As it was my intention to proceed afterwards to Medina, where Tousoun Pasha, the son of Mohammed Aly, was governor, I begged Bosari to ask the Pasha for a firman or passport, authorising me to travel through all the Hedjaz, together with a letter of recommendation to his son. In reply, Bosari told me that the Pasha did not like to interfere personally in my travels; that I might act as I pleased, on my own responsibility; and that my knowledge of the language rendered a passport unnecessary. This was equivalent to telling me, “Do what you please; I shall neither obstruct nor facilitate your projects,” which, indeed, was as much, at present, as I could well expect or desire. On the 6th of September I took my leave of the Pasha, who told me at parting, that if ever my travels should carry me to India, I might assure the English people there that he was much attached to the interests of the India trade. Early on the 7th the Kadhy sent me word that he should not set out till evening, would travel during the night, and hoped to meet me at Djebel Kora, midway to Mekka. I therefore left Tayf alone, as I had entered it, after a residence of ten days. At parting, Bosari assured me of his inviolable attachment to my interest; and I blessed my good stars, when I left the precincts of the town, and the residence of a Turkish court, in which I found it more difficult to avoid danger, than among the wild Bedouins of Nubia. During my stay at Tayf, I had five or six interviews with the [p.77] Pasha; and the following extracts from my journal will show the general result of what passed between us on those different occasions:-- Q. Sheikh Ibrahim, I hope you are well. A. Perfectly well, and most happy to have the honour of seeing you again. Q. You have travelled much since I saw you at Cairo. How far did you advance into the negro country? To this question I replied, by giving a short account of my journey in Nubia. Q. Tell me, how are the Mamelouks at Dongola? I related what the reader will find in my Nubian Travels. Q. I understand that you treated with two of the Mamelouk Beys at Ibrim; was it so? The word treated (if the dragoman rightly translated the Turkish word), startled me very much; for the Pasha, while he was in Egypt, had heard that, on my journey towards Dongola, I had met two Mamelouk Beys at Derr; and as he still suspected that the English secretly favoured the Mamelouk interest, he probably thought that I had been the bearer of some message to them from government. I therefore assured him that my meeting with the two Beys was quite accidental that the unpleasant reception which I experienced at Mahass was on their account; and that I entertained fears of their designs against my life. With this explanation the Pasha seemed satisfied.