232 TRAVELS IN UPPER. 



a pair of pistols, and several hoi tics of liqueurs, and 

 there was not one of my little moveables whieh he 

 did not express a desire to have. He boasted greatly 

 to me of the pains which his fiicnd, the Turkish 

 merchant, was taking to expedite my journey, and 

 he made me promise to acknowledge services so 

 important. I sent accordingly to the latter another 

 valuable telescope ; but he refused it, giving me to 

 understand that as he was not the captain of a ship, 

 a telescope would be useless to him, but that he 

 would very willingly accept money instead of it. 



He had already taken but too much from me. 

 Sometimes he asked it to secure the hire of the 

 camels which were to carry me, sometimes to make 

 an advance to the guide of the caravan; at another 

 time his exertions required a ^alary ; at length he 

 had choused me out of five and twenty chcquins In 

 one way and another, without the slightest appear- 

 ance of any further preparation to proceed. A ca- 

 ravan was preparing, they told me, to set off; some 

 Arabians dispersed throughout the desert which it 

 was obliged to cross, had retarded its departure; a 

 few days after there was no caravan ; and some fleet 

 camels were to convey me very speedily to the flat 

 shore of the Red Sea. But it was requisite, ac- 

 cording to this new arrangement, that I should 

 leave my baggage v^ith the Turkish merchant, 

 who was to forward it to me by a future caravan. 



The 



