Chapter XLI: Appendix: H (2)

"And Suez has been for some time _en petite santé!_ She has suffered from Dengué fever, which she calls _Abú rukab_, or 'Father of Knees,' because those articulations make themselves prominently felt. The complaint, unpleasant though not perilous, used to rage in Syrian Bayrút, and of late years Cairo suffered from it severely. The locally learned attribute its origin to impure drinking-water; if so, Suez has to blame herself for not cleaning her Canal. Perhaps her constitutional delicacy has prevented, during the Rebellion, her normal display of uproarious temper. All 'old Egyptians' were notably deceived in their forecasts about Suez as about Alexandria. The so-called National Movement never made head here, and yet with certain remarkable exceptions Englishmen and Europeans showed the normal poltroonery. It moves laughter to hear of men armed to the teeth sneaking home at night to find all the world peacefully asleep. It would be invidious to mention the names of those who manfully stood their ground, and who won the respect of the natives whilst the runaways fell into the utmost contempt. But it is to be hoped that their services in keeping the peace will be duly recognized by either Government.

"Before Suez can settle down in her fourth home she has hard work to do. The apparently solid masonry of the north and south basins in the French Docks is being washed away by mètres: the walls resemble the bombarded Alexandrian Forts; and here we have another fine study of modern ruins compared with the ancient which were built with the express purpose of defying Time. The only remedy will be to fill up both areas and fit them for building-ground. There is already space enough to begin with; but Suez No. 4 must have room to grow. The Harbour of the future will be formed, like Port Saíd, by the broad space between the Canal piers, where dredging and deepening are the only things needful. It is to be hoped that modern Suez will be laid out on a regular plan and with due attention to drainage. Moria Pasha should look to this.

"The Suez Caravanserai, whose cloistered court has received so many generations of Thelemi monks, is now occupationless as Othello--

'A dismal hostel in a dismal land.'

Like the Town, it must fare south with bag and baggage, and the fine old building will become warehouses--possibly an _usine_ when the gold mines of Midian come to be worked. For some years, however, it will accommodate travellers to 'Sinai,' Petra, and long Desert. Moreover, there is now no climate in Lower Egypt like that of 'Suez the Sanitarium;' it has none of the wet reeking heat of Alexandria, or the raw rheumatic damp of Cairo, which tree-planting, street-flooding, and irrigation have so soon changed from good to bad. It is a treat to breathe the ozoned air of Gulf and Desert, a sensation _sui generis_ like the flavour of Nile-water. Those who seek the Cairo-climate of 1852 must find it at Thebes or at Philæ.

"At the Suez Hôtel I found Colonel (now Sir Charles) Warren and his party. They had lately arrived from Ismailíyeh, whither they had been driven by the illness of one of the subalterns; a fiery march of a hundred and twenty miles without water had caused a sunstroke. Here, too, were Mr. and Miss Charrington, and Messieurs Gill and Houndle, and Captain Stephenson of H.M.S. _Carysfort_ occasionally put in an appearance. Having all one and the same occupation and preoccupation, we discussed the chances _pro_ and _con_ most anxiously. The general conclusion was that the deaths were 'not proven.' At the same time the cumulative circumstantial evidence was strong against hope of saving life; also the negative proof that of the many Bedawi witnesses daily examined not one could state that he had heard of a survivor. And yet there was still a bare chance. For some weeks a white man had been reported to be wandering about the wilderness. At Ghazzah (Gaza), the turbulent, half-Bedawi town in Southern Syria, a Fellah, Mohammed bin Khaysh, had mentioned the rumour to some Christian acquaintances as lately as November 10th. He refused to communicate with the Rev. Mr. Schapira, the Church Missionary there stationed; but his story appeared credible enough. The white man, looking _talkhán_ (sick and sorry), had fallen in with a wandering tribe (name not specified) near El-'Akabah, and had accosted one of them, saying after Arab-fashion, '_Ana fi 'irzak_'--'I am under thy protection!' When the search became hot, the white man, who may have been the dragoman or the servant, was carried inland, but where, deponent could not specify. Also at Ghazzah an English-made gun had been brought in, showing direct communication with the plunderers.

