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warlike expeditions, and in their courses along the deserts. If they are
attacked, they mount their steeds, who bear them with the rapidity of a
tempest to avenge their injuries; or, should they be overmatched in
fight, they soon transport them beyond the possibility of pursuit. For
this reason the proudest monarchs and greatest conquerors have in vain
attempted to subdue them. Troops accustomed to the plenty of a
cultivated country, are little able to pursue these winged warriors over
the whole extent of their sandy wastes. Oppressed with heat, fainting
for want of water, and spent with the various difficulties of the way,
the most numerous armies have been destroyed in such attempts; and those
that survived the obstacles of nature were easily overcome by the
repeated attacks of the valiant natives.

"'While I was in this country I was myself witness to an embassy that
was sent from the neighbouring prince, who imagined that the fame of his
exploits had struck the Arabians with terror, and disposed them to
submission. The ambassador was introduced to the chief of the tribe, a
venerable old man, undistinguished by any mark of ostentation from the
rest, who received him sitting cross-legged at the door of his tent. He
then began to speak, and, in a long and studied harangue, described the
power of his master, the invincible courage of his armies, the vast
profusion of arms, of warlike engines, and military stores, and
concluded with a demand that the Arabians should submit to acknowledge
him as their lord, and pay a yearly tribute.

"'At this proud speech the younger part of the tribe began to frown with
indignation, and clash their weapons in token of defiance; but the chief
himself, with a calm and manly composure, made this reply: 'I expected,
from the maturity of your age, and the gravity of your countenance, to
have heard a rational discourse, befitting you to propose and us to
hear. When you dwelt so long upon the power of your master, I also
imagined that he had sent to us to propose a league of friendship and
alliance, such as might become equals, and bind man more closely to his
fellows. In this case the Arabians, although they neither want the
assistance, nor fear the attacks of any king or nation, would gladly
have consented, because it has been always their favourite maxim,
neither to leave injuries unpunished, nor to be outdone in kindness and
hospitality. But since you have come thus far to deliver a mes