THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 503 



' The conful had perfuaded du Roiile, that the proper pre.- 

 fents he Ihould take with him to Sennaar were prints of 

 the king and queen of France, with crowns upon their heads; 

 mirrors, magnifying and multiplying objeds, and deform- 

 ing them ; when brocade, fattin, and trinkets of gold or iil^ 

 ver, iron or fteel, would hav^e been inlinitely more accepts 

 able. 



Elias, an Armenian, a confidential fervant of the French 

 nation, was firfl fent by way of the Red Sea into Abyffiniai 

 by Mafuahj to proceed to Gondar, and prepare Yafous for 

 the reception of that ambalfador, to whom he, Elias, was to 

 be the interpreter. So far it was well concerted; but, in pre- 

 paring for the end, the middle was negledtedp A number 

 of friars were already at Sennaar, and had poifoned the 

 minds of that people, naturally barbarous, brutal, and jea- 

 lous. Money, in prefents, had gained the great; while lies, 

 calculated to terrify and enrage the lower clafs of people, had 

 been told fo openly and avowedly, and gained fuch root, 

 that the ambafTador, when he arrived at Sennaar, found it, 

 in the firil place, neceflary to make :i procez verbal, or what 

 we call a precognition, in which the names of the authors, 

 and fubllance of thefe reports, were mentioned, and of this 

 he gave advice to M. de Maiilet, but the names and thefe 

 papers perifhed with him. 



If was on the gth of July 1704 that M. du Roule fct out 

 from Cairo; attended by a number of people who, with 

 tears in their eyes, forefaw the pit into which he Vvas tail- 

 ing. He embarked on the Nile; and, in his pallage to Si- 

 out, he. found at every haitlngrplace fo-^.e new and dan- 

 gerous 



