EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 
143 
CHAP. X. 
JOURNEY TO COSSIR ON THE RED SEA. 
Inducements and danger — Route — Accoimt of Cofstr — Conunerce — 
Return by another route — Granite rocks and antient road — 
Marble quarries — Pretended canal — Earthen ware of Ghenne 
— Murder of two Greeks^ and fuhfequent report of the writer s 
death, 
i\RRiviNG on my return at Ghenne (isii), I could not refift 
the impulfe of curiofity excited by the late defcriptions of cu- 
rious marbles, &c. which had been found in that route. It was 
not difficult to find the means of paffing, though the Bedouins 
then infefted the road ; but I determined to take nothing that 
could be of importance to lofe, not intending to ftay long at 
Cofsir. For which indeed there was another motive — An 
Englifh veflel, commanded, as was faid, by a Captain Mitchell, 
having three or four years before moored there, a quarrel had 
arifen between them and the natives about a fupply of water, 
which is a commodity furnifhed at Cofsir not without extreme 
■difficulty. From a violent contention blows enfued, and the 
Captain thought himfelf juftified in firing on the town : in con- 
fequence feveral individuals were killed, it is faid there that 
they amounted to fourteen, and much damage done. The na- 
tives were exceedingly exafperated, and fwore to facrifice the 
firft 
