6 THE STORY OF THE KHEDIVATE.

Bosphorus to the Nile. At the outset, however, of the career which ended in his elevation to the rank of

Viceroy, Mahomet Ali was confronted by an obstacle

constantly occurring in the later annals of the Ottoman empire. The Porte could appoint him Pasha of

Egypt, but was either unable or unwilling to provide him with funds for his outfit. It was understood on both sides that Mahomet Ali was to make as much as

' he liked at the cost of Egypt, but that his expenses

before installation in his Pashalik must be borne by himself. Money he had none, and the policy he intended to pursue on his arrival in Egypt abso-

lutely required his having money enough to take with him a certain number of fellow-adventurers whom he could trust. He tried, it is said, to raise money in many quarters on the strength of his expectations.

But the usurers of Galata refused to discount pro-

blematical gains, and he was on the eve of throwing up the appointment when he met an Armenian acquaint-

ance, who believed in his future, and who agreed to advance him the few hundred pounds he needed

on the understanding that the loan would be repaid liberally as soon as the borrower had come into his fortune. The friend in question is reported to have been the uncle of Nubar Pasha, the great Egyptian « statesman; and this incident was regarded in later

days as the cause of the signal favour shown through-

out his life by Mahomet Ali to the Armenian banker and his relatives.

Within a very short time after Mahomet Ali had