THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 491 



tlicir own religion, and remain flaves and Mahometans at 

 Cairo, a niiifance to all European nations eftablifhed there. 



Upon the arrival of the triumvirate at Paris, Monhenaut 

 immediately repaired to the minifter ; Verfeau was introdu- 

 ced to the king, and Poncet, foon after, had the fame hon- 

 our. He was then led as a kind of fhow, through all Paris, 

 cloathed in the Abyffinian drefs, and decorated with his gold 

 chain. But while he was vainly amufmg himfelf with this 

 filly pageantry, the conful's letters, and the comments made 

 upon them by Monhenaut, went diredly to deftroy the 

 credit of his ever having been in Abyffinia, and of the reali- 

 ty of Murat's embafly. 



The Francifcan friars, authors of the murder of M. dii 

 aioule, enemies to the million, as being the work of the Je- 

 fuits ; M. Piques, member of the Sorbonnc, a body never 

 much diftinguiihed for promoting difcoveries, or encoura- 

 ging liberal and free inquiry; Abbe Renaudot, M. le Grande, 

 and fome ancient linguifts, who, Vv^ith great difficulty, by 

 the induftry of M. Ludolf, had attained to a very fuperficial 

 knowledge of the Abyffinian tongue, all fell furioully upon 

 Poncet's narrative of his journey. One found fault with the 

 account he gave of the religion of the country, becaufe it 

 was not fo conformable to the rites of the church of Rome, 

 as they had from their own imagination and prejudice, and 

 for their own ends conceived it to be. Others attacked the 

 truth of the travels, from improbabilities found, or fuppofed 

 to be found, in the defcripiion of the countries through 

 which he had palled ; while others difcovered the for- 

 gery of his -letters, by faults found ia the orthography of 



3 -^^2 that 



