C a p .t a i n T h o m a s P r i c e , o f the Lion o f Bombay, Had!
been obliged, by his bufinefs with the government o f Mecca,
to continue at Jidda till, the feafon after I went fromi
thence to . Abyflinia.. I had already heard once from him, ,
and now a fecond time. He informed me my coun- -
trymen had been in the greateft pain for m e ; that feverali
reports had been-current, both at Jidda and Mocha, o f m y -
having been affaffinated; fometimes it was faid by th e -
Nay be o f Mafu ah; fometimes that it had happened a t.
Gondar ; by others at Sennaar, in my return home. Cap-~
tain Price wrote me in this laft letter, that,.thinking I mutt
be diftrefied for want o f money, he had left , orders with ;
Ibrahim SerafF, the Englifh.broker .at Jidda, to advance me.:
looo crowns, defiring my draft to be fent to Ibrahim, di- -
reiled to. him or his brother at Bombay,, and .to make .it
payable to a .gentleman o f' that name who lived in Smith-
field. I cannot omit mentioning-thefe inftances o f the philan- -
thropy and generofity o f Mr Price, .to whom I bore no rela- -
tion, and who was but a common acquaintance, whom I
had acquired among my countrymen during my ftay at
Jidda., The only title I had to this confideration was, that
Ke thought I was probably in diftrefs, and that as it was
in his power alone to'relieve, me,-this in itfelf, to a noble
mind,'conftituted a fufficient obligation. I. do. nqt believe •
Captain Price was. able to read a, w ord .o f Latin, fo that, fen-
timent in Terence, “ Homo ftim, nihil humani mihi alie-
“ n um e lle puto” was as much an original in Mr Price’s ;
breaft as i f it had never before been uttered..
I t o l d Metical. Aga’s fervant the bad news I had got -
f r o m Sennaar, and'he agreed perfectly with the contents,
adding, that the journey was not p radicable ; he, declared
they
tthey were fo inhuman and fo barbarous a race, that he
would not attempt the journey, Mahometan as he was,
¡for half the Indies. I begged him to fay no more on that
head, but to procure from his matter, Metical Aga at Mecca,
a letter to any man o f confequence he knew at Sennaar.
My refolution being therefore taken, and leave obtained
, this will be now the place to refume the account o f my
■finances. I have already gone fo far as to mention three
hundred pounds which I had occafionally borrowed from
a Greek whofe name was Petros. This man was originally
a native o f the ifland o f Rhodes, which h e mutt have left
early, for he was not at this time much paft thirty; he
had been by trade a fhoemaker. For what reafon he left
- his own country I know not, but he was o f a very pleafing
figure and addrefs, though very timid. Joas and foe Iteghe
-very much diftingUiflied him, and the k in g had made him
Azeleffa el Camifha, whiGh anfwers precifely to groom o f
the ftole, or firft lord o f the bed chamber in England. Being
pliant, civil, and artful, and always well dreffed, he' had gained
the good graces o f the whole co u r t; he was alfo rich,
as the king-was generous, and his perquifites not inconfi-
«lerable.
■'After the campaign o f Mariam Barea, when the dwarf
was ihot who was Handing before Ras Michael, and the pa-
lace fet on fire in the fray w hich followed, the crown, which
was under Petros’s charge, was melted ; the gold, indeed, that
k confiftedof, was afterwards found, but there was faidtohave
been on the top o f it a pearl, or jewel, o f immenfe price and
fize,larger than a pigeon’segg; and this, whatever it was, had
^Efappeared, being in all probability confumed by T'fje fire.
^ 2 Ras