THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 33 



fey me, to forefee the defliny of the Bey ; the fuccefs of the 

 war; and, in particular, whether or not he fhould make 

 himfelf mailer of Mecca ; to conquer which place, he was 

 about to difpatch his Have and fon-in-law, Mahomet Bey A- 

 bouDahab, at the head of an army conducting the pilgrims. 



Bertran communicated this to me with great tokens of 

 joy : for my own part, I did not greatly like the profeflion 

 of fortune-telling, where baflinado or impaling might be the 

 reward of being millaken. 



But I was told I had moil credulous people to deal with, 

 and that there was nothing for it but efcaping as long as 

 poffible, before the ifiue of any of my prophecies arrived, 

 and as foon as I had done my own bufinefs. 



This was my own idea likewife; I never faw a place 

 I liked worfe, or which afforded lefs pleafure or inftruction 

 *han Cairo, or antiquities which lefs anfwered their dcfcrip- 

 tions. 



In a few days I received a letter from Rifle, defiring me 

 to go out to the Convent of St George, about three miles 

 from Cairo, where the Greek patriarch had ordered an 

 apartment for me; that I mould pretend to the French mer- 

 chants that it was for the fake of health, and that there 

 I fhould receive the Bey's orders. 



Providence feemed to teach me the way I was to go. 

 I went accordingly to St George, a very folitary maniion, 

 but large and quiet, very proper for nudy, and Hill more for 



vol. I. E executing 



