more, and soon
after crossed to Crete.

[Illustration: A NILE BOAT, OR CANJA. From Bruce's _Travels to
Discover the Source of the Nile_.]

It was not till July 1768 that the explorer at last reached Cairo _en
route_ for Abyssinia, and five months later embarked on board a Nile
boat, or canja. His cabin had close latticed windows made not only
to admit fresh air, but to be a defence against a set of robbers on
the Nile, who were wont to swim under water in the dark or on goatskins
to pilfer any passing boats. Then, unfurling her vast sails, the canja
bore Bruce on the first stage of his great journey. The explorer spent
some time in trying to find the lost site of old Memphis, but this
was difficult. "A man's heart fails him in looking to the south," he
says; "he is lost in the immense expanse of desert, which he sees full
of pyramids before him. Struck with terror from the unusual scene of
vastness opened all at once upon leaving the palm trees, he becomes
dispirited from the effect of the sultry climate."

For some days the canja, with a fair wind, stemmed the strong current
of the Nile. "With great velocity" she raced past various villages
through the narrow green valley of cultivation, till the scene changed
and large plantations of sugar-canes and dates began. "The wind had
now become so strong that the canja could scarcely carry her sails;
the current was rapid and the velocity with which she dashed against
the water was terrible." Still she flew on day after day, till early
in January they reached the spot "where spreading Nile parts
hundred-gated Thebes." Solitude and silence reigned over the
magnificent old sepulchres; the hundred gates were gone, robbers
swarmed, and the traveller hastened away. So on to Luxor and Karnac
to a great encampment of Arabs, who held sway over the desert which
Bruce had now to cross. The old sheikh, whose protection was necessary,
known as the Tiger from his ferocious disposition, was very ill in
his tent. Bruce gave him some lime water, which eased his pain, and,
rising from the ground, the old Arab stood upright and cried: "Cursed
be those of my people that ever shall lift up their hand against you
in the desert."

He strongly advised Bruce to return to Kenne and cross the desert from
there instead of going on by the Nile. Reluctantly Bruce turned back,
and on 16th February 1769 he joined a caravan setting out to cross
the desert to the shores of the Red Sea.

"Our road," h