I was now the only slave in the village. I had no person to whom I could communicate my distresses. My situation became daily more and more unhappy; yet I determined with myself to be no longer affected so deeply with it. "After having supported, with boldness, so many dangers," said I to myself, "I have to this hour gone through extraordinary fatigue; my health enables me to encounter still fresh trials; let me support them with courage, and perhaps Providence will soon cease to try me farther."
This resolution, and the manner in which I had conducted myself towards those who were wishing to depress me, had procured me some attention amongst these savages; insomuch, that they permitted me to lie, from time to time, behind their tents, and even, to drink at times out of their vessels. My master left me in peace, and did not require that I should keep the camels. It is true, he no more spake to me about restoring me to liberty; besides, I would have given very little credit to any thing which he would have said. His treachery towards me had convinced me that I could place very little confidence in him.
I was obliged, however, to continue making faggots, to procure subsistence; but I was often thrown into fits of inconceivable fury by thirst. One must have experienced the torment which I endured, to form an idea of the extremities to which it is possible to be reduced. I saw that the Arabs themselves were in the greatest distress. Many died of hunger and thirst. The season promised no relief to them. This was the fourth time that drought had destroyed the harvest. This cruel situation had so much rankled the dispositions of the inhabitants of the different tribes, that they went to war among themselves. They made it their business to kill as many of their cattle as they could, and dry their flesh, as the milk had almost entirely failed. The water was now very scarce; there was none to be found in any part of the Desert, but in the neighbourhood of the sea-coast, and it was brackish, black, and noxious. This wretched drink, together with the scarcity of pasturage, had driven almost all the Arabs from the coasts. The provisions having failed, no person durst settle in the country; thus were we circumstanced, when I had opportunity to observe what necessity could teach man to do. The camels which we killed, served to supply with water those Arabs who had least milk. They preserved, with great care, the water which is found lodged in the stomachs of these animals. They separated it from the dung; and, by pressing it, they procured a greenish water, in which they boiled their victuals. That which they took from the bodies of the goats, tasted like fennel, and had a very agreeable flavour. This water is far from being disagreeable; that of the camels is much less pleasant to the taste. But what astonished me most was, that these animals, who did not taste water oftener than twice or thrice in a year, and who were fed upon dried plants, should preserve in their stomach a prodigious quantity of water; the camel in particular.