The cause of delay mentioned in the preceding letter continued to operate during the next four months, and it was not until the 2nd of March, 1814, that the caravan finally quitted upper Egypt. During the tedious intervals, which Mr. Burckhardt was under the necessity of passing at Esne, he continued to wear his usual disguise of a poor Mohammedan trader; taking care to be as little known or noticed as possible. Among the jealous, treacherous, and cruel Mussulman nations which he traversed, after leaving Daraou, it was with difficulty that he seized opportunities of continuing the journal of his remarks and proceedings. Still less was it in his power to transmit any intelligence to the Association, until after having arrived in safety at Souakin, a port of considerable traffic on the African coast of the Red Sea, he crossed over from thence to Djidda, in Arabia. The following extract of a letter from Djidda will put the reader in possession of the general direction of the route, together with the most important heads of information acquired by Mr. Burckhardt in his second Nubian journey. The detailed account of it, which was not transmitted to the Association until the year 1816, forms the subject of the greater part of the present volume. _Extract of a Letter from Mr. Burckhardt to Sir Joseph Banks, dated Djidda, 7th August,_ 1814. I left Upper Egypt on the 2nd of March, and crossed the Nubian desert during a journey of twenty three days, slow travelling; nearly in the same route, by which Bruce returned from Abyssinia, fifty years ago. Our caravan rejoined the Nile at Berber, in the vicinity of Bruce’s Gooz, and after a fortnight’s stay among the Arabs Meyrifab, and as much at Damer (two days south of Berber), we reached Shendy, which is at present the principal market for the slave-traders, from Egypt, Darfour, Kordofan, and Sennaar.