With French collectors also in the area possibly looking to acquire the statue, he then sent workmen to Esna to obtain a suitable boat and in the meantime carried out further excavations in Thebes. He finally loaded the products of these digs, plus the Memnon, onto this boat and got it to Cairo by 15 December 1816. There he received and obeyed orders from Henry Salt to unload all but the Memnon, which was then sent on to Alexandria and London without him.[9][10]