accident happening to me would be an infamy and difgrace to him, and worse than death itfelf, becaufe, that knowing Michael's power, and relying on his friendship, he had become fecurity for my fafety, after I arrived in his hands; that I was a man of confideration in my own country, fervant to the king of it, who, though himself a Chriftian, governed his fubjects Muffulmen and Pagans, with the fame impartiality and justice as he did Chriftians. That all my defire was to examine fprings and rivers, trees and flowers, and the ftars in the heavens, from which I drew knowledge very ufeful to preferve man's health and life; that L was no merchant, and had no dealings whatever in any fort of mercantile matters; and that I had no need of any man's money, as he had told Mahomet Gibberti to provide for any call I might have in that country, and for which he would answer, let the fum be what it would, as he had the word of my countrymen to repay it, which he confidered better than the written fecurity of any other people in the world, &c.

Upon reading this letter, Michael exclaimed, "Metical Aga does not know the fituation of this country. Safety! where is that to be found? I am obliged to fight for my own life every. day. Will Metical call this fafety? Who knows at this moment, if the king is in fafety, or how long I fhall be fo? All I can do. is to keep him with me. If I lose my own life, and the king's, Metical Ága can never think it was in my power to preserve that of his ftranger." It was finally agreed, that the letters the Greeks had received fhould be read to the king; that the letters I had from Metical Aga to the Ras fhould be given to Mahomet Gibberti, and that I should be introduced to the King and the Ras immediately after they were ready. On the 14th these letters were to be all read; five in the evening was fixed as the hour, and I came a little before the time, and met Ayto Aylo [principal counsellor to the queen,] at the door. He fqueezed me by the hand, and faid, "Refule nothing, it can be all altered afterwards; but it is very neceffary, on account of the priests and the popu lace, you have a place of fome authority, otherwise you will be robbed and murdered the firft time you go half a mile from home.

We went in and faw the old man fitting upon a fofa; his white hair was dreffed in many fhort curls. He appeared to be thoughtful, but not difpleafed; his face was lean, his eyes quick and vivid, but feemed to be a little fore from expofure to the weather. He seemed to be about fix feet high, though his lameness made it difficult to guess with accuracy. His air was perfectly free from constraint, what the French call degagee. In face and perfon he was liker my learned and worthy friend, the Count de Buffon, than any two men I ever faw in the world. They must have been bad phyfiognomifts that did not difcern his capacity and underftanding by his very countenance. Every look conveyed a fenti VOL, XIX. Feb, 1796.

N

ment

ment with it: he feemed to have no occafion for other language, and indeed he fpoke little. I offered, as ufual, to kifs the ground before him and of this he feemed to take little notice, ftretching out his hand and fhaking mine upon my rifing.

I fat down with Aylo, three or four of the judges, the queen's chamberlain, and other officers, one of whom whifpered fomething in his ear, and went out; which interruption prevented me from fpeaking as I was prepared to do, or give him my present, which a man held behind me. He began gravely, "Yagoube, I think that is your name, hear what I say to you, and mark what I recommend to you. You are a man, I am told, who make it your bufinefs to wander in the fields in fearch after trees and grafs in folitary places, and to fit up all night alone looking at the ftars of the heavens Other countries are not like this, though this was never fo bad as it is now. These wretches here are enemies to ftrangers; if they faw you alone in your own parlour, their firft thought would be how to murder you; though they knew they were to get nothing by it, they would murder you for mere mil, chief. I have thought that fituation beft which leaves you at liberty to follow your own designs, at the fame time that it puts your perfon in fafety; that you will not be troubled with monks about their religious matters, or in danger from these rafcals that may feek to murder you for money. Therefore the king has appointed you Baalomaal, [one of the gentlemen of the king's bed-chamber, and to command the Koccob-horfe. Go then to the king, and kifs the ground upon your appointment. I fee have already learned this ceremony of our's; Aylo and Heikel are very proper perfons to go with you. The king expreffed his furprife to me last night he had not feen you; and there too is Tecla Mariam, the king's fecretary, who came with your appointment from the palace to-day." I then gave him a prefent, which he fcarce looked at, as a number of people were preffing in at the door from curiofity or bufinefs.

