86 MEMORIES OF MY LIFE 



Mehemet Ali was at that time the ruler of Egypt. 

 Barclay had an audience of him, and received the 

 usual firman entitling us to impress men to pull up 

 our boat at certain well-known places where the 

 stream is exceptionally strong. I myself saw the 

 old greybeard driving, but that was all. Shepherd's 

 Hotel then looked out upon rice-fields, and modern 

 Cairo did not exist, but Waghorn's overland wagons 

 to Suez had been established. After some stay 

 at Cairo, we hired a dahabeyah ; Barclay put on 

 board a keg of his own porter, and so we started, 

 intending to live luxuriously and in grand style. 

 We also enorao-ed an Arab lad as coffee - bearer 

 and to make himself generally useful, who went 

 by the name of Bob. He turned out to be a lad 

 of parts. 



The mornings were delightful. We rolled out of our 

 beds half awake and tumbled ourselves into the river, 

 climbing back very wide awake indeed into the boat 

 by help of the big rudder, to the exquisite enjoyment 

 of the first cup of coffee and a pipe. We chattered 

 with Bob, the captain, sailors, and others, and soon 

 smattered in Arabic. Boulton studied it classically as 

 well, working very hard. So the voyage proceeded 

 in the usual way. We were pulled safely up the First 

 Cataract, and onward we went. 



When near Korosko, men had to be impressed, but 

 a person in a rather shabby Egyptian dress, but of 

 Egyptian rank as a Bey, claimed and insisted on 

 precedence. We were cross, and relieved our minds 

 by the use of uncomplimentary English words. But 

 by the time we had walked together to Korosko we 

 had become fairly friendly, for he was a far more 



