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These capigis are very unwelcome guefls to people in 

 office to whom they are fent. They are always paid by 

 thofe they are fent to. Befides this, the report they carry 

 back very often colls that perfon his life. The bafha, ac- 

 cufed by the capigi at the inftance of the French ambaffa- 

 dor at Constantinople, anfwered like an innocent man, That 

 he had done it by defire of the French conful, from a wifh 

 to ferve him and the nation, otherwife he fhould never have 

 meddled in the matter. The confequence was, M. de Maillet 

 was obliged to pay the baiha the expence of the capigi ; and, 

 having fome time afterwards brought it in account with 

 the merchants, the French nation at Cairo, by deliberation 

 of the 6th of July of the year 1702, refufed to pay 1515 li- 

 vres, the demand of the bafha, and 5 1 8 livres for thofe of 

 his officers. 



The conful, however, had gained a complete victory over 

 Murat, and thereupon determined to fend Monhenaut, chan- 

 cellor of France at Cairo, with letters, which, though writ- 

 ten and invented by himfelf, he pretended to be tranflations 

 from the Ethiopian original. 



But father Verfeau, the Jefiiit, now returned to Cairo, who 

 had entered into a great diftruft of the conful fince the dif- 

 covery of his intrigue with the bafha about Murat's letter, 

 refolved to be of the party. Poncet, who was likewife on 

 bad terms with the conful, neither inclined to lofe the me- 

 rits of his travels into Abyffinia, nor truft the recital of it 

 to Monhenaut, or to the manner in which it might be re- 

 prefented in the conful's letters. Thefe three, Monhenaut, 

 Poncet, and Verfeau, fet out therefore for Paris with very 

 difFerent views and deligns. They embarked at Bulac, the 



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