AND LOWER EGYPT. 79 



eluded at length by declaring that he would exact 

 nothing of me for my journey, as he was certain 

 that his sovereign would give him a sufficient re- 

 compense for the service he was going to render 

 him by conducting me to his court. 



An alteration so extraordinary, gave me indeed 

 some suspicions, which my companions, less eager 

 than I was to penetrate into the interior of Africa, 

 had not been so slow in conceiving. However, 

 the extreme desire I felt of availing myself of a 

 favourable opportunity to execute a project formed 

 so long before, and setting aside every consideration 

 which could have diverted my mind from it, I was 

 on the point of giving my word to the Kahir to 

 attend him, when I received sa message from 

 Ibrahim, who invited me to come to his house 

 attended only by my Egyptian servant. 



** Thou must renounce, at least at this period," 

 said the Kiaschef io me, ** thy journey to Sennaar. 

 *' What thou toldest me of the importunities of the 

 *' Kahir awakened suspicions in me. I would not 

 *' speak to thee on the subject before I knew whe- 

 *' ther or not they had any foundation : at present 

 " I am assured of the certainty of a horrible con- 

 *' spiracy formed against thee and against the other 

 *' Francs who accompany thee. I knew that the 

 " dog of a Syrian, who serves thee as an interpre- 



" ter, 



