A NGL O-INDIA N MISMANAGEMENT. 



11 



not savages and malaria, but civilized rivalry and 

 vis inertiae ; and that the requisites for success 

 were time, means, and freedom from official 

 trammels. Hardly had we reached Cairo (Nov. 

 6, 1856), and had inspected an expedition fitted 

 out bv H. H. the late Abbas Pasha, and adniira- 

 bly organized by the late Marie Joseph Henri 

 Leonie de Lauture, Marquis d'Escayrac (gen- 

 erally known as Comte d'Escayar de Lauture), 

 when an order from the Court of Directors 

 summoned me back to give evidence at some 

 wretched Court-martial pending on Colonel A. 

 Shirley. The document being so worded that it 

 could not be obeyed, we — Lieut. Speke and I — 

 held on our way. 



And even when outward bound, I again 

 got into trouble, without being able, as was 

 said of Lord Gough, to get out again. A short 

 stay at Suez, and the voyage down the Red 

 Sea, taught me enough of Anglo-Indian mis- 

 management and of Arab temper, to foresee 

 some terrible disaster. Again that zeal ! In- 

 stead of reporting all things couleur de rose, I 

 sent under flying seal, through the Royal Geo- 

 graphical Society, with whom I directly corre- 

 sponded, a long memorandum, showing the true 

 state of affairs, for transmission to the home 