you

I went afterwards to the king's palace, and met Aylo and Heikel at the door of the prefence-chamber. Tecla Maríam walked before us to the foot of the throne; after which I advanced and proftrated myself upon the ground. "I have brought you a fervant," fays he to the king," from fo diftant a country, that if you ever let him escape, we fhall never be able to follow him, or know where to feek him." This was faid facetiously by an old familiar fervant; but the king made no reply, as far as we could guefs, for his mouth was covered, nor did he fhew any alteration of countenance. Five people were ftanding on each fide of the throne, young men, three on his left, and two on his right. One of thefe, the fon of Tecla Mariam, (afterwards my great friend) who ftood uppermoft on the left-hand, came up, and taking hold of me by the hand, placed me immediately above him; when feeing I had no knife in my girdle, he pulled out his own and gave it to me. Upon being placed, I again kiffed the ground.

all

The

も

The king was in an alcove; the reft went out of fight from where the throne was, and fat down. The ufual queftions now began about Jerufalem and the holy places where my country was? which it was impoffible to defcribe, as they knew the fitua tion of no country but their own-why I came fo far ?-whether the moon and the ftars, but especially the moon, was the fame in my country as in theirs ?-and a great many fuch idle and tiresome queftions. I had feveral times offered to take my prefent from the man who held it, that I might offer it to his Majefty and go away; but the king always made a fign to put it off, till, being tired with ftanding, I leaned against the wall. Aylo was falt afleep, and Ayto Heikel and the Geeeks curfing their master in their heart for spoiling the good fupper that Anthule his treasurer had prepared for us. This, as we afterwards found out, the king very well knew, and refolved to try our patience to the utmoft, At laft, Ayto Aylo ftole away to bed, and every body else after him, except those who had accompanied me, who were ready to die with thirft, and drop down with wearinefs. It was agreed by thofe that were out of fight, to fend Tecla Mariam to whisper in the king's ear, that I had not been well, which he did, but no notice was taken of it. It was now paft ten o'clock, and he fhewed no inclination to go to bed.

Hitherto, while there were ftrangers in the room, he had spoken to us by an officer called Kal Hatze, the voice or word of the king; but now, when there were nine or ten of us, his menial fervants, only prefent, he uncovered his face and mouth, and and spoke himself. Sometimes it was about Jerufalem, fometimes about horses, at other times about fhocting; again about the Indies; how far I could look into the heavens with my telescopes: and all these were deliberately and circumftantially repeated, if they were not pointedly anfwered. I was fcarcely able to speak a word, inwardly mourning the hardnefs of my lot in this my firft preferment, and fincerely praying it might be my last promotion in this court. At laft all the Greeks began to be impatient, and got out of the corner of the room behind the alcove, and flood immediately before the throne. The king feemed to be astonished at feeing them, and told them he thought they had all been at home long ago. They faid, however, they would not go without me; which the king faid could not be, for one of the duties of my employment was to be charged with the door of his bed-chamber that night. At laft Ayto Heikel, taking courage, came forward to him, pretending a meffage from the queer, and whifpered him fomething in the ear, probably that the Ras would take it ill. He then laughed, faid he thought we had fupped, and dif miffed us.

To be continued.]

Mr.

[96]

MR. FLETCHER's

To Mifs

My dear Friend,

A

LETTER S.

PERRONE T.

Newington, April 21, 1777.

Thousand thanks to you for your kind, comfortable lines. The profpect of going to fee Jefus and his glorified members, and among them your dear departed brother, my now everliving friend: this sweet profpect is enough to make me quietly and joyfully fubmit, to leave all my Shoreham friends, and all the excellent ones of the earth. But why do I talk of leaving any of Chrift's members, by going to be more intimately united to the head?

