loft, or thought I had gone home to the French merchants,
and taken my bed there.
I w a s twic€-after this with Mahomet Bey, in which time
I concluded the agreement in favour o f the Englifli merchants.
Inftead o f 14 per cent, and an enormous prefent,
the Bey agreed for 8, and no prefent at all, and ¿ this own
expence fent the firman to Mocha, together with my letter
a copy o f which, and inftrudrions given in India in confe-
quence, I have here fubjoined.
Mr G rmc, capt, Thornhill’s lieutenant, whom I- ,have
mentioned as having feen at Jidda, was the firft who'came
down the G u lf to'Suez in the Minerva, and in th e whole
voyage, both by fea and after at Cairo, behaved in a manner
that did honour to his country,
In the two fubfequent vifits which 1 paid to Mahomet
Bey, I received the firman, and had a conyerfation before
the Bey with the man that was to go exprefs to Mochaq not
that I thought my recommendation was o f any confequence
after his receiving orders from the Bey^ but I knew very
well, as diligence was recommended to him, that it might
be fecured by a fmall gratuity given unknown to the Bey.
Two other fimilarprefents, o f no great value, were likewife
given to the two fervants who had aflifted me in procuring
the firman, the original o f which I left with the Venetian
conful. I thought it was unbecoming o f me to ftarve a
caufe that promifed to be both a private emolument and
■public benefit \ and, as I never expedted, fo I never received
the fmalleft return or acknowledgement either public or
private. -
It
It may be faid, that the trade carried on there b y Suez
and the Ifthmus would not be o f any advantage to the India
Company, but rather a detriment to it. Such was the an-
iw e r I got from Lord North upon my firft interview with,
his Lordihip after my return, and upon which I fhall not
pretend to decide. But this I lhall fubmit to the public,
whether, when a great objeft, fuch as that was, is unex-
peftedly in the power o f an individual, he is not obliged,
as a good citizen, to avail himfelf o f the occafion
that offers, and leave it to that part o f the public concerned,
to determine whether they- can make it o f fèrvice to them'
■or not.
I h a v e read, either in Abbé Prevot or M. de Maillet, (the
reader w ill alfi.fi: me, as neither o f thefe books are in my
hands at prefent) that the French, in the beginning o f this
•century, offered a very large fum o f money to the government
o f Cairo, to be allowed to fend only an jdvice-boat to
Suez, to carry and bring back their difpatches from their
fettlements in India, but they were conftantly refufed ; both
the India Company and Britifti Government are, by my
means, now in poffeifion o f that privilege, and I am informed
it has already been o f ufe, both in public and private
difpatches.
I m u s t further be permitted to fay, that, independent o f
thefe particulars, it feemed very ftrange that, confidering
the immenfe. empire which belonged to Britain in the Eaft
Indies, the Company and their fervants ihould be, to a man,
fo perfectly ignorant o f the Red Sea and ports in it, and fo indifferent
as to the means o f being better informed ; a fea
. V o l. IV, 4 L which