PREFACE

It was in September, 1869, that I first set foot in Egypt. It was in July of the past year that I last quitted Cairo. During this period of thirty odd years

I paid any number of visits to the valley of the Nile, and even during the intervals in which my visits were intermitted I was always in close communication with residents in the country in connection with Egyptian affairs, both political, social, and financial. By the accidents of fortune, I was closely associated with many of the leading personages, English, foreign, and native, who have had to do with the develop-

ment of Egypt, and I can say with truth that there

is scarcely any man of note in Egypt, throughout the last three decades, with whom I have not had more or

less intimate, personal relations.

It so happened that the period in question coin-

cides almost exactly in point of time with the course of events which has caused England to become the dominant Power in Egypt. The construction of the Suez Canal compelled England, as Mistress of India, to regard the ascendency of any European Power in