indifferent weather, clear throughout the day, exceedin
g ly cold in the night and m o r n in g b u t , being better
cloathed, better fed than in the defert, and under
cover, we were not ib fenfible o f it, though the thermometer
ihewed the fame degrees. Above all, we had a
good decent proviiion o f brandy on board, part o f which L
had procured from the Aga, part from the Schourbatchie
my landlord, neither o f whom knew the other had given
me any, and both o f them pretended to each other, and
to the world, that they never tailed fermented liquors o f any/
kind, nor kept them in -their cuftody.
I h a d given to each o f my_fervants, to Soliman and to
the Greeks likewife, a common blanket called a barracan,.
o f the, warmed and coarfeft kind,, with a, waiftcoat and:
trowfers o f the fame, and all o f us, I believe, had configned
to the Nile the clothes in which, we palled the defert. The
meannefs o f our appearance did not at all fhock.us, fince-
nothing contributes more to fafety in a country like this..
I palled Shekh Nimmer not.without regret, but it was nighty,
and I was very ill.
On the 19th we- arrived'at How; where the intermitting-
fever, which I had at Syene, again returned, with unufuah
violence, and, what was moll unlucky, my Hock o f bark was-
almolt exhaulled, and the Rais had bufinefs 1 that obliOged
him to lie by fo ra day. As we were within a.fmall 'diftance
o f FurlboUt, I difpatched one o f the Barbarins, with a/
camel, to the fathers at the monaftery.. o f Furihout inform-,
in g them o f my arrival and very bad Hate o f health, and
requefting them to. fend, me ibme wheat.bread, as mine was
a lt
all confumed, and likewife fame rice, i f they had any. Upon
the A rab’s firft delivering his meffage the fathers treated him
as. an impollor, declaring that they knew from good authority
that I was drowned in the Red Sea, which another
o f them contradidled, being equally pofitive, from the fame
good authority, that m y death had happened from robbers
in Abyllinia. The Barbarin (a ihrewd fellow) defired the
fathers to obferve, that, i f I had been drowned in the Red
Sea, it was not pollible I could be llain by robbers on land
two years afterwards ; therefore, as one report was certainly
falfe, both might be fo, and he allured them this was the
cafe, and that I was at H ow ; but they laughed him to fcorn,
and threatened to carry him to Shekh Hamam to punilh him.
The poor fellow anfwered very pertinently,'If I had come
in Yagoube’s name for gold or filver,..then you might have
diftrufted me ; but fure it is not worth my while to hire a
camel to come here from How, and go back again to cheat
y o u out o f two loaves -of bread and a pound o f rice, which I
never tailed myfelf till I was with Yagoube, who made us
partake o f every thing that he ate as long as it lafled, and
failed with us when our meat was exhaulled.” They continued
to alk him, where he had found me ? The fellow
laid, At. Ras el F e e l; and not being able to deferibe where
that was, a frelh altercation began, in which it was concluded
betwixt the two reverend difputants, that I had been
drowned three years before in the Red Sea, and therefore all
the llory o f Ras el Feel mull be a lie.-
It happened, as indeed was often the cafe in thefe matters,
that m y Greek fervant Michael had been more provident
than I. He had thought fomething o f this kind might
be poffible, and therefore had defired the Barbarin, i f fo it
, •. 4 1 a happened,