•greateft part o f the dangers you have palled in the way
are, I believe, as .yet unknown to you. Y ou r Moor, yafine,
o f Ras el Feel, is a thief worfe than any in Habeih. Several
times you efcaped very narrowly, by mere chance,
from beipg cu t off, elpecially at Railiid, by the Arabs Da?
¡veina, whom Yafine had polled there to 'murder you. But
you have a clean heartlan d clean Lands. God Law their
-deigns, and protected y o u ; and, I m a y fay allb, on my
•Own part, I was not wanting.”
Being then on my le g s for retiring, I returned ¡no an-
fwer, but the ufual one (Ullah Kerim) /. .¿. God is merciful.
Soliman, on the other fide, echoed, u>Utlab Kerim !"try which
I faw -he underflood :me. W e both went out, and were
¡.conducted to the apartment provided by the old man in
the red cloak, who met us on ourtfirft arrival at ,the '-river,
and who now walked before me. till we .came to th eh o u fe .
It was a very decent one, confiding only o f one large room,
and Hood d o le upon the river. This fimation was chofen
.with an intention to keep open the correfpondence.with thc
Shekh o f .Nile’s Servant, whom we had fcnt ito the/Jehaina,
and who oocafionally-was to meet us-there; but Soliman
told the old man,¡it was raeeeflary tom e , on account o f frequent
ablutions before prayer, which my 'religion¡obliged
me to perform. This old man was called Hagi Soliman
Kalya, that is, the Shekh’s ¡Lieutenant, ¡fie had -been at
Mecca, and had feen Metical Aga, and knew his poll and
confeguence ; but he was a.murderer and robber like.his
mailer, a liar and diliembler. beyond all conception.
We had fcarce taken .pallcllicn o f our lodging, or thrown
o ff out clothes to p u t ourfelves at our eafe, when feveral
a - flaves
flaves o f both- fexies;. brought us a-quantity o f dilhes o f
meat from the Shekh, with marly 'flattering: compliments
arid gbod withes. The! whole was difpatched vdry fpeedily,,
khd fofhe o f our pdcfr 'cdittpanibns Of the Caravan, with thfe-
fe.lt, catneand helped us vefy thankfully, without ceremony,,
as i's the culloin o f the country:. When all was over, I was •
aflariiihed at one young man, w ho came and put his- mouth :
elpfe tom y ear, faying thefe few words in Arabic, “ Seitan
lid e le ! el Shekh el Atbara Seitan!” i. ei Fidele.is a,devil !'
Hie Shekh d f Atbara is the devil h im fe lf !:
A l l ftrangers were now difmifled, iindfer pretence o f out"
•going irnittediately to repofe. We had, indeed, much need'
o f reft in our prefent fituation, but ftill more o f Council, fo t
w hich w e immediately affembled by ourfelves, after having
fhut the door. I alked Soliman what he thought o f the
Shekh o f Atbara, and his difcourfe. He anfwered, without
heiitation, “ He is a traitor, has deceived Yafine, and means
y o u ill.” The •w&tA,great man, io-often applied to me— the
abufe beftowed upon Yafine, whom in his letters he had
called L is dear brother— the wondering that I came that
way, after, in his letters, and by his fervants, he had fo often,
peffuaded us, w h ile at Ras el Feel, that-it was the bell,nay*,
•the only roadpolfible; all this united together,feemed to leave •
•us no doubt but that w e had fallen into a trap, from w hich,
our own afiivity and resolutions,, under, the prote&on of.
Providence,.could alone releafe u s ..
I t ; may be remembered that, fome time before our Setting;
«rat from Ras el Feel, I had difpatched a fervant with the-
Baveinato Sennaar, whom they were toefcort as far asBey-
la;, and they had configped.him into the. hands of' Mahomet,\