“THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. = 251 
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 mafter, Metical Aga at Mecca, 
a letter toany 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 Petros. This man was originally 
a native of the ifland of Rhodes, which he mutt have left 
early, for he was not at this time much paft thirty; he 
had been by trade a fhoemaker. 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 Iteghé 
very much diftinguifhed him, and the king had made him 
-Azeleffa el Camifha, 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-dreffed, he had gain- 
ed the good graces of the whole court; he was alfo rich, 
as the king was generous, and his perquifites not inconfi- 
derable. 
ArTeR the campaign of Mariam Barea, when the dwarf 
avas {hot who was ftanding 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, bee there was faidtohave 
been on the top of it a oy or jewel, of immentfe price and 
fize,larger than a pigeon’segg; and this, whatever it was, had 
difappeared, pane? in all probability confumed by the fire. 
li2 Ras 
