_ 419 _ camps. This was in order not to be robbed for the Arabs are great thieves. They journeyed twenty-two days without being attacked by any of those wild animals except for two occasions when two lions tried to eat them; but they escaped because of the speed of the dromedaries. So terrified were the dromedaries that they ran for two leagues, in this flight Antonio Tenrreiro's dromedary injured a foot and was so crippled that they were unable to travel for six days, giving them much labour. Furthermore, in this time they could only find enough water for four or five drinks, which caused them to suffer greatly from thirst. Even this water was bitter. Resuming their journey after the dromedary had recovered at the end of these twenty-two days, they arrived at a small, fortified place surrounded by thick mud walls. It was inhabited by Arabs on account of a large spring to be found there which watered their crops, and there were date palms. Antonio Tenrreiro attached himself to a caravan which was on its way to the city of Aleppo, at the edge of the desert and his guide returned to Basra. On this same day the caravan went to sleep at another fort and forty leagues from there they emerged from the
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