"And here it may be well to note that the original and universally accepted account of the murder was a mere fabrication. It stated that the captives 'had been led by the Governor of Nakhil' (the Fort El-Nakhl, midway between Suez and El-'Akabah) 'to the edge of a precipice, and had there been offered the alternative of throwing themselves over or of being shot. Professor Palmer covered his eyes with his hand and leapt, and Messieurs Gill and Charrington chose the other alternative, and were shot.' This romance, which utterly ignored the two servants, dragoman and cook, was the invention of some 'Own Correspondent,' telegraphed from Cairo on October 26th. Being of the category circumstantial and picturesque, it at once found its way into the newspapers of the civilized world; and it caused sore doubts to rise in the minds of all experts. No wonder that Colonel Warren was displeased by the publication of the silly tale.

"The next account appeared in El-Ahrám (_Les Pyramides_) of November 8th. The details were literally correct; it mentioned the guide Abú Sufíh; the attack in the Wady Sadr; the destruction of the whole party, including the servants, and the disappearance of the £3000 in gold. I had hoped to see the extract reprinted by the _Egyptian Gazette_, but _Le Phare_ had been beforehand, and professional sensitiveness left the public in ignorance.

"Mr. Walter Besant, in his biographical sketch of Professor Palmer (_Athenæum_, November 11th) preceding his detailed memoir, declared that he would be grateful for any information likely to make it more complete. I therefore make no apology for intruding my few personal reminiscences upon the reader.

"On July 11, 1870, when we were in summer quarters at Bludán, Anti-Libanus, I suddenly found two Englishmen camping with a gypsy-tent below the garden. These were Palmer and C. F. Tyrwhitt-Drake, brown and sunburnt by travel in the service of the 'Sinai Survey Expedition' led by Captain (now Sir Charles) Wilson. They proved the most pleasant of companions during a trip to Ba'albak, to the sources of the Litani (_not_ Leontes), and to the unvisited crests of the northern Lebanon. We parted at the Cedars, promising ourselves to meet again, and we did live and travel together often afterwards. How little we thought that within four years one would find a grave at Jerusalem, the victim of its fatal climate; and that the other would return to seek death on the scene of his old labours!

"Of Palmer I remarked that he was a born linguist, a rarity among all races except, perhaps, the Armenian. He had the linguistic instinct, an insight which required only to hear or to be shown a tongue. He mastered it as a musical genius learns an instrument; he picked up words, sentences, and idioms like a clever child with the least possible study of grammar and syntax. The truth is, he was _supra grammaticans_. During his energetic winter wanderings he had collected a whole vocabulary of Bedawi words, and he evidently revelled, like the late Percy Smythe, Lord Strangford, in his exceptional power of appreciating dialectic differences. He read and wrote Arabic like English, and he took delight in surprising the people by out-of-the-way phrases, by peculiar forms of blessing and unblessing, and by the rhymed prose of the 'Thousand Nights and a Night.' He kept also for times of need a vocabulary which terrified the superstitious: this served his turn amongst the vagrant bandits of Petra and the Nejeb, or South Country. He then knew something of Hindostani, which he afterwards cultivated, and which assisted him in so mastering the Romani (Gypsy) dialect, that he printed metrical translations in Mr. Leland's volume. Although he had learned Persian in London and at Cambridge, he spoke it as well as I could, and he had acquired the pure Shirázi twang. Lamenting his ignorance of German and the Scandinavian tongues, which he mastered at a later period, he proposed to devote three years to Arabia, Persia, and Egypt. _Diis aliter visum!_ His last volume, 'Hindūstāni, Persian, and Arabic,' one of 'Trübner's Collection of Simplified Grammars,' a series which will suffer by his loss, lies before me; and I note with sorrow that his translation of Háfiz, a taste for which he had carefully trained himself, will lack the delicate final touches.

"Returning to England in the summer of 1870, Palmer published his valuable reports, memoirs, and papers in the organ of the Palestine Exploration Fund. He also printed, in two volumes (Bell and Daldy, 1871), 'The Desert of the Exodus,' a popular account of his two walking journeys, in company with Tyrwhitt-Drake, and without dragoman or servants, which occupied parts of 1869 and 1870. He had not then learnt that the so-called 'Sinai' is simply a modern forgery, dating probably after the second century A.D.; that the Jewish nation never knew where the true 'Mountain of the Law' was; that it is differently placed by St. Paul and his contemporary Josephus, who describes it after the fashion of Sinbad the Sailor; that the first Mount Sinai (Jebel Sarbál) was invented by the Copts, the second (Jebel Musa) by the Greeks, the third (also Jebel Musa) by the Moslems, and the fourth (Jebel Safsáfeh) by Dr. Robinson the American; that the Exodists would naturally travel by the present Haj highway from Suez to El-'Akabah; and that learned Jews now incline to the belief that the real Tor Síná lay somewhere in the Tíh Desert north of the great Pilgrimage-line. Jebel Aráif has, as far as we know, the strongest claims. Moreover, Palmer insisted upon translating, with the vulgar, 'Tíh' by 'Wilderness of _the_ Wanderings,' when it means a wilderness where man may wander. Much friendly banter upon these points passed between us as often as we met in Syria and London, and, finally, he seemed to agree in opinion with me. I may note that his details concerning the Bedawi of the 'Phárán Peninsula,' as it is called by my late friend, Dr. Charles Beke, require copious revision; and it is to be hoped that Colonel Warren will correct them and supply the deficiencies.

