Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 3.djvu/46

26 lieve, that to send me to Hamazen is to rob and murder me out of sight."—"Dog of a Christian!" says Emir Achmet, putting his hand to his knife, "if the Naybe was to murder you, could he not do it here now this minute?"—"No," says the man, who had called himself Sardar, "he could not; I would not suffer any such thing. Achmet is the stranger's friend, and recommended me to-day to see no injury done him; he is ill, or would have been here himself."

"," said I, "is my friend, and fears God; and were I not hindered by the Naybe from seeing him, his sickness before this would have been removed. I will go to Achmet at Arkeeko, but not to Hamazen, nor ever again to the Naybe here in Masuah. Whatever happens to me must befal me in my own house. Confider what a figure a few naked men will make the day that my countrymen ask the reason of this either here or in Arabia." I then turned my back, and went out without ceremony. "A brave man!" I heard a voice say behind me, "Wallah Englese! True English, by G—d!" I went away exceedingly disturbed, as it was plain my affairs were coming to a crisis for good or for evil. I observed, or thought I observed, all the people shun me. I was, indeed, upon my guard, and did not wish them to come near me; but, turning down into my own gateway, a man passed close by me, saying distinctly in my ear, though in a low voice, first in Tigré and then in Arabic, "Fear nothing, or, Be not afraid." This hint, short as it was, gave me no small courage.

scarcely dined, when a servant came with a letter from Achmet at Arkeeko, telling me how ill he had been, and how sorry he was that I refused to come to see him, as