which I intended to visit, without any design of continuing or studying there: But the reader will afterwards see of what very material service this acquaintance was to me, so very essential, indeed, that it contributed more to the success of my views in Abyssinia than any other help that I obtained throughout the whole of it. This man's name was Padre Christophoro, or Father Christopher. At my leaving Algiers, finding himself less conveniently situated, he went to Egypt, to Cairo, where he was promoted to be second in rank under Mark, patriarch of Alexandria, where I afterwards found him.
Business of a private nature had at this time obliged me to present myself at Mahon, a gentleman having promised to meet me there; I therefore sailed from Algiers, having taken leave of the Dey, who furnished me with every letter that I asked, with strong and peremptory orders to all the officers of his own dominions, pressing recommendatory ones to the Bey of Tunis and Tripoli, states independent, indeed, of the Dey of Algiers, but over which the circumstances of the times had given him a considerable influence.
The violent disputes about the passports had rather raised than lowered me in his esteem. The letters were given with the best grace possible, and the orders contained in them were executed most exactly in all points during my whole stay in Barbary. Being disappointed in the meeting I looked for at Mahon, I remained three days in Quarantine Island, though General Townsend, then deputy-governor, by every civility and attention in his power, strove to induceme
