i 4 4 RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



you can count upon me for anything which is calcu- 

 lated to advance the work of the canal. 

 " i May the good Lord keep you.' ' 



" ' DENEAT AXOUM, 8 Lasoli, 1852.' 



" I beg you also to hand to Count "Walewski, 

 together with my correspondence with King Nikas, 

 my Abrege de VHistoire d'Abyssime as likely to be 

 useful for purposes of reference in the political rela- 

 tions which will certainly follow the opening of the 

 Suez Canal to navigation between Europe and the 

 east coast of Africa."* 



My Journal. 



" llth, 18th, 19*7i, 20*7t January, 1863. 

 " Having left Ismailia on horseback in order to 

 reach Kantara more quickly than I could by water, I 

 cross the desert, followed by my faithful Hassan, the 

 night being dark and there being nothing but the 

 north star to guide us. After two hours' repose, I 

 am awoke by a courier, and on opening the despatch 

 I find that Mohammed Said, who was very ill when 

 he reached Alexandria, is in a very critical state, and 

 that if I wish to see him again there is not a 

 moment to be lost. I have a horse saddled, and, 

 instead of taking the desert route, I determined to 



* King Nikas's intentions were not carried into effect, for he was 

 treacherously betrayed to the Pretender Theodoros, who had him 

 cruelly put to death, and governed Abyssinia until his barbarity 

 to foreigners led to the English expedition, under Lord Napier, the 

 capture of Magdala, and his suicide. 



