defending themselves, as the confequence of killing an Arabian, would have been the certain death of the party on fhore. They foon after got poffeffion of the fhip, and took out all the guns and fmall

arms.

During the three days they had now been here, many trading boats having failed in and out of the harbour, the vizier was deprived of all hopes of making a fecret prize of the veffel. He therefore entered into a kind of treaty with the prisoners, and after extorting confiderable Yums of money from them, and detaining them a month, by which time the northern monfoons fet in, he agreed to fend them away to Suez in a boat, for which they were to pay the extravagant price of 650 dollars. However, they had nothing left but to fubmit, and the company, confifting of Mr. Irwin, Major Alexander, Lieutenant ***, attended by four fervants and Ibrahim, the Arabian interpreter, embarked on board their boat. This boat, which, from the price they paid for her, they named the Impofition, afforded thefe four gentlemen no more accommodation than a fquare of about five feet diameter, being formed of their chefts, with no defence against the mid-day fun or mid-night dews. Their fervants and the boat's crew fufficiently occupied the reft.

At the commencement of this voyage, the lieutenant before mentioned discovered by many extravagances, that the treatment they had received at Yambo had difordered his intellects. He had betrayed fears for his life from his first entrance into the boat, and retarded their departure by efcap

ing afhore, where he went back to the vizier to communicate his apprehenfions. He was brought on board again, where every thing was done to quiet his mind, and divert him; but with fo little fuccefs, that the Arabs were in turn alarmed at his mad freaks, and pofitively refused to proceed on their voyage, if he remained on board. In this dilemma they were forced to fend the poor man back to Yambo, with a recommendation to the care of Captain Bacon of the Adventure; and had after ward the fatisfaction to hear of his recovery.

After a tedious coafting voyage up the Arabian fhore for a month, the boatmen, when they arrived at the gulph of Suez, ftood over to the Egyptian fhore under the advantage of the night, and made for the port of Cofire, which is about half way between Yambo and Suez. The gentlemen now found that the boat was originally bound only for Cofire, and that the vizier of Yambo, by making an exorbitant charge for a voyage to Suez, had doubly cheated them; befide expofing them to a much longer and more dangerous journey by land, than if they had been conveyed to the port for which they had paid their paffage.

Cofire, which ftands in 26 deg. 20 min. north latitude, is defcribIed as the fourtheṛnmost port on the coaft of Egypt, and to have been of great note, and to be still confiderable, for the exportation of grain to Arabia, which is brought in caravans from the Nile. The town is however in a miferable state of decay, and the afpect of the country round is dreary; the eye cannot catch a

verdant

verdant fpot, and this defart is the barrier to the celebrated and fertile land of Upper Egypt.

There was now no remedy, but to land at the place to which they were carried; and to wait the fet ting out of a caravan with which they might travel to the Nile. The novelty of their European drefs procured them any vifitors; to leffen therefore the notice they attracted, they refolved to affume the veftments of the Eafterns; and as being alfo better adapted to the nature of the climate. Their stay in this place was at a continual expence of prefents of one kind or other, which their new acquaintances contrived to get from them by infinuations and importunities; having conceived high ideas of their wealth by their baggage. The delay of the arrival of the expected caravan, by the return of which they were to proceed to the Nile, proved a good opening to the Arabian Shaik to profit by their eagerness to depart. He offered to procure them as many camels as they required for them and their baggage; for which, however, they were to pay double price of camel hire to Ghinnah, on account of the fcarcity of thofe aninals at that time. To this meafure they would have agreed, had not the price he demanded exceeded trebly what it ought to have, done according to his own calculation. The news of the approach of the caravan put an end to the negociation, but afforded him op. portunity to begin another for the loan of twenty dollars which he faid he wanted to purchase coffee; this request, which their knowledge of the Arabs taught them to

confider but as an indirect mode of begging, their fituation induced them to comply with; and the crafty, veteran received them with many profeffions of gratitude, and, promifes to expedite their journey.

The next morning was ushered in by a vifit from the shaik, at tended by the principal Arabs of the town, whofe errand was to fee what they could ftrip the travellers of before their departure, 200 camels of the caravan having arrived the preceding evening. When the gentlemen determined to bring them to the point of naming the fum total they were to pay for carriage to Ghinnah, they delivered the following bil :

Dollars.

