emain that night in harbour.

Upon the following morning a deputation, evidently friendly, waited on
Wenamon, and urged him to come to the palace, which he finally did,
incidentally attending on his way the morning service which was being
celebrated upon the sea-shore. "I found the prince," writes Wenamon in
his report, "sitting in his upper chamber, leaning his back against a
window, while the waves of the Great Syrian Sea beat against the wall
below. I said to him, 'The mercy of Amon be with you!' He said to me,
'How long is it from now since you left the abode of Amon?' I replied,
'Five months and one day from now.'"

The prince then said, "Look now, if what you say is true, where is the
writing of Amon which should be in your hand? Where is the letter of the
High Priest of Amon which should be in your hand?"

"I gave them to Nesubanebded," replied Wenamon.

"Then," says Wenamon, "he was very wroth, and he said to me, 'Look here,
the writings and the letters are not in your hand. And where is the fine
ship which Nesubanebded would have given you, and where is its picked
Syrian crew? He would not put you and your affairs in the charge of this
skipper of yours, who might have had you killed and thrown into the sea.
Whom would they have sought the god from then?--and you, whom would they
have sought you from then?' So said he to me, and I replied to him,
'There are indeed Egyptian ships and Egyptian crews that sail under
Nesubanebded, but he had at the time no ship and no Syrian crew to give
me.'"

The prince did not accept this as a satisfactory answer, but pointed out
that there were ten thousand ships sailing between Egypt and Syria, of
which number there must have been one at Nesubanebded's disposal.

"Then," writes Wenamon, "I was silent in this great hour. At length he
said to me, 'On what business have you come here?' I replied, 'I have
come to get wood for the great and august barge of Amon-Ra, king of the
gods. Your father supplied it, your grandfather did so, and you too
shall do it.' So spoke I to him."

The prince admitted that his fathers had sent wood to Egypt, but he
pointed out that they had received proper remuneration for it. He then
told his servants to go and find the old ledger in which the
transactions were recorded, and this being done, it was found that a
thousand debens of silver had been paid for the wood. The prince now
argued that he was in no way the servant of Amon, for if he had bee