4 i8 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER.
manage this excurfion to the cataract. " Unlefs you had told me you was refolved, fays he, with a grave air, though full of opennefs and candour, I would, in the firfl place, have advifed you not to think of fuch an undertaking ; thefe are unfcttled times; all the country is bufhy, wild, and uninha- bited, quite to Alata ; and though Mahomet, the Shum, is a> good man, my friend and relation, and the king repofes trufl in him, as he does in me, yet Alata itfelf is at any time but a bad, ftraggling place, there are now many ftran- gers, and wild people there, whom Mahomet has brought to. his affiftance, fxnce Guebra Mehedin made the attack upon him. If, then, any thing was to befal you, what mould L anfwer to the king and the Iteghe? it would be faid, the Turk, has betrayed him ; though, God knows, I was never capable of betraying your dog, and rather would be poor all my life, than the richeft man of the province by do- ing the like wrong, even if the bad action was never to he. revealed, or known, unlefs to my own heart,
u Mahomet, faid I, you need not dwell on thefe profef* iions ; I have lived twelve years with people of your religion,, my life always in their power, and I am now in your houfe,, in preference to being in a tent out of doors with Netcho and his Chriftians. I, do not afk you whether I am to go or not, for that is refolved on ; and, tho' you are a Mahome- tan, and I a Chriflian, no religion teaches a man to do evil.. We both agree in this, that God, who has protected me thus far, is capable to protect me likewife at the cataract, and farther, if he has not determined otherwife, for my good j- I only afk you as a man who knows the country, to give. me your belt advice, how I may fatisfy my curiofity in this point, with as little danger, and as much expedition as,
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