By the 20th August, Mr. Ritchie had tolerably recovered. Mukni had several times, during his illness, talked publicly of his great friendship for us, declaring, that if we were in want even of a thousand dollars, he would immediately lend them: but his conduct was in direct contradiction to his professions; for although he visited Mr. Ritchie during his illness, he never offered him the least assistance, or even bestowed such trifling articles of nourishment as I requested. Once, and once only, when rice was not to be bought, he, with great parade, sent a quart, on which the poor invalid dined for eight days. It became indeed but too apparent that he expected and wished us all to die, in which case he would have seized on, and appropriated all our effects and merchandise to his own use: of the latter, we had a great quantity, which Mr. Ritchie would not allow me to dispose of, lest it should lower us in the eyes of the natives; but I thought it could be of little consequence when compared with our lives, which were so perpetually endangered by want and privation. We had in vain tried to dispose of our horses; they were so lean, (and we had no money with which to buy any provision to fatten them) that no one would even look at them. I had managed to keep my own in rather better case than the others, by giving him our travelling baskets, and occasionally stealing a little food for him, but still he was not sale-worthy. In this situation were our affairs, when in one of our visits to the Sultan, Mr. Ritchie ventured to ask from him the loan of some money: his answer, though a negative, was couched in very plausible and friendly terms; and he assured us, by the name of God, that we were welcome to all he had in the world, but that the Bashaw had lately exacted so much from him, that he had not a single dollar remaining. It happened, however, that on the preceding day, he had, to our certain knowledge, received 4000, which were deposited in the very chest against which he leant, whilst he uttered these falsehoods. Finding that nothing was to be gained at this visit, we retired in utter disappointment, not knowing where else to apply.