26 TRAVELS IN UPPER 



were narrowly watching the fish on their pass- 

 age. 



With people like the Egyptians I could not 

 expect to accomplish a voyage exempt from dispu- 

 tation. Greedy and dishonest, whatever benefit 

 you confer on them, they are never contented, and 

 the more that is given them, the more they think 

 they have a title to exact. I had with me an ample 

 provision of coffee, and some excellent tobacco of 

 Latlchea ; and from the moment of my departure 

 I had shared it with my boat's crew ; but these in- 

 satiable rascals insisted that I did not give them 

 enough; and as if my liberality had been a debt 

 due to them, they demanded that I should deliver 

 up to their discretion the coffee and the tobacco. 

 However, to let them see that their claims, uttered 

 in the most insolent tone of voice, did not produce 

 any impression on me, and how much they de- 

 ceived themselves in believing they could intimi- 

 date me, I discontinued the donation of those 

 little douceurs, which I had the complaisance till 

 then to bestow. They broke forth into menaces 

 and murmurs, which were of pretty long dura- 

 tion, but which they gave up, when they per- 

 ceived that they derived no advantage whatever 

 from them. 



At eight in the morning of the 27th, we de- 

 parted 



