170 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



true narrative of the most important negotiation I ever 

 undertook, or am likely to undertake. 



" At about eight o'clock I took leave of the Vice- 

 roy, who told me that we were to start on the morrow. 

 Upon regaining my encampment, Zulfikar Pasha 

 guessed what had happened, and was not less pleased 

 than myself. A friend of the Yiceroy from childhood 

 and his most intimate confidant, he had been of very 

 material assistance to me in bringing about this happy 

 result. I was not inclined to go to sleep, so I jotted 

 down my travelling notes and gave a final polish to 

 the memorandum which the Yiceroy had asked me to 

 draw up, and which had been ready for the last two 

 years. It was as follows : 



" 'CAMP OF MAKEA, November 15, 1854. 

 " l The joining together of the Mediterranean and 

 the Bed Sea by a navigable canal is an enterprise the 

 utility of which has attracted the attention of all the 

 great men who have reigned or been for a time 

 in Egypt : Sesostris, Alexander, Caesar, the Arab 

 conqueror Amrou, Napoleon L, and Mohammed Ali. 

 A canal communicating by way of the Nile with the 

 two seas existed in ancient times but for how long 

 we know not under the old Egyptian dynasties ; 

 during a second period of 445 years, from the first 

 successors of Alexander and the Eoman conquest 

 until the fourth century before the Hegira, and finally 

 for a period of 130 years after the Arab conquest. 



