AND LOWER EGYPT. 347 



We alighted at the house of a Jew, the agent by 

 patent of the consul-general of France in Egypt. 

 His ancestors nad constantly exercised the same 

 functions with honour and fidelity. He had a 

 great degree of affection for the French ; indeed 

 he looked on himself as one of them. He was a 

 man gentle, obliging, in a word, the most worthy 

 man of a Jew that I ever was acquainted with. 

 His salary was six parats, or medinas, or from three- 

 pence halfpenny to a groat a day. It was impos- 

 sible to give a more sorry payment for the services 

 he had rendered to the French vessels which came 

 to an anchor off Aboukir, and which could not 

 dispense with his assistance in an isolated spot, 

 where there was not a single European. Formerly- 

 only a salary of four medinas was given, as I saw 

 in the regulation made in 1 706, by M. de Gatines, 

 comptroller of the navy, and joint commissary for 

 the general inspection of the sea-ports of the Le- 

 vant. The article which concerned the settlement 

 of a drogman of Aboukir, and which I transcribe, 

 because it has a relation to the port of Alexan- 

 dria, and the navigation of the coast of Egypt, is 

 couched in the following terms : " As several 

 " French vessels have taken in their lading for 

 u some years at the roads of Bequlers, and because 

 " it is of advantage to keep up this custom, which 

 " extends the liberty of lading, and may, in the 

 ** end, be of service to the nation, if it is under 

 " the necessity of quitting Alexandria, the port of 



M which 



