Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/357

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vessel was afloat, and could be under weigh in an instant, never was less disposed to be bullied, than at that moment. They asked me a thousand questions, whether I was a Mamaluke, whether I was a Turk, or whether I was an Arab, and why I did not give them spirits and tobacco? To all which I answered, only, that they should know to-morrow who I was; then I ordered the Emir Bahar, the captain of the port, to carry them ashore at his peril, or I would take their arms from them, and confine them on board all night.

Rais gave the captain of the port a private hint, to take care what they did, for they might lose their lives; and that private caution, understood in a different way perhaps than was meant, had effect upon the soldiers, to make them withdraw immediately. When they went away, I begged the Emir Bahar to make my compliments to his masters, Hassan and Hussein, Agas, to know what time I should wait upon them to-morrow; and desired him, in the mean time, to keep his soldiers ashore, as I was not disposed to be troubled with their insolence.

after they went, we heard a great firing, and saw lights all over the town; and the Rais proposed to me to slip immediately, and set sail, from which measure I was not at all averse. But, as he said, we had a better anchoring place under the mosque of the Shekh, and, besides, that there we would be in a place of safety, by reason of the holiness of the saint, and that at our own choice might even put to sea in a moment, or stay till to-morrow, as we were in no sort of doubt of being able to repel, force by force, if attacked, we got under weigh for a few hundred yards, VOL. I.