Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/310

202 port. The Rais had business down the Gulf at Tor, and he had spoken to the Bey, to recommend him to me. I had no business at Tor, but as we had grown into a kind of friendship, from frequent conversation, and as he was, according to his own word, a great saint, like my last boatman, a character that I thought I could perfectly manage, I proposed to the Bey, that he and I should contribute something to make it worth this Captain's pains, to take our friends the Turks on board, and carry them to Yambo, that they might not be deprived of that blessing which would result from their visit to the Prophet's tomb, and which they had toiled so much to earn. I promised, in that case, to hire his vessel at so much a month upon its return from Yambo; and, as I had then formed a resolution of making a survey of the Red Sea to the Straits of Babelmandeb, the Rais was to take his directions from me, till I pleased to dismiss him.

was more agreeable to the views of all parties than this. The Bey promised to stay till they sailed, and I engaged to take him after he returned; and as the captain, in quality of a saint, assured us, that any rock that stood in our way in the voyage, would either jump aside, or become soft like a spunge, as it had often happened before, both the Turks and we were now assured of a voyage without danger.

was settled to our mutual satisfaction, when, unluckily, the Turks going down to their boat, met Sidi Hassan, whom, with reason, they thought the author of all their misfortunes. The whole twenty-four drew their swords, and, without seeking sabres from Persia, as he had done, Rh