5oo TRAVELS TO DISCOVER 



faid, of thofe who were concerned in the affair of the un~ 

 happy Du Roule. 



Poncet, haying loft all credit, retired from Paris in dis- 

 grace, without any further gratification than that which he 

 atfirft received. He carried to Cairo with him, however, a 

 gold watch and a mirror, which he was to deliver to the 

 conful as a prefent to his companion Murat, whofe fubfift- 

 ence was immediately flopped, and liberty given him to rec- 

 tum to Ethiopia.. 



Nor did Maillet's folly flop here. After giving poor Mu- 

 rat all the ill-ufage a man could poffibly fuffer, he entrufl-- 

 ed him with a Jefuit*whom he was to introduce into E- 

 thiopia, where he would certainly have loft his life had not: 

 the bad-treatment he received by the way made him return 

 before he arrived at Mafuah,. 



This firft mifcarriage feemed only to have confirmed the 

 Jefuits more in their refolution, of producing an embafTy. 

 But it now took another form. Politicians and flatefmen. 

 became the a&ors in it, without a thought, having been be- 

 llowed to diminifli the enemies of the fcheme, or render 

 their endeavours ufelefs, by a fuperior knowledge of the 

 manners and cuitoms of the country through which this, 

 embafTy was to pafs». 



No adventurer, or vagrant phyfician, (like Poncet) was, 

 to be employed in this, fecond embafTy. A minifler verfed; 



in-i 



*- Father Bernat, a Frenchman.. 