"We all are one, who him receive,

And each with each agree;

In him the ONE, the TRUTH we live,

Bleft POINT of unity!"

A Point this, which fills heaven and earth ;-which runs through time and eternity. What an immense point! In it sickness is loft in health, and death in life. There let us ever meet. There to live is Chrift, and to die is gain.

I cannot tell you how much I am obliged to your dear brother, for all his kind, brotherly attendance as a phyfician. He has given me his time, his long walks, his remedies: he has brought me Dr. Turner feveral times, and will not fo much as allow me to reimburse his expences. Help me to thank him for all his profufion of love, for I cannot fufficiently do it myself. My duty to your father: I throw myself in fpirit at his feet, and ask his bleffing, and an intereft in his prayers. Tell him, that the Lord is gracious to me; does not fuffer the Enemy to disturb my peace; and gives me, in profpect, the victory over death. Thanks be to God, who giveth us this great victory, through our Lord Jefus Christ! Abfolute refignation to the divine will baffles a thousand temptations, and confidence in our Saviour carries us fweetly through a thousand trials. God fill us abundantly with both!

Thank dear Mrs. Biffaker for all her love to my dear departed friend; and may our kindred fpirits drink deeper into God, till they are filled with all the fulness, which our enlarged fouls can admit. Nor let your niece, to whom I fend my thanks, keep aloof. Let us all tend to our original centre; and experience that life and death are ours, because the Prince of Life, who is our Refurrection and Life, has overcome fin, death, and the grave, for you, and for your obliged, unworthy brother,

J. F.

Τα

To Mr. and Mrs. GREENWOOD.

Brislington, May 28, 1777

Y very dear Friends, and Benefactors, Charles and Mary Greenwood. My prayers fhall always be, that the_merciful may find mercy, and that the great kindness, I have found under your quiet roof, may be fhewed you every where under the canopy of heaven. I think with grateful joy, on the days of calm retreat I have been bleffed with at Newington, and lament my not having improved better the opportunity of fitting, like Mary, at the feet of my great Physician. May he requite your kind care to a dying worm, by abundantly caring for you and yours, and making all your bed in your ficknefs! May you enjoy full health! May you hunger and thirst after righteousness, both that of Chrift, and that of the Holy Spirit, and be abundantly filled therewith! May his rod and ftaff comfort you under all the troubles of life, the decays of the body, the affaults of the enemy, and the pangs of death! May the reviving cordials of the Word of Truth be ever within the reach of your faith, and may your eager faith make a ready and conftant use of them; especially, when faintings come upon you, and your hands begin to hang down! May you ftand in the clefts of the rock of ages, and there be fafely fheltered, when all the storms of justice fhall fall around! May you have always fuch temporal and spiritual helps, friends, and comforts, as I have found in your pleafing retreat!

You have received a poor Lazarus, though his fores were not visible. You have had compaffion, like the good Samaritan: you have admitted me to the enjoyment of your best things; and he, that did not deserve to have the dogs to lick his fores, has always found the members of Jefus ready to prevent, to remove, or to bear his burdens. And now, what fhall I fay ? What but, Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift! and thanks be to my dear friends for all their favours! They will, I truft, be found faithfully recorded in my breaft, when the great Rewarder of those, who diligently feek him, will render to every man according to his works. Then fhall a raised Lazarus appear in the gate, to teftify. of the love of Charles and Mary Greenwood, and of their godly fifter.

I thought myself a little better laft Sunday; but I have fince fpit more blood than I had done for weeks before. Glory be to God, for every providence! His will be done in me, by health or fickness, by life or death! All from him is, and, I trust, will always be welcome to your obliged pensioner,

To Mr. and Mrs. GREENWOOD.

J. F.

1777.

EN thousand bleffings light upon the heads and hearts of my

quiet retreat at Newington become a Bethel to them! May their

offspring