THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 299 



knife, nor an Arab fervant armed, though they were all 

 well dreffed ; but he had in his court-yard about threefcore 

 of the fined horfes I had for a long time feen. We dined, 

 juft oppofite to them, in a fmall faloon ftrowed with India 

 carpets ; the walls were covered with white tiles, which I 

 fuppofe he had got from India ; yet his houfe, without, was 

 a very common one, diftinguifhed only from the reft in the 

 village by its fize. 



He feemed to have a more rational knowledge of things, 

 and fpoke more elegantly than any man I had converfed 

 with in Arabia. He faid he had loft the only feven fons he 

 had, in one month, by the fmall-pox : And when I at- 

 tempted to go away, he wifhed I would ftay with him fome 

 time, and faid, that I had better take up my lodgings in 

 his houfe, than go on board the boat that night, where I 

 was not perfectly in fafety. On my feeming furprifed at 

 this, he told me, that laft year, a veffel from Mafcatte, on the 

 Indian Ocean, had quarrelled with his people ; that they 

 had fought on the fhore, and feveral of the crew had been 

 killed ; that they had obftinately cruized in the neighbour- 

 hood, in hopes of reprifals, till, by the change of the mon- 

 foon, they had loft their paffage home, and fo were necef- 

 farily confined to the Red Sea for fix months afterwards ; he 

 added, they had four guns, which they called patareroes, 

 and that they would certainly cut us off, as they could not 

 mifs to fall in with us. This was the very worft news that 

 I had ever heard, as to what might happen at fea. Before 

 this, we thought all llrangers were our friends, and only 

 feared the natives of the coaft for enemies ; now, upon a 

 bare defencelefs fhore, we found ourfelves likely to be a 

 prey to both natives and ftrangers. 



P p 2 Our 