"Professor Palmer spent twelve years in England, chiefly at Cambridge, working most energetically the professional, literary, and especially the Oriental veins. His friends lamented that he devoted so much valuable time to what Sir W. Jones calls the 'avenues and porticoes of learning,' dictionaries and vocabularies, grammars and manuals, instead of cultivating his high gifts of fancy and imagination. Yet he found time for a spirited metrical version of the Arab poet Buhá El Dín of Egypt, for a romantic life of Harún El-Rashíd, and for the charming 'Song of the Reed,' a title redolent of Persian mysticism. His Biography told his various gifts, as a traveller, a professor, a University lecturer and examiner, an improvisatore and rhymer, a barrister, an actor, a conjurer and thought-reader, a draughtsman and caricaturist, a writer of many books, and lastly, a politician and journalist.

"About the end of last June, when the troubles in Egypt became serious, 'The Palmer' resolved to make practical use of his linguistic studies, and gallantly volunteered to take part in putting down the rebellion. His project was to dissuade the Bedawi from attacking the Suez Canal, to collect camels for transport, and to raise the Wild Men of the Tíh against the Rebels. He was duly warned, I believe, that in case of capture he would be treated as a prisoner of war, perhaps as a spy; but no consideration of personal danger had any weight with his gallant spirit.

"The brave heart landed at Jaffa in the Austro-Hungarian Lloyd's. During his few days of preparation he became immensely popular; three months afterwards I found every one full of his praises. Mr. Besant is right: 'Perhaps it would not be too much to assert that he had no business or private relations with any man who did not straightway become his friend.' He engaged a dragoman, a Christian pupil of the American College, Bayrút; and as servant a young Jew of Jaffa, who, by-the-by, has left a large family utterly destitute. He then visited the Rev. Mr. Schapira at Ghazzah, and set out by 'Short Desert,' as older travellers called it, for Suez. An obituary article in the _Academy_ (November 18th) declares that he 'turned back a Bedawy invasion of the Suez Canal.' I could hear nothing of this exploit on the spot. He might, and perhaps he would, have done it had he had the opportunity; but he also had grossly exaggerated in his own mind the numbers and the importance of the Tíh tribes. For his thousands we must read hundreds.

"On August 1st Shaykh Abdullah El Shámi (the Syrian) met at Suez his future companions, Captain Gill and Lieutenant Charrington, R.N. The former was a well-known and admirable traveller, who had spent the last winter studying Arabic in North Africa, and who had already done good service by cutting the telegraphic wires connecting Egypt with Syria. The latter was a young officer of great promise, burning to win his spurs. And now the fatal series of mistakes seems to have begun. I cannot but think that, after so many quiet, peaceful years in England, the laborious Desert march through the fiery heats of July must have affected, to a certain extent, Palmer's strong clear brain.

"Before entering the Arabian wastes, strangers always hire and pay a _Ghafír_--guide and protector. He ought to be a powerful chief, who can defend his 'guests' by the prestige of his name, and if necessary by the number of his matchlocks. Palmer may have preserved some sentimental reminiscences of his Bedawi friends and acquaintances; and may even have trusted to the exploded prestige of 'bread and salt.' The old chivalrous idea has gradually weakened till it has well-nigh died out. It may linger amongst the highest and noblest clans of the Anazeh, but it no longer extends beyond El-Nejd. The partial modification consists of feeding the Bedawi every day; otherwise, if you plead _Nahnu málihín!_ ('We are salt-fellows'), they rejoin, 'The salt is not in my belly.' The great majority of these 'sons of 'Antar,' who '_have_ ceased to be gentlemen,' ignore or rather deride the rococo practice of their forefathers. And there are scoundrels who will offer you a bowl with one hand and stab you with the other.

