5o6 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



A REPORT was foon after fpread abroad at Cairo, but no 

 one could ever learn whence it came, that the ambalTador, 

 arriving at Dongola, had been alTaflinated there. This, in- 

 deed, proved falfe, but was, in the mean time, a mournful 

 prefage of the melancholy cataflrophe that happened foon 

 afterwards. 



M. Du RouLE arrived at Sennaar towards the end of May,, 

 and wrote at that time ; but a packet of letters was after 

 brought to the conful at Cairo, bearing date the 1 8th of June. 

 The ambaflador there mentions, that he had been well re- 

 ceived by the king of Sennaar, whO: was a young man, fond 

 of ftrangers ; that particular attention had been fhewn him 

 by Sid Achmet-el-coom ; or, as he fhould have called him, 

 AchmetSid-el-coom,i.e.Achnietmafterofthehoufehold. This 

 officer, fent by the king to vifit the baggage of the ambafla- 

 dor, could not help teitifying his furprife to find it fo in*- 

 confiderabie, both in bulk and value,. 



He faid the king had received letters from Cairo, inform- 

 ing him that he had twenty chefts of filver along with himi. 

 Achmet likewife told him, that he himfcif had received in- 

 formation, by a letter under the hand and i'eal of the moft 

 refpedtable people of Cairo, warning him not to let M, du 

 Roule pafs ; for the intention of liis journey into Abyllinia 

 was to prevail on Yafous to attack Mafuah and Suakem, 

 and take them from the Turks. Achmet would not fufler 

 the bales intended for the king of Abyllinia to be opened 

 or vifited, but left them in the liands of the ambaflador. 



M. DU Roule, however, in ■writing this account to the 

 conful, intimated to him that he thought himfelt in dan- 



J ger^ 



