Recollections of Forty Years

gineers had fixed the mode of making the canal, and pointed out the preliminary works which should be undertaken before entering upon the enterprise itself, the British Government showed itself hostile to the project, and made overtures at Constantinople for a change in the order of succession, representing Mohammed Said as bereft of his senses. The Prince got wind of this, and confided to me how uneasy he felt. So, in order to escape the worrying of the English agents, he suggested that I should go with him to the Soudan. He was anxious to deliver that country from the misery-and oppression by which it had been weighed down since the conquests and administration of Mehemet Ali. During our absence the investigations and preliminary works were to be continued in the desert of the isthmus, more than twenty leagues from any dwelling-place or travelling route, without regard to any protest from London or Constantinople. A flotilla of ten steamers was soon ready for his Highness, his ministers, his staff, two battalions of infantry, and a few guns. I was to start afterwards, and the Viceroy was to wait for me at Siout. My steamer was still moored to the quay at Boulak on the 26th of November. About midnight I had gone to my cabin on deck, and was just getting into bed when a candle set fire to the mosquito curtains and enveloped me in the flames. I endeavoured to put them out, as I could not open the door at first, owing to the bolt being so rusty, and failing in this, and fearing that I should be suffocated, I summoned all my strength and managed to burst open the door. I rushed on deck, ordered the captain to cut off all communication with the land, and to start at once. Part of my body was one large wound, and there were several lesser burns upon my legs. I was carried on to a bed, and there, after having had applications of tallow placed upon the flesh where the skin was gone, I made the attendant pour the beneficent Nile water over the sore places. Thanks to the care and company of my travelling companions, Dr. Abbate, physician to the family of the Viceroy, the French engineer, Motet Bey, and my secretary and interpreter. 3 Vernoni, I did not even have an attack of fever. But when, on reaching Siout, the Viceroy came to see me, I found it impossible to rise. I told him that my accident was of good omen for the rest of the journey, as me had acquitted our debt to ill-luck. We had a long and interesting conversation upon the results anticipated from our distant excursion. He was anxious to abolish slavery in the centre of Africa, and prepare in Ethiopia a trade which would be beneficial to the Suez Canal. He wished to appear as a sovereign benefactor in the region where his brother, Ismail Pasha, had been massacred with all his staff...