"Palmer engaged as his _Ghafír_ one Matr (Abú) Nassár, so named after his son; his family name is Abú Safíh. The man is not, and never was, a 'Bedouin Sheik,' but a mere hirer of camels to pilgrims and travellers. He had quarrelled with, and parted from, his kinsmen the Lahiyát, to take refuge with the Dabbúr, a clan or sub-tribe of the Huwaytát. This Matr, moreover, was judged by those who knew him best to be light-headed and half-witted. His proceedings with Colonel Warren and his conduct on board the _Carysfort_, where he was detained for his own safety, confirm the suspicion. Yet he and his nephew--the camel-men do not count--were the only defence of an expedition which carried, amongst other valuables, the sum of £3000 in gold. Travellers in Bedawi-land never even name the noble metal, and the venerable Arab proverb says, '_Ikhfi zahab-ak, wa mazhab-ak wa Ziháb-ak_'--'Hide thy gold, thy God-faith, and thy goings forth.' It has been asserted that the Englishmen had no firearms. This is an absurdity at first sight, and it is disproved by the gun produced at Ghazzah.

"The ill-starred party left Suez on August 8th, and passed the first night upon the sea-sands. On the 9th they marched _viâ_ 'Moses' Wells' to the Wady Kahabín, and next day, leaving their luggage in the rear, they entered the Wady Sadr, which heads near El-Nakhl. On the right jaw of this fiumara rises the Tel el-Sadr, _alias_ Tel Bishr, the 'Barn Hill' of our Hydrographic Charts, a broken tabular block within sight of the Suez Hotel.

"About midnight on August 10th, the expedition was surprised by a large body of the Terábín, or Bedawi of the Tíh, who trade with Ghazzah, and the Huwaytát, a mongrel tribe of Egypto-Arabs who are settled upon the Nile banks, nomads in the 'Sinaitic' peninsula and semi-nomads in the Land of Midian.[5] Palmer, they say, was the only one of the little party who fired and wounded a Bedawin in the foot.

"I pass rapidly over the deplorable scene which followed the attack. Palmer, seeing the extreme danger, expostulated with the horde of hired assassins; but all his sympathetic faculty, his appeals to Arab honour and superstition, his threats, his denunciations, and the gift of eloquence which had so often prevailed with the Wild Men, were unheeded. As vainly, Matr covered his _protégés_ with his _'abá_ (cloak), thus making them part of his own family. On the evening of August 11th, the captives were led, according to the general voice of the Bedawi informants, to the high bank of the Wady Sadr, where it receives another and a smaller fiumara yet unnamed. Here they were slaughtered in cold blood and thrown down the height. The object of not burying the bodies, according to-Bedawi practice, was the dread lest they should afterwards be discovered by means known to the Frank. It was thought safer to leave them to the birds and beasts of the wilderness. Moreover, the first rain-torrent would sweep away all traces of the foul deed.

"And here let me note that on this occasion the Bedawi behaved as Bedawi never behaved before. The Wild Men will attack strangers for the smallest inducement. They will plunder their captives, strip, beat, and even wound them. They will shoot the enemy when maddened by fight; but their almost superstitious terror of the _Dam_, or _Thár_ (Vendetta, blood-feud) prevents their taking life in cold blood. Nor have I ever heard of their keeping prisoners for a whole day and then deliberately massacring them after the fury of battle had cooled down. The whole conduct of the crime evidently suggests the far-seeing iniquity of civilized men; nor is it hard to divine whence came the suggestion.

"The evil report soon spread far and wide, and the public mind grew more and more excited. This mishap was the only black spot in the bright roll of continued successes. Colonel Warren, R.E., was directed to conduct the search for the missing expedition. He does not speak Arabic, nor had he any personal acquaintance with the Terábín and the Huwaytát. But he had taken a notable part in the Palestine Exploration, which necessarily brought him into frequent and familiar contact with the Bedawi. He is a man of unusual energy and tenacity, and he has shown great tact and _savoir faire_ in his dealings with the Wild Men. After a preliminary visit to Tor, in company with Mr. Consul West, on September 6th, he had some hopes of rescuing the captives, and he took the properest measures to secure success. In company with Lieutenants Burton and Haynes, and provided with an escort of some hundred and fifty friendly Bedawi, by the chiefs Salám El-Shadíd of Cairo and Musá Nasr of Tir, he scoured the Desert in all directions and made some important captures, which will lead to satisfactory results. On October 23rd he reached the reported scene of the murders; but it was too late to find the remains of his countrymen. The expected rain-torrent had swept them away. He picked up a truss belonging to Palmer--no conclusive proof of death; a traveller would carry more than one article of the kind. A sock bearing Captain Gill's name, and containing the fragment of a foot, seemed to forbid hope in this case. Lieutenant Charrington's overalls, marked 'Bombay,' and a caoutchouc tobacco-pouch, showed clear evidence of plunder, but nothing more. The other articles found in the neighbourhood were torn books, letters, and papers. All were temporarily deposited in the Egyptian fort El-Nakhl, whose garrison at first turned out to attack the search-party. Of the burial in Westminster Abbey nothing need be said.

