of the town, its detestable water, and the great number of diseases now prevalent, made me extremely desirous to leave Medina. My original intention was, to remain here, at most, one month, then to take some Bedouin guides, and with them to cross the Desert to Akaba, at the extremity of the Red Sea, in a straight direction, from whence I might easily have found my way to Cairo. In this route I wished to visit Hedjer, on the Syrian Hadj road, where I expected to find some remains of the remotest antiquity, that had not been described by any other traveller, while the interior of the country might have offered many other objects of research and curiosity. It was, however, utterly impossible for me to perform this journey in my convalescent state; nor had I any hopes of recovering, in