As we were getting farther North, the country was not so utterly uninhabited. Now and then we descried in the distance a party of Bedaween, mounted on their camels, coming toward us at full sail. As they came up out of the horizon, like ships out of the sea, Dr. Post would exclaim "There come the Midianites!" for indeed I suppose these men of the desert, in race and costume, as in the
a Professor of Arabic, of which he was master, besides being familiar with other languages of the Farther East, translating poems from the Persian, and reading and speaking Hindustanee. He had made a special study of the Peninsula of Sinai, having been with the Survey Expedition in 1868-9, and also in charge of an exploring party in the Desert of the Wandering, and the South Country, and Moab, in 1869-70. The result of his explorations was a work of great value on "The Desert of the Exodus." He was well known to the sheikhs and the tribes on the desert. So familiar indeed had his face become that he bore the name of Sheikh Abdallah. Sir Charles Wilson says of him: "I never met a European who possessed such influence over Arabs — due, I believe, to his eloquence; his knowledge of the Koran, which he could almost recite by heart; and to his memory, which enabled him to retain at once any Arab ballad he heard." This power over the people, and this familiarity with the country, gave him confidence that he could go anywhere with safety, and thus led him into danger and to death. Soon after the commencement of the late war, the English Government wished to send a trusted man on a secret mission to the Arabs of the Peninsula, to enlist them, if possible, on the side of the English; if not, at least to detach them from the side of the Egyptians; and consulting him as to whom they could find who would be at once competent and willing to go, he volunteered for the perilous service. He took with him three thousand pounds for the purchase of camels, to be used for transportation by the Indian Contingent that was to arrive at Suez; and which, instead of joining the English troops at Ismailia, was to execute a separate movement across the desert to Cairo. His motive was patriotic, but it was a rash undertaking to venture among these fierce tribes at a moment when they were greatly excited by the war. He was accompanied by two officers, Capt. Gill and Lieut. Charrington, who had had experience in such
