The scribe who in the reign of Ramses II. composed the
_Travels of an Egyptian_, speaks in several places of
marauding tribes and robbers, who infested the roads
followed by the hero. The Tel el-Amarna correspondence
contains a letter from the King of Alasia, who exculpates
himself from being implicated in the harsh treatment certain
Egyptians had received in passing through his territory; and
another letter in which the King of Babylon complains that
Chaldoan merchants had been robbed at Khinnatun, in Galilee,
by the Prince of Akku (Acre) and his accomplices: one of
them had his feet cut off, and the other was still a
prisoner in Akku, and Burnaburiash demands from Amenothes
IV. the death of the guilty persons.

The victims complained to their king, who felt no hesitation in passing
on their woes to the sovereign under whose rule the pillagers were
supposed to live. He demanded their punishment, but his request was not
always granted, owing to the difficulties of finding out and seizing the
offenders. An indemnity, however, could be obtained which would nearly
compensate the merchants for the loss sustained. In many cases justice
had but little to do with the negotiations, in which self-interest was
the chief motive; but repeated refusals would have discouraged traders,
and by lessening the facilities of transit, have diminished the revenue
which the state drew from its foreign commerce.

The question became a more delicate one when it concerned the rights of
subjects residing out of their native country. Foreigners, as a rule,
were well received in Egypt; the whole country was open to them;
they could marry, they could acquire houses and lands, they enjoyed
permission to follow their own religion unhindered, they were eligible
for public honours, and more than one of the officers of the crown
whose tombs we see at Thebes were themselves Syrians, or born of Syrian
parents on the banks of the Nile.*

* In a letter from the King of Alasia, there is question of
a merchant who had died in Egypt. Among other monuments
proving the presence of Syrians about the Pharaoh, is the
stele of Ben-Azana, of the town of Zairabizana, surnamed
Ramses-Empiri: he was surrounded with Semites like himself.

Hence, those who settled in Egypt without any intention of returning to
their own country enjoyed all the advantages possessed by the natives,
wher