their lawful business, were plundered, terrified, and detained. He therefore intimated to him, that if any such thing happened to me, he should not write or complain, but he would send and punish the affront at the very gates of Mecca. This was very unpleasant language to the Vizir, because it was now publicly known, that Mahomet Bey Abou Dahab was preparing next year to march against Mecca, for some offence the Bey had taken at the Sherriffe. There was also another letter to him from Ibrahim Sikakeen, chief of the merchants at Cairo, ordering him to furnish me with a thoufand sequins for my present use, and, if more were needed, to take my bill.
These contents of the trunk were so unexpected, that Cabil the Vizir thought he had gone too far, and called my servant in a violent hurry, upbraiding him, for not telling who I was. The servant defended himself, by saying, that neither he, nor his people about him, would so much as regard a word that he spoke; and the cadi of Medina's principal servant, who had come with the wheat, told the Vizir plainly to his face, that he had given him warning enough, if his pride would have suffered him to hear it.
All was now wrong, my servant was ordered to nail up the hinges, but he declared it would be the last action of his life; that nobody opened baggage that way, but with intention of stealing, when the keys could be got; and, as there were many rich things in the trunk, intended as presents to the Sherriffe, and Metical Aga, which might have been taken out, by the hinges being forced off before he came, he washed his hands of the whole procedure, but
