BIOGEAPHY OF MOOSA PASHA. 
49 
danger ; but the Pasha^ who had not yet left Khartoum^ under no 
circumstances would permit me to reach Cairo before him. 
Of the atrocity of this man^s character I had many experiences, 
but of his biography, imparted to me from an unimpeachable 
quarter, I was unaware. My informant and the Pasha, in the 
enjoyment of social intercourse, were one hot noonday smoking 
their chibouks, when their privacy was intruded on by a poor 
woman, who begged for relief. The Pasha threw a cracked small 
gold coin, a clieryeh, to her, and the woman, handing it back as 
worthless, was doubly hurt to find the Pasha pocket it, and with 
an imprecation order her out of his presence. 
Why, Pasha, why so severe and penurious, you that are so 
rich ? rejoined the friend. 
f^Why? yes, you shall hear,^^ said the Pasha, and he told the 
following : 
I need not tell you I am a Circassian, and in early youth was 
kidnapped and sold, a slave, to a Turkish grandee, in the Cairo 
market. Sent to be a soldier in the Egyptian army, I soon be- 
came a lieutenant, and in 1839, during the Syrian War under 
Ibrahim Pasha, for personal bravery I was made captain. In the 
Hills, three days^ march from St. Jean d^Acre, my regiment was 
surrounded and destroyed by a kabila of Druses. In the melee, 
in conjunction with the remains of another company, the major 
in command, and myself, attempted to cut our way through the 
enemy, but overpowered in the attempt, we were compelled to sur- 
render. In the division of the few prisoners that took place, the 
major and myself fell to the lot of an Arab chief. Secured each 
to a stirrup-leather, we were ignominiously conducted to his home, 
where for months we were subjected to the vilest treatment that 
one man can inflict on another — with no covering and but scanty 
VOL. II. 
