D'Athanasi, Giovanni; Salt, Henry [Hrsg.]: A brief account of the researches and discoveries in Upper Egypt: To which is added a detailed catalogue of Mr. Salts collection of Egyptian antiquities (London, 1836)

40 BELZONl's DISMISSAL BY SALT.

to the Comte de Forbin for twelve hundred
piasters, and five other similar articles, but of a ra-
ther more ordinary description, which he sent as a
present to the museum of his native place. I say
nothing here of the specimens of antiquity which
Madame Belzoni collected on her own account,
and which she had no right to do, as both Mr.
Belzoni and his wife were engaged and acted in
the service of Mr. Salt; yet it was a friend of Mr.
Belzoni himself who told us that the latter had sent
to Europe, through my informant's hands, forty
papyri, which on his, Belzoni's, arrival there, were
to be restored to him ; and that at a period when
Mr. Salt not only did not possess any papyri him-
self, but moreover knew nothing of any except by
report. I repeat, then, that if Mr. Belzoni had
been a conscientious man, he never would have
had the audacity to have asked for the alabaster
sarcophagus; and it may not be surprising to add,
that the explanations consequent upon this extra-
ordinary demand ended in the dismissal of Mr.
Belzom from his employ under Mr. Salt, without
receiving any further gratifications than his regular
appointments as far as Alexandria.

Some days after these occurrences we parted