happened, to call at Shekh Ifmael’s at Badjoura, and inquire
o f him in my name for a lo af or twoofwheat bread and fome
rice. This the Barbarin did with fome diffidence, after the
refufal received from the fathers, and was very much fur-
prifed at ...the chearful reception Shekh Ifmael gave him.
The bread and rice were fen t; he too had heard o f m y
death, but was much eafier convinced that I was ftill alive
than the reverend fathers had been, becaufe more defirous.
that it Ihould be fin
N e x t day, the 20th, we arrived at Furffiout, though Hagi<
Ifmael’s invitation, and the unkindnefs o f the fathers, hack
ftrongly tempted me to take up my quarters.at Badjour*
to guard him.againft the pleurify, and the miilaking again
the month o f R amadan. Some aukward apologies palled at'
meeting ; and. i f thefe fathers, the foie o b je a o f whofe m if -
lion was the converlion o f Ethiopia and Nubia, were averfe-
before to the undertaking their million, they did not feem-
to increafe in keennels from the circumftances which th e y
learned from me.
On the 27th we failed for Cairo. At a fmall village before
we came to Achmim we were hailed by- a perfon, w h o ,
though meanly drefied, fpoke with the tone of authority,,
and a Iked for a paflage to Cairo, w hich I would have denied
him i f I could have had my own w i l l ; but the Rais-
readily promifed it h im upon his. firft application. He afterwards
told me he was a .Copht and a Chriltian, employed-
to gather the Bey’s taxes in fuch villages as were only inhabited
by Chriftians, to which the Bey did not permit his;
Turks to go. “ I heard, fays he, you was coming down
(the Nile, and I way-laid you for a paflage the Rais knows.
who»
who I am, and that I ihall not be troublefome to you ; but
I have a large fum o f money, and do not chufe to have it
known, Ihope, however, you w ill give me your proteftion for
the fake o f my mafteiv”— “ Indeed, friend, laid I, I have but
feven ihillings in the whole world, and m y cioaths, I believe,
are not worth much above that fum, and it is but a.
few days ago I was rejoicing at this as one o f mygreateft
fecurities. But fince Providence has, I hope for your good',
thrown you and your money in my way, I will do the bell
for you that is in my power, the fame as i f it was my own.”
On the toth o f January 1773 we arrived at the convent
o f St George, all o f us, as I thought, worfe in health and
fpirits than the day we came out o f the defert. Nobody
knew us at the convent, either .by our face o ro u r language,
and it was by a kind o f force that w e entered, ifmael,
and the Copht went ftraight to the Bey, and I, with great
difficulty, had interell enough to fend to the patriarch and
my merchants at Cairo, by employing the two only piaftres
I had in my pocket. If the capuchins at Furflxout received us
coldly, thefe Caloyeros o f St George kept us ftill at a greater
diftance. It was h a lf by violence that we got admittance
into the convent. But this difficulty was to be but o f ihort
duration ; the morning was to- end it, and give us a fight'
o f our friends, and in the meantime we were to lleepi.
foundly. We had nothing elfe to do, having no victuals,
and the Caloyeros nothing to give us, even i f they had been
inclined, o f which we had not feen yet the fmalleft token,
Tms we thought, and this, in the common view o f things,
we were intitled to think ; but we forgot that we were at
Cairn