66 
MASSOWAH. 
and would not carry much sail ; 1 could not therefore calculate on 
getting to Cosseir in less than eight weeks. If I staid there, I 
had only a week to write to Mr. Rosette, to receive his answer, to 
prepare a guard of camels, to pass to Kenne, and thence to secure 
boats to go down the Nile. This would have taken up at least 
six weeks ; and for my safety it was necessary that, after that, 
the ship should wait till 1 could send back intelligence of my 
safe arrival. Unless, therefore, I meant to deliver myself into the 
hands of the greatest thieves and robbers in the world, without 
any protection ; my stay at Cosseir was out of the question ; to get 
in a week to Suez from Cosseir was impossible ; and indeed in all 
probability it would have been three weeks. My stay there, to 
make the necessary preparations, would have been at least a fort- 
night, and the subsequent delay about a week. Unwilling, there- 
fore, as I, of course, was, to measure back ray way, and submit to 
the confinement of a ship for four months, I was compelled to do 
so, and I determined to write in the morning to Captain Keys, di- 
recting him to go to Mocha, where I could consult with Mr. Pringle ; 
and wait there for Captain Vashon, who would probably give me a 
passage to Bombay, where he would arrive with the coffee in time 
for me to take my passage in one of the Chinamen. By these means 
I should be certain of getting to England in January, The moment 
I quitted the Antelope she came under Captain Vashon 's com- 
mand/ 
June 10. — I wrote very fully to Captain Keys pointing out the 
impracticability of my getting up to Suez, within the period he 
had prescribed, the absurdity of my wandering about till that time 
in a rough sea, and giving him notice that 1 should prefer com- 
