The harbor-master came to me, saying: “Remain until morning by the prince.” I said to him: “Art not thou he who continually came to me daily, saying, ‘Betake thyself away from my harbor’? Dost thou not say, ‘Remain in the [land’], in order to let depart the ship that I have found? thou that mayest come and say again, ‘Away’? He went and told it to the prince, and the prince sent to the captain of the ship, saying: ‘Remain until morning by the king.’”
When morning came he sent and had me brought up, when the divine offering occurred in the fortress where he was, on the shore of the sea. I found him sitting in his upper chamber, leaning his back against a window, while the waves of the great Syrian sea beat against the ........ behind him. I said to him: “Kindness of Amon!” He said to me: “How long is it until this day since thou camest away from the abode of Amon?” I said: “Five months and one day until now.”
He said to me: “Behold thou art true, where is the writing of Amon, which is in thy hand? Where is the letter of the High Priest of Amon, which is in thy hand?” I said to him: “I gave them to Nesubenebded and Tentamon.” Then he was very wroth, and he said to me: “Now, behold, the writing and the letter are not in thy hand! Where is the ship of cedar which Nesubenebded gave to thee? Where is its Syrian crew? He would not deliver thy business to this ship-captain ........ to have thee killed, that they might cast thee into the sea. From whom would they have sought the god then? And thee, from whom would they have sought thee then?” So he spake to me. I said to him: “There are indeed Egyptian ships and Egyptian crews who sail under Nesubenebded, (but) he hath no Syrian crews.” He said to me: “There are surely twenty ships here in my harbor, which are in connection with Nesubenebded; and at Sidon, whither thou wouldst go, there are indeed 10,000 ships also which are in connection with Berket-el and sail to his house.”
Then I was silent in this great hour. He answered and said to me: “On what business hast thou come hither?” I said to him: “I have come after the timber of the great and august barge of Amon-Re, king of gods. Thy father did it, thy grandfather did it, and thou wilt also do it.” So spake I to him.
He said to me: “They did it, truly. If thou give me (something) for doing it, I will do it. Indeed my agents transacted the business; the Pharaoh, ...... sent six ships, laden with the products of Egypt, and they were unloaded in their storehouses. And thou also shalt bring something for me.” He had the journal of his fathers brought in, and he had them read it before me. They found 1,000 deben of every (kind of) silver, which was in his book.
He said to me: “If the ruler of Egypt were the owner of my property, and I were also his servant, he would not send silver and gold, saying: ‘Do the command of Amon.’ It was not the payment of tribute which they exacted of my father. As for me, I am myself neither thy servant nor am I the servant of him that sent thee. If I cry out to the Lebanon, the heavens open, and the logs lie here on the shore of the sea.”
A long speech of Wenamon follows, in which he claims Egypt as the home of civilization, and claims Lebanon for Amon. He then continues:
“Let my scribe be brought to me, that I may send him to Nesubenebded and Tentamon, the rulers whom Amon hath given to the north of his land, and they will send all that of which I shall write unto them, saying: ‘Let it be brought,’ until I return to the south and send thee all thy trifles again.” So spake I to him.
He gave my letter into the hand of his messenger. He loaded in the keel, the head of the bow and the head of the stern, with four other hewn timbers, together seven; and he had them taken to Egypt. His messenger went to Egypt, and returned to me, to Syria in the first month of the second season. Nesubenebded and Tentamon sent:
Gold: 4 Tb-vessels, 1 K’k-mn-vessel;
Silver: 5 Tb-vessels;
Royal linen: 10 garments, 10 ḥm-ḫrd;
Papyrus: 500 rolls;
Ox-hides: 500;
Rope: 500 (coils);
Lentils: 20 measures;
Fish: 30 measures;
She[492] sent me:
Linen 5 ......, 5 ḥm-ḫrd;
Lentils: 1 measure;
Fish: 5 measures.