The prince rejoiced, and detailed 300 men and 300 oxen, placing overseers over them, to have the trees felled. They spent the second season therewith .... In the third month of the second season (seventh month) they dragged them [to] the shore of the sea. The prince came forth and stood by them.
He sent to me, saying: “Come.” Now, when I had presented myself before him, the shadow of his sunshade fell upon me. Penamon, a butler, he stepped between us, saying: “The shadow of Pharaoh ........, thy lord, falls upon thee.” He was angry with him, saying: “Let him alone!” I presented myself before him, and he answered and said unto me: “Behold the command which my fathers formerly executed, I have executed, although thou for thy part hast not done for me that which thy fathers did for me. Behold there has arrived the last of thy timber, and there it lies. Do according to my desire and come to load it, for they will indeed give it to thee.”
“Come not to contemplate the terror of the sea, (but) if thou dost contemplate the terror of the sea, thou shalt (also) contemplate mine own. Indeed I have not done to thee that which they did to the messengers of Khamwese, when they spent seventeen years in this land. They died in their place.” He said to his butler; “Take him, and let him see their tomb, wherein they sleep.”
I said to him: “Let me not see it! As for Khamwese, (mere) people were the messengers whom he sent unto thee; but people ......... there was no [god among] his messengers. And yet thou sayest, ‘Go and see thy companions.’ Lo, art thou not glad? and dost thou not have made for thee a tablet, whereon thou sayest: ‘Amon-Re, king of gods, sent to me “Amon-the-way,” his [divine] messenger, and Wenamon, his human messenger, after the timber for the great and august barge of Amon-Re, king of gods? I felled it, I loaded it, I supplied him (with) my ships and my crews, I brought them to Egypt, to beseech for me 10,000 years of life from Amon, more than my ordained (life), and it came to pass.’ Then in future days when a messenger comes from the land of Egypt, who is able to write, and reads thy name upon the stela, thou shalt receive water in the west, like the gods who are there.” He said to me: “It is a great testimony which thou tellest me.”
I said to him: “As for the many things which thou hast said to me, when I reach the place of the abode of the High Priest of Amon, and he shall see thy command in thy command, [he] will have something delivered to thee.”
I went to the shore of the sea, to the place where the timbers lay; I spied eleven ships, coming from the sea, belonging to the Thekel, saying: “Arrest him! Let not a ship of his pass to Egypt!” I sat down and began to weep. The letter-scribe of the prince came out to me, and said to me: “What is the matter with thee?” I said to him: “Surely thou seest these birds which twice descend upon Egypt. Behold them! They come to the pool, and how long shall I be here, forsaken? For thou seest surely those who come to arrest me again.”
He went and told it to the prince. The prince began to weep at the evil words which they spoke to him. He sent out his letter-scribe to me and brought me two jars of wine and a ram. He sent to me Tento, an Egyptian singer (feminine), who was with him, saying: “Sing for him; let not his heart feel apprehension.” He sent to me, saying: “Eat, drink, and let not thy heart feel apprehension. Thou shalt hear all that I have to say unto thee in the morning.”
Morning came, he had (the Thekel) called into his ......., he stood in their midst and said to the Thekel: “Why have ye come?” They said to him: “We have come after the stove-up ships which thou sendest to Egypt with our ...... comrades.” He said to them: “I cannot arrest the messenger of Amon in my land. Let me send him away, and ye shall pursue him, to arrest him.”
He loaded me on board, he sent me away ..... to the harbor of the sea. The wind drove me to the land of Alasa [Cyprus]; those of the city came forth to me to slay me. I was brought among them to the abode of Heteb, the queen of the city. I found her as she was going forth from her houses and entering into her other [house]. I saluted her, I asked the people who stood about her: “There is surely one among you who understands Egyptian?” One among them said: “I understand (it).” I said to him: “Say to my mistress: ‘I have heard as far as Thebes, the abode of Amon, that in every city injustice is done, but that justice is done in the land of Alasa; (but), lo, injustice is done every day here.’” She said: “Indeed! what is this that thou sayest?” I said to her: “If the sea raged and the wind drove me to land where I am, thou wilt not let them take advantage of me to slay me, I being a messenger of Amon. I am one whom they will seek unceasingly. As for the crew of the prince of Byblos whom they sought to kill, their lord will surely find ten crews of thine, and he will slay them on his part.” She had the people called and stationed (before her); she said to me: “Pass the night ..........”
Here the papyrus, which contains this vivid personal narrative of travel, is broken off and the rest of the story is lost. We may be sure that Wenamon escaped from Cyprus and succeeded in reaching Egypt again, or the story would never have been told.