48^8 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



These capigis are very unwelcome guefts to people in 

 oiEce to whom they are fent. They are always paid by 

 thofe they are fent to. Befides this, the report they carry 

 back very often cofts that perfon his life. The bafha, ac- 

 cufed by the capigi at the inftance of the French ambaffa- 

 dor at Conftantinople, anfwered like an innocent man, That 

 he had done it by defire of the French conful, from a wilh 

 to ferve him and the nation, otherwife he fhould never have 

 meddled in the matter. The confequence was, M. de Maillet 

 was obliged to pay the baftia the expence of the capigi ; and, 

 having fome time afterwards brought it in account with 

 the merchants, the French nation at Cairo, by deliberation 

 of the 6th of July of the year 1702, refufed to pay 1515 li- 

 vres, the demand of the balha, and 5 1 8 livres for thole of 

 liis officers. 



The conful, however, had gained a complete victory over 

 Murat, and thereupon determined to fend Monhenaut, chan- 

 cellor of France at Cairo, with letters, which, though writ- 

 ten and invented by himfelf, he pretended to be tranllations 

 from the Ethiopian original. 



But father Vcrfeau, the Jefuit, now returned to Cairo, who 

 had entered into a great dillruft of the conful fmce the dif- 

 covery of his intrigue with the bafha about Murat's letter, 

 refolved to be of the party. Poncct, who was likewife on 

 bad terms with the conful, neither inclined to lofe the me- 

 rits of his travels into AbyiTinia, nor truil the recital of it 

 to Monhenaut, or to the manner in which it might be re- 

 prefented in the conful's letters. Thcfe tliree, Monhenaut, 

 Poncet, andVerfcau, fet out therefore for Paris with very 

 different views and defigns. They embarked at Bulac, the 



I fliipping- 



