STRICTURES ON SEBASTIANrS ACCOUNT. 469 
terpreter, Mr. Reggio, to mix with the crowd, and learn what passed. 
Fortunately, Mr. Joubert was so little qualified for the office of in- 
terpreter, that he could not translate the first compliments. The 
Governor, distressed, called out aloud, " Is there no one here who 
speaks Franks? " Reggio immediately stepped forward, and acted as 
interpreter to the French agent, who began by assuring the Go- 
vernor of the First Consul's high regard for his nation, that he was 
extremely afflicted that the English continued in Egypt contrary 
to its desire, but begged him to rest assured that the French 
would soon oblige them to retreat. Sebastiani was perfectly satis- 
fied with his interpreter. It was only when speaking of Reggio to 
the French at Cairo that he discovered the trick that had been 
played him. 
Sebastiani had brought with him a large collection of the First 
Consuls portraits, which he sent to the difiPerent Arab Schechs in 
the neighbourhood of Alexandria, with the same message to each, 
" that the First Consul continued to have the most affectionate re- 
membrance of the poor Schechs of Egypt, and particularly of the 
person to whom he sent." The Schechs, who detested the French, 
and cared nothing for the present (a most ridiculous one certainly, 
and the sending of which shews a strange ignorance of their manners 
and prejudices), in general, returned no answer. One, however, 
replied, that it was impossible that the First Consul could have sent 
such a message to him, or have any Recollection of him, for he had 
retired into the desert the moment the French arrived, and had not 
returned till the English landed. 
At Cairo Sebastiani never visited a single Schech, nor did one 
visit him. Schech Abdallah Scherkowie, of the great mosque, never 