"That all the culprits, even those still at large, will eventually be surrendered I have no doubt. It is a mere question of time. And until justice is thoroughly done there will be no safety for English or European travellers in the 'Sinaitic' Peninsula. No more hanging will be required, but all concerned in the foul deed should undergo imprisonment _in terrorem_ at Cairo. But it is sad to punish these poor tools when the guiding hands escape even blame.

"Of my proceedings after leaving Suez I need say nothing: they were disconnected with Egypt. Let me briefly resume the results of my three weeks' observations.

"The occupation of the Nile Valley has been thrust upon us by _force majeure_--the force of events. France was similarly circumstanced with respect to Tunis, Italy will be in the case of Tripoli: the rotten old fabric of the Porte is surely though slowly falling to pieces, and the fragments are being fitted into their right places.

"What form our Protectorate of the Nile Valley will eventually assume has not yet been determined; but if we can only come to a decision, the Public may rest assured that our tenure of the Nile Valley will be a success. At present it is not, and by the very condition of things it cannot be. Egypt hardly deserves a 'caravan government;' what it wants is stability, repose, and the training of a child to the way it should go. The unnatural excitement of looking forward to a complete change, which will mean anarchy, disorder, and violence, is doing immense and lasting damage. It interferes with revenue, _the_ difficulty of the present hour, a problem which seems to be puzzling even the experienced Sir Evelyn Baring. With diminished floating power and the millstone of debt ever weighing him down, his friends can only wish him well out of the scrape.

"The first to be considered are the sons of the soil. They have the strongest right to fair play, and they should at least share the goods of which the stranger has once more spoiled them. The ring of foreigners, who would exclude all except their own small cliques, must be broken up, and the monopoly of highly paid employments be exchanged for free selection and for competition amongst Egyptian candidates. But this is a work of time. 'Egypt for the Egyptians' as much as you please; but at present the Egyptians must be trained for Egypt. Meanwhile the supervision of imperial questions, matters of finance, and those involving income and outcome, the magistracy and the Police, cannot but remain under English surveillance.

"The _Condominium_, or Joint Control, has done in its day excellent work, but its work and day are alike done. It has tabulated the resources of the Nile Valley, and has introduced order into the chaos of native revenue. Moreover, during the last few centuries the Fellah has never been so happy or so well-to-do as under its administration. But a rule by the representatives of only two great creditors, to the neglect of all others, was an invidious measure irritating the rest of Europe. Nor would it be possible to govern by means of a board: the more votes the more discord. The old _Condominium_ must be modified to suit a permanent Protectorate.

"Modern Egypt has suffered severely from the _latifundia_ which, according to Pliny, _perdidere Italiani_. What Egypt especially requires is the maintenance of that class of peasant proprietors to which she owed all her ancient prosperity. This is the institution for which the Gracchi 'sedition'd' in vain; which modern Italy has attempted in Apulia; which Russia holds in view, and which Ireland must and _will_ have--the only Land Act that can ever satisfy her. The most fertile of countries has been sorely injured by the absorption of small properties into immense Khedivial domains, monopolizing one-fifth of the area, and into the large tracts belonging to 'the Pashas.' The sooner these model 'landed estates' are redistributed the better. However, as a trip to the Helwán les Bains will show, there is still a large proportion of waste ground--Nile mud buried in shallow sand-sheets--which can be fertilized by canals drawn from up-stream. The Great Valley can still support ten millions, and even more when a system of damming shall be applied to her river. In the mean time all attention should be given to the Cadastre, or Revenue Survey, which wants a radical reform. The dawdling, feckless system of General Stone would have carried it well into the twentieth century. Better pension off 'hard bargains' than pay and retain them as standing obstructions.

