oS 
THE SOURCE OF THE NILE. 225 
think of the Armenian.” It was finally agreed, that the let- 
ters the Greeks had received fhould be read to the king; 
that the letters I had from Metical Aga to the Ras fhould 
be given to Mahomet Gibberti, and that I fhould be intro- 
duced to the King and the Ras immediately after they were 
ready. 
Tue reader may remember that, when I was at Cairo, I 
obtained letters from Mark, the Greek patriarch, tothe Greeks 
at Gondar ; and particularly one, in form of a bull, or refcript, 
to all the Greeks in Abyfiinia. In this, after a great deal of paf- 
toral admonition, the patriarch faid, that, knowing their pro- 
penfity to lying and vanity, and not being at hand to impofe ~ 
proper-penances upon them for thefe fins, he exacted from 
them, as a proof of their obedience, that they would, with 
a good grace, undergo this mortification, than which there 
could be no gentler impofed, as it was only to {peak the truth. 
He ordered them in a body to go to the king, in the man- 
ner and time they knew beft, and toinform him that I-was 
not to be confounded with the reft of white men, fuch as 
Greeks, who were all fubject to the Turks, and flaves; but 
that Iwasa free man, of a free nation; and the beft of them 
would be happy in being my ee as one of their bre- 
thren, Michael, then aCtually was. I will not fay but this 
was a bitter pill; for they were high in office, all except 
Petros, who had declined all employment after the murder 
of Joas his mafter, whofe chamberlain he was. The order 
of the patriarch, however, was fairly and punctually per- 
formed ; Petros was their fpokefman; he was originally 
a fhoemaker at Rhodes, clever, and handfome im his perfon, 
but a great coward, though, on fuch an occafion as the ye 
fent, forward and capable enough. 
Vou. III, Ff I THINK 
