And he gave my letter into the hand of his ambassador. And he loaded up on a ship wood for the fore part and wood for the hind part [of the Boat of Amen], and four other trunks of cedar trees which had been cut down, in all seven trunks, and he despatched them to Egypt. And his ambassador departed to Egypt, and he returned to me in Syria in the first month of the winter season (November-December). And Nessubanebtet and Thent-Amen sent to me five vessels of gold, five vessels of silver, ten pieces of byssus, each sufficiently large to make a suit of raiment, five hundred rolls of fine papyrus, five hundred hides of oxen, five hundred ropes, twenty sacks of lentils, and thirty vessels full of dried fish. And for my personal use they sent to me five pieces of byssus, each sufficiently large to make a suit of raiment, a sack of lentils, and five vessels full of dried fish. Then the Governor was exceedingly glad and rejoiced greatly, and he sent three hundred men and three hundred oxen [to Lebanon] to cut down the cedar trees, and he appointed overseers to direct them. And they cut down the trees, the trunks of which lay there during the whole of the winter season. And when the third month of the summer season had come, they dragged the tree trunks down to the sea-shore. And the Governor came out of his palace, and took up his stand before the trunks, and he sent a message to me, saying, “Come.” Now as I was passing close by him, the shadow of his umbrella fell upon me, whereupon Pen-Amen, an officer of his bodyguard, placed himself between him and me, saying, “The shadow of Pharaoh, life, strength, and health, be to him! thy Lord, falleth upon thee."[1] And the Governor was wroth with Pen-Amen, and he said, “Let him alone.” Therefore I walked close to him.
[Footnote 1: Pen-Amen means to say that as the shadow of the Governor had fallen upon the Egyptian, Unu-Amen was henceforth his servant. The shadow of a man was supposed to carry with it some of the vital power and authority of the man.]
And the Governor answered and said unto me, “Behold, the orders [of Pharaoh] which my fathers carried out in times of old, I also have carried out, notwithstanding the fact that thou hast not done for me what thy fathers were wont to do for me. However, look for thyself, and take note that the last of the cedar trunks hath arrived, and here it lieth. Do now whatsoever thou pleaseth with them, and take steps to load them into ships, for assuredly they are given to thee as a gift. I beg thee to pay no heed to the terror of the sea voyage, but if thou persistest in contemplating [with fear] the sea voyage, thou must also contemplate [with fear] the terror of me [if thou tarriest here]. Certainly I have not treated thee as the envoys of Kha-em-Uast[1] were treated here, for they were made to pass seventeen (or fifteen) years in this country, and they died here."[2]
[Footnote 1: Otherwise known as Rameses IX, a king of the twentieth dynasty.]