Sir, before I commence the recital of the story you have allowed
me to tell, I beg leave to acquaint you, that I have not the
honour to be born in a place that pertains to your majesty's
empire. I am a stranger, born at Cairo in Egypt, one of the
Coptic nations, and a professor of the Christian religion: my
father was a broker, and got a good estate, which he left me at
his death: I followed his example, and took up the same
employment. One day at Cairo, as I was standing in the public
resort for the corn-merchants, there came up to me a handsome
young man, well clad, and mounted upon an ass. He saluted me, and
pulling out his handkerchief, where he had a sample of sesame and
Turkey corn, asked me what a bushel of such sesame would fetch? I
examined the corn which the young man showed me, and told him it
was worth a hundred drams of silver per bushel. 'Pray, said he,
look out for some merchant to take it at that price, and come to
me at the Victory-gate, where you will see a hut at a distance
from the houses.' He then left me, and I showed the sample to
several merchants, who told me they would take as much as I could
spare at an hundred and ten drams per bushel; so that I made an
account to get ten drams per bushel for my brokerage. Full of the
expectation of this profit, I went forthwith to the Victory-gate,
where I found the young merchant waiting for me, and he carried
me into his granary, which was full of sesame.
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