ze-cake and sour milk. In the
meantime, Mr. Rooke had made the Arab understand their situation, and
their wish to get to Tunis; and after some trouble and promise of
reward, he agreed to conduct them next morning to Biserta. The wearied
men then threw themselves on the ground, where they passed the night
in company with dogs, cows, and goats, exposed to a violent wind and
pouring rain.

Their subsequent proceedings are thus related by Lieutenant Rooke:--

'Wednesday, December 22nd.--At about 9 A.M. we started. Our road lay
at first over a ridge of high hills, from which we saw nothing of the
ship. We then crossed a sandy plain covered with the cactus, which
severely wounded my feet. Afterwards passed through some wooded
ravines, and over an extensive marsh intersected with brooks. Towards
the evening a horseman overtook us, who seeing the tired condition of
the steward, his feet bleeding, and also suffering from a gash on his
head, received whilst landing, carried him for about four miles, and
when his road lay in a different direction, gave our guide his gun,
and a piece of silver for us.

'The night being now dark, and all of us exhausted, we stopped at a
Bedouin encampment, and asked for shelter, which after some time was
granted. We had been walking about ten hours, and got over more than
thirty miles of broken ground, having stopped once for a few minutes
to pick the berries off some arbutus trees, being our only food since
breakfast till late that night. We were wet, coverless, and all except
myself shoeless.

'They gave us some maize-cake and milk. Seeing horses, I made them
understand that they would be well paid if they let us have them to
take us on to Biserta that night, when they made signs that the gates
were locked, but that we should have them in the morning.

'Thursday, December 23rd.--At daylight we set out, but none of us
could walk from swollen feet. After a ride of about fifteen miles,
sometimes fording streams, and at others nearly up to our horses'
knees in mud, we arrived about ten A.M., at Biserta, and went to the
house of our consular agent, an Italian, whom I immediately asked to
prepare a boat for Tunis.

'The boats here were all too small to send to the wreck, and for which
the wind was foul, with a fresh breeze. About 1 P.M. I started for
Tunis, and arrived about 11 P.M. at the Goletta, where I landed, and
sent to our Vice-Consul, who after some difficulty, owing to the port
regulati