THE ORIGIN OF THE SUEZ CAXAL. 3 



Ternoni, 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 we 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. 



" It was forty years since Mehemet All, after having 

 delivered Egypt from the oppression of the Mame- 

 lukes, had sent his second son Ismail to the Soudan, 

 keeping his eldest son Ibrahim in Egypt to commence 

 the formation of a regular army, with the aid of a 

 French officer, Seves, who, under the name of Soli- 

 man Pasha, became celebrated in the campaigns of 

 Euboea, Morea, and Syria. Prince Ismail required at 

 the outset of his campaign that a thousand slaves, a 

 thousand camels, a thousand measures of wood, a 

 thousand loads of hay, etc., should be brought to 

 his canip. 



" The inhabitants were obliged to submit, but while 

 they brought him the tribute they were at the same 

 time conspiring to rid themselves of him. One day, 

 while he and his staff were enjoying a luxurious 



