AND LOWER EGYPT. 5 



just indemnification did not follow the simple 

 exposition of my rights, I retired, and spoke no 

 more on the subject. Better satisfied with a ge- 

 nerous devoted ness to the public service, than 

 with a recompense which would have detracted 

 from its merit, I congratulated myself on this, 

 that, if I had not rendered myself useful, I had at 

 least endeavoured to do so, and that no view 

 whatever of personal interest had tarnished my 

 efforts. My conscience permitted me to taste, at 

 the expense of my purse, a pure joy, a content- 

 ment, which the self-interested mind can never 

 enjoy. But this character of pride and indepen- 

 dence at which fortune is intimidated, procured 

 for me at least some consequence, and I have 

 often received praises in exchange for my money. 



1 endeavoured then, at my own private expense, 

 to open a passage to myself for visiting Abyssinia. 

 That of the Red Sea appeared to me the least diffi- 

 cult, by going in the first place to Dsjedda^ and from 

 thence to Soiwquem, and to Arkiko. I requested 

 a French merchant to conduct me into the territo- 

 ries of the Cophts, who carry on the commerce of 

 India by way of Suez, and who were the owners 

 of those miserable vessels, by which men and mer- 

 chandise arc transported, through many delays and 

 dangers, across those rocks and sands with which 

 the coasts of Arabia arc surrounded, and of which 



B 3 ships 



