Czo TRAVELS TO DISCOVER
happened, to call at Shekh Ifmael's at Badjoura,and inquire of him in my name for a loaf or twoof wheat 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 fent ; he too had heard of my death, but was much eafier convinced that I was ftill alive than the reverend fathers had been, becaufe more defirous that it fliould be fo.
Next day, the 20th, w€ arrived at Furfhout, though HagI Ifmael's invitation, and the unkindnefs of the fathers, had ftrongly tempted me to take up my quarters at Badjoura to guard him againft thepleurify, and the miftaking again the month of Ramadan. Some aukward apologies pafTed at meeting ; and if thefc fathers, the fole objeft of whofc mif- fion was the converfion of Ethiopia and Nubia, were averfe before to the undertaking their miffion, they did not feem- to increafe in keennefs from the circumflances which theyr learned from me.
On the 27th we failed for Cairo. At a fmall village be- fore we came to Achmim we were hailed by a perfon, wlio,. though meanly drelled, fpoke with the tone of authority^ and afked for a pafTage to Cairo, which I would have de- nied him if I could have had my own will ; but the Rai& readily promifcd it him upon his fird application. He after- wards told me he was a Copht and a Chnilian, employed; to gather the Bey's taxes in fuch villages as were only in- habited 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 pallage ; the Rais knows
who-'