"Egypt no longer wants the disproportionate armies and fleets with which Mohammed Ali and Ibrahim Pashas conquered their neighbours. But she must have a small body of Regulars--not less than ten thousand--to defend her against Abyssinian raids, and to protect her Equatorial Provinces, where (Chinese) Gordon (Pasha) did such noble work. As regards the harbour on the Red Sea, proposed for the acceptance of the 'king of kings,' Johannes, I may say that the measure is theoretically good and practically evil. The port would serve only for the importation of arms and ammunition, and would make the troublesome 'Highlanders of Æthiopia,' ever a nest of hornets, more dangerous than at any time of their turbid history. As it is, the Egyptians cannot fight in the mountains nor the Abyssinians in the plains, a consideration which tends to keeping the peace. But the breech-loader and the magazine-gun, when provided with cartridges, will wholly change the condition of the Æthiopian. It is to be hoped that the Egyptian army of the future, composed of Fellahs and negroes from the Súdán, and officered by Englishmen and natives, will be built on the lines of the old East India Company's force, a return to which is one of the crying wants of India. The management may safely be left in the experienced hands of (Val.) Baker Pasha, unless he has to work in the chains of home orders.

"And as with the army, so with the Egyptian fleet--a mere show, an article of luxury, costly moreover as it was useless. The country wants only a few heavily armed gunboats to guard her African coast, to put down the slave-export, and to prevent Arab piracy. Subsidized lines of steamers, the more the better, suffice to connect her with Asia as well as with Africa. The old doddering Egyptian men-o'-war which rot in Alexandria and Suez harbours, melancholy remnants of past power, may be carted away as soon as possible.

"Part of the duty of the Police force will be to suppress that cruelty to animals which is one of Egypt's many abominations. The want of some active measure has long been felt, and during the last ten years a succession of _dilettanti_ has attempted to take the matter in hand. The Khedive has been interviewed; a Princess or two has been secured as patroness, and even subscription-lists have been opened. But the work is too serious, too continuous, for amateurs. Here we require an experienced delegate from the parent society in London, who, in concert with a local committee, will lay down the lines of work, and will determine what ought not to be done as well as what ought to be done. But the 'sinews of war' must also be forthcoming; and they can readily be supplied by military and naval economies.

"Lastly of the slave, who, theoretically free, is as much a bondsman as ever. Egypt yielded with her usual good grace, the moment serious pressure was brought to bear upon her. This is her way, the way of the universal East. She grants every demand, and takes especial care that nothing be granted. Pashas were appointed to issue certificates of freedom and to inquire into the case of runaways, whom the masters invariably denounced to the police as criminals, and proved their crimes by false witnesses--a drug in the market. As soon as the first excitement was over, a reaction set in and action slumbered: this was all the Government wanted. The one thing needful is still needed--a standing mixed committee of Europeans and Egyptians, presided over by a responsible English official. Its duties will be to make the abolition of slavery generally known throughout the length of the land, and to see that emancipation is fairly worked. As for that other abomination, the neutral, penalty of death should be unflinchingly inflicted upon those with whom it originates. All their names are well known, yet it causes us no surprise that the law has been and still is impudently broken, while the law-breakers have invariably escaped punishment.

"Egypt is now virtually independent of Turkey: during the court-martial of the Rebels not an allusion was made to the 'Suzerain.' It is unfair that she should continue to transmit money which is wanted for public works and internal improvements, because the so-called Tribute has been mortgaged to Frankish creditors of Turkey. The Porte is still rich enough to pay her debts, and, if she chooses again to be bankrupt, shareholders must put up with the losses which, for a high consideration, they have so long risked. Egypt now expects a complete disruption of the injurious tie: the living land must no longer be bound, in Mezentiaes-fashion, to the Ottoman corpse. She will have a fair field, and favour enough, under an English Protectorate if we only govern like men, not like Philanthropes and Humanitarians.

"RICHARD F BURTON."

[1] "Mekhitar the Armenian, nat. 1676 at Sebastia in ancient Media, est. a congregation confirmed by Clement IX. in 1712, and ob. in the island of S. Lazzaro, Venice, 1749. The Mekhitarists have educational establishments in Paris, Vienna and Rome, Constantinople, Venice, Trieste, etc."

[2] Richard Burton whilst preparing for Mecca.--I. B.

[3] Native Christians mingled with Moslems are generally cowardly. They do not unite to make a stand; if they did, they would never be attacked.--I. B.

[4] "The word should be Taufík, but we have adopted an ugly Gallicism derived from Turkish, in which it would be pronounced Tewfík."

[5] "I spent some months amongst the Huwaytát, and have described them in three volumes ('The Gold Mines of Midian,' 1878, and 'Midian Revisited,' 1880), besides a number of detached papers."