tese dragoman, aged twenty-four, told me his father often talked
of 'the Commissioners' and all they had done, and how things were changed
in the island for the better. (1) Everything spiritual and temporal has
been done for the boat's safety in the Cataract--urgent letters to the
Maohn el Baudar, and him of Assouan to see to the men, and plenty of
prayers and vows to Abu-l-Hajjaj on behalf of the 'property of the Lady,'
or _kurzweg_ 'our boat' as she is commonly called in Luxor.

Here we have the other side of the misery of the Candian business; in
Europe, of course, the obvious thing is the sufferings of the Cretans,
but really I am more sorry for the poor fellah lads who are dragged away
to fight in a quarrel they had no hand in raising, and with which they
have no sympathy. The _Times_ suggests that the Sultan should relinquish
the island, and that has been said in many an Egyptian hut long before.
The Sultan is worn out, and the Muslims here know it, and say it would be
the best day for the Arabs if he were driven out; that after all a Turk
never was the true _Ameer el-Moomeneen_ (Commander of the Faithful).
Only in Europe people talk and write as if it were all Muslim _versus_
Christian, and the Christians were all oppressed, and the Muslims all
oppressors. I wish they could see the domineering of the Greeks and
Maltese as Christians. The Englishman domineers as a free man and a
Briton, which is different, and that is the reason why the Arabs wish for
English rule, and would dread that of Eastern Christians. Well they may;
for if ever the Greeks do reign in Stamboul the sufferings of the Muslims
will satisfy the most eager fanatic that ever cursed Mahound. I know
nothing of Turkey, but I have seen and heard enough to know that there
are plenty of other divisions besides that of Christian and Muslim. Here
in Egypt it is clear enough: it is Arab _versus_ Turk and the Copt siding
with the stronger for his interest, while he rather sympathizes with his
brother fellah. At all events the Copt don't want other Christians to
get power; he would far rather have a Muslim than a heretic ruler, above
all the hated Greek. The Englishman he looks on as a variety of
Muslim--a man who washes, has no pictures in his church, who has married
bishops, and above all, who does not fast from all that has life for half
the year, and this heresy is so extreme as not to give offence, unless he
tries to convert.

The Pasha's sons h