The whole town was in terror at the influx of so many barbarians, who knew no law whatever. They brought a thousand camels loaded with wheat to transport to Mecca. Every body shut their doors, and I among the rest, whilst the Bey sent to me to remove into the castle. But I had no fear, and resolved to make an experiment, after hearing these were people of _Nimmer_, whether I could trust them in the desert or not. However, I sent all my instruments, my money, and the best of my baggage, my medicines and memorandums, into a chamber in the castle: after the door was locked, and the key brought to me, the Bey ordered to nail up pieces of wood across it, and set a centinel to watch it all day, and two in the night. I was next morning down at the port looking for shells in the sea, when a servant of mine came to me in apparent fright and hurry. He told me the Ababdé had found out that Abdel Gin, my Arab, was an _Atouni, their enemy_, and that they had either cut his throat, or were about to do it; but, by the fury with which they seized him, in his sight, he could not believe they would spare him a minute. He very providently brought me a horse, upon which I mounted immediately, seeing there was no time to be lost; and in the fishing-dress, in which I was, with a red turban about my head, I galloped as hard as the horse could carry me through the town. If I was alarmed myself, I did not fail to alarm many others. They all thought it was something behind, not any thing before me, that occasioned this speed. I only told my servant at passing, to send two of my people on horseback after me, and that the Bey would lend them horses. I was not got above a mile into the sands, when I began to reflect on the folly of the undertaking. I was going into the desert among a band of savages, whose only trade was robbery and murder, where, in all probability, I should be as ill treated as the man I was attempting to save. But, seeing a crowd of people about half a mile before me, and thinking they might be at that time murdering that poor, honest, and simple fellow, all consideration of my own safety for the time vanished.