205

It is to be obferved that the usual hire of a camel for that journey was but two dollars; they paid the money however on the fpot, to the great fatisfaction, of their vifitors, placing all their fufferings to the account of the vizier of Yambo. The fufpicions of their concealed wealth would not let the fhaik part with these travellers without ftill more extortion; for he came the next morning and told them in plain terms, that he must have more money: He condefcended indeed to place this requifition to the account of the people of the town and country, who had been pestering him for prefents from

them;

to be confidered by thefe people as men of vaft wealth, whofe trunks were filled with gold, precious ftones, and rich merchandize, on which it was their custom to levy a tax. It was in vain to expoftulate, the dependants of the fhaik were yet to receive their mite; and he declared in a determined tone, that he could not pretend to fend them in. fafety to the Nile, until he received orders from the bey of Cairo, unless the people were fatisfied with a donation of twenty-five dollars. When his demand was fatisfied, the clouds which loured on his countenance difpelled in a moment, and with infinite good humour he ordered the camels at the door to take up their baggage. After his departure, it was found that inftead of twelve camels; as by agreement, he had only provided tén, and he had grace enough to avoid another interview, by fending his fon to accompany them inftead of attending himfelf.

Misfortune however ftill pursued them. The young fhaik found means in the courfe of their journey to separate them from the reft of the caravan, and after they had fuffered innumerable fatigues, he had the impudence to propofe to leave them at Banute, a town confiderably fhort of Ghinnah. This circumftance (fays Mr. Irwin) was too barefaced not to alarm us, and we determined to push on, through an almost infupportable heat. This refolution was confirmed by Abdul Ruffar, our Arabian fervant, who was entitled to credit from his paft behaviour. Accordingly, at two o'clock, we mounted our camels,

we

wait until the evening, and moved on. in the most fultry day I had ever felt in the Eaft. We foon rejoined the merchant's camels, which had taken fhelter under a thorn-tree at fome diflance, and were ready to attend us. While united with this body, we did not fear going aftray; and purfued our courfe, under a full fecurity of being on the road to Ghinnah. We had no water, but what our earthern guglets contained; and this was foon expended. It is impoffible to defcribe what fuffered from heat and thirst during this ftage. A mouthful or two of dirty water, which one of our guards gave me, made me forget for the moment his recent infolence; and all our former apprehenfions were infenfibly fwallowed up in the more painful idea of falling victims to thirst. Our tongues actually became parched to our palates; and we were obliged to wet them every now and then, with fpirituous liquors, to prevent fuffocation from the clouds of duft which continual whirlwinds threw around us. This expedient was but tranfitory, and ferved indeed to increase the rage of thirst. It was our common misfortune alfo to labour under a violent complaint in our bowels; and to the want of the bad water that occafioned it-a want which we had lamented in the most earnett `manner-our prefervation was probably owing. I was fo afflicted myself with this diforder. that I could fcarcely fit my camel through ex-. cefs of pain. The wind and duft had equally affected our fight, fo that we wandered on in agony and darkness. There is no doubt that

Our

This ftage was fix hours, or fifteen miles.

After five days journey through thefe deferts, they at length arrived at Ghinnah, on the banks of the Nile, where they again found themselves in much worse hands than at Cofire. Their landlord and the vizier of the city leagued together, and by fundry artifices and farcical pleas of difficulties, contrived to detain them from their voyage down the river, and to drain them of their money and every valuable article, even to their arms and wearing apparel, that they faw in their poffeffion: thefe extortions they were obliged to fubmit to, finding by experience that among these people refiftance never produced redrefs. After having been kept prifoners by their landlord, fubject to a barefaced courfe of depredation, they were at length happily refcued from thefe plunderers, by the long expected arrival of the fhaik Ul Arab, whofe character and behaviour Mr. Irwin thus describes :

