THE SOURCE OF THENILE. 851 



they were fo inhuman and fo barbarous a race, that he 

 would not attempt the journey, Mahometan as he was, 

 for half the Indies. I begged him to fay no more on that 

 head, but to procure from his mafler, Metical Aga at Mecca, 

 a letter to any man of confequence he knew at Sennaar. 



My refolution being therefore taken, and leave obtain- 

 ed, this will be now the place to refume the account of my 

 finances. I have already gone fo far as to mention three 

 hundred pounds which I had occafionally borrowed from 

 a Greek whofe name was Pecros. This man was originally 

 a native of the ifland of Rhodes, which he mull have left 

 early, for he was not at this time much paft thirty ; he 

 had been by trade a flioemaker. For what reafon he left 

 his own country I know not, but he was of a very pleafing 

 figure and addrefs, though very timid. Joas and the keghe 

 very much diftinguifhed him, and the king had made him 

 -AzelefFa el Camiflia, which anfwers precifely to groom of 

 the ftole, or firft lord of the bed-chamber in England. Being 

 pliant, civil, and artful, and always well-drefled, he had gain- 

 ed the good graces of the whole court ; he was alfo rich, 

 as the king was generous, and his perquifites not inconft- 

 -derable. 



After the campaign of Mariam Barea, when the dwarf 

 was fhot who was Handing before Ras Michael, and the pa- 

 lace fet on fire in the fray which followed, the crown, Which 

 was under Petros's charge, was melted ; the gold, indeed,that 

 it confiftedof, was afterwards found, but there was faidtohave 

 been on the top of it a pearl, or jewel, of immenfe price and 

 fize, larger than a pigeon's egg; and this, whatever it was, had 

 dilappeared, being in. all probability confumed by the fire. 



I i 2 Ras 



