loo TRAVELS IN UPPER 



to mind the tone of arrogance with which 1 had 

 been received. I assumed in my turn the accent 

 of haughtiness, and returning the gold into the 

 hands of him wlio brought it, I ordered him to tell 

 the master of the house, that a Frenchman rendered 

 his services solely from the pleasure of being use- 

 ful ; but that he would never submit to live at the 

 expense of another; that of consequence I re- 

 quested him to present to Malliim Moiircous a very 

 fine telescope, as a mark of ray gratitude for the 

 reception I liad met with. The gift was accepted, 

 and I quitted the Copht impressed with a more 

 just opinion of Europeans than he seemed to have 

 entertained at my arrival. 



In the number of Cophts, inhabitants of Tahta, 

 several were Catholics ; it is well known that the 

 Cophts compose one of those sects which the Ro- 

 man church condemns as heretical. I frequentlv 

 visited the most respectable among them, and it 

 was with pleasure that I met there, their cure, an 

 Egyptian who had passed fifteen years in a seminary 

 at Rome. He spoke Latin and Italian very well, 

 and I took delight in conversing with a man whom 

 I regarded as an European. He informed me that 

 the Egyptians attached to the Latin church were 

 cruelly opposed and persecuted by those of their 

 numerous compatriots who followed the heresy W\\\\ 

 which they were infected, and that their most vio- 

 lent 