our Arabian companions partook in fome measure of our fufferings; but they were too much accustomed to the fun, to feel all the effects of his fury; and we had some reason to fufpect, that their stock of water lafted long after ours had failed us. To crown this fcene of diftrefs, we at length overtook the fhaik, who, we learnt, had been difappointed in replenishing his fkins, by the appearance of wild Arabs about the springs. This news founded like the knell of death in our ears; not from the neighbourhood of thefe robbers, who were once fo formidable to our fears, but from the absence of a fluid, on which we fuppofed our lives to depend. Faint and fpiritlefs, therefore, we toiled on until eight o'clock at night, when we halted, without having encountered any foe in the way. But far different was this halting-place from any other we had come to. Without a draught of water to moiften our throat, it was impracticable to force down a morfel of bread; and the pain and wearinefs under which our bodies. laboured, were too extreme to admit of a momentary repofe. Overwhelmed with hunger, thirst, and fatigue, we fat ourselves upon the ground, and revolved our melancholy fituation in filence. Every fkin was alternately ranfacked by us for water, and not an article left untried that was likely to produce the least moisture. My companions and I had unluckily recourfe to raw onions, which were among the baggage.. But no fooner had we tafted of this potent root, than we repented of our rafhnefs. The effect was quite contrary to our hopes; and our drought was irritated to the highest degree.

7

Ifman Abu Ally, the great fhaik of the Arabs-for fuch we would render the fhaik Ul Arab-is a fhort fat man, of about five feet two inches high, and turned, as we learn, of feventy-five. His eyes are grey, and his complexion very fair; but, what at once gives him a fingular and more youthful look, his beard, which is very bufhy, is coloured of a bright yel low. This exterior may not feem the most promifing, and might create diftafte, if the benevolence that beams from his countenance, were not foremost to fecure the heart of the beholder. Neither can the fhrillness of his voice, which is harsh and diffonant, de

ftroy

Aroy the beauty of the fentiments, which it is made ufe of to convey. He is ftill active, for a man of his fize and age; and his fpirits are fo good, that were it not for the ravage that time has made among his teeth, he might pafs for a younger man by twenty years at leaft. Except the viziers of Yambo and Ghinnah, whom we had found to be villains by fad experience, we had hitherto dealt with the drofs of the nation. It was reserved for this moment, for us to meet with the polite gentleman and the honeft man, comprized in the perfon where they ought to be found, in the reprefentative of his people.

We had quickly caufe to find, that we had not given the fhaik too much credit for his integrity. His impatience to acquit himfelf in our opinion, of any connivance at the conduct of his fervants, could fcarcely be restrained by the forms of civility, which precluded bufinefs during our repaft. But no fooner was it ended, than he shifted the converfation, and came directly to the point which we were fo much concerned in. He lamented the treatment which we had undergone, and which could only have happened in his abfence; and he vehemently reprobated the behaviour of his officers, which he was determined to punish in the moft exemplary manner. After a few leading questions, which tended to confirm the report that had been made to him. touching our ftory, he profeffed, that his return to Ghinnah had been haftened on our account. That he had come purpotely to do us ftri& juftice on our perfecutors, and to difpatch us under a fafe conduct to Cairo.

As

a proof of his fincerity, he ordered Ally, the brother of Mahomet, their landlord, and a partaker in the fpoil, to be brought before him. He had been previously

taken into cuftody, and was waiting without, to be examined. With this fellow came Sauker, one of the rogues who had affifted to plunder us, and who of his own accord produced the things which had fallen to his fhare, in the divifion of the fpoils. He laid them at the fhaik's feet; and with the greateft effrontery declared, that he had taken them, only to fecure them from the thieves of the houfe: and that his truth might be deduced from his care of our property. Though his offence was palpable, this ftep was fufficient to fkreen him from punishment in a country, where retribution is all that is required by the profecutor, and where juftice is generally to be appeafed by pecuniary fines. But the ill-advifed Ally did not escape in this manner. He boldly denied having robbed us of money or valuables, and was loudly exclaiming at the injuftice of the accufation, when the fhaik raised his voice, and a dozen Abyffinian flaves fuddenly feized on the culprit, and hurried him out of the room. We were in pain for the fellow, and were meditating on the confequences of his arreft, when he was brought into was brought into our prelence again, bound hand and foot, with a chain about his neck, by which he was held. He was on the point of receiving the baftinado on his knees, when he confeffed the charge, and promised to return all that he had taken from us. The fhaik was inclined to inflict the punish