Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/154

50 gether, one of our laughing boat-companions stole off on foot, and, before day, I was awakened by the arrival of our Rais Abou Cuffi, and his son Mahomet.

was drunk, though a Sherriffe, a Hagi, and half a Saint besides, who never tasted fermented liquor, as he told me when I hired him.—The son was terrified out of his wits. He said he should have been impaled, had the messenger arrived; and, seeing that I fell upon means to keep open a correspondence with Cairo, he told me he would not run the risk of being surety, and of going back to Cairo to answer for his father's faults, least, one day or another, upon some complaint of that kind, he might be taken out of his bed and bastinadoed to death, without knowing what his offence was.

altercation ensued; the father declined staying upon pretty much the same reasons, and I was very happy to find that Risk had dealt roundly with them, and that I was master of the string upon which I could touch their fears.

then both agreed to go the voyage, for none of them thought it very safe to stay; and I was glad to get men of some substance along with me, rather than trust to hired vagabond servants, which I esteemed the two Moors to be.

the Shekh of the Howadat and I had vowed friendship, he offered to carry me to Cosseir by land, without any expence, and in perfect safety, thinking me diffident of my boatmen, from what had passed.