6j2 TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



loft, or thought I had gone home to the French merchants, 

 and taken my bed there. 



I WAS twice after this with Mahomet Bey, in which time 

 I concluded the agreement in favour of the Englifh mer- 

 chants. Inftead of ^4 per cent, and an enormous prefent, 

 the Bey agreed for 8, and no prefent at all, and at his own 

 expence fcnt the firman to Mocha, together with my letter, 

 a copy of which, and inftrutStions given in India in confe- 

 quence, I have here fubjoined. 



Mr GREiG,.capt, Thornhill's lieutenant, whom I have 

 mentioned as having feen at Jidda, was the lirft who came 

 down the Gulf to Suez in the Minerva, and in the whole 

 voyage, both by fea and after at Cairo, behaved in a manner 

 that did honour to his country. 



In the two fubfequent vifits which I paid to Mahomet 

 Bey, i received the firman, and had a converfation before 

 the Bey with the man that was to go exprefs to Mocha ; not 

 that I thought my recommendation was of any confequence 

 after his receiving orders from the Bey, but I knew very 

 well, as dihgence was recommended to him, that it might 

 be fecured by a fmall gratuity given unknown to the Bey. 

 Two other fimilarprefents, of no great value, were /I ike wife 

 given to the two fervants who had afllfled me in procu- 

 ring the firman, the original of which I left with the Vene- 

 tian conful. I thought it was unbecoming of me to ftarve a 

 caufe that promifed to be both a private emolument and 

 public benefit ; and, as i never expeded, fo I never received 

 the fmalleil return or acknowledgement either public or 



private. 



It 



