Among Our New Fellow-Passengers There Was A Young English Gentleman,
Who Intended To Travel Into Syria, And Who, Though Looking Scarcely
Twenty, Had Already Spent Some Years In Foreign Countries.
He was very
modest and unassuming, and both agreeable and intelligent; and, having
had a good deal of conversation together, I was sorry to lose sight of
him at Alexandria.
We had also one of Mehemet Ali's proteges on board, a young
Egyptian, who had been educated at the Pasha's expense in England,
where he had resided for the last ten years, latterly in the
neighbourhood of a dock-yard, in order to study the art of
ship-building. This young man was a favourite with those persons on
board who could make allowances for the circumstances in which he had
been placed, and who did not expect acquirements which it was almost
impossible for him to attain. His natural abilities were very good,
and he had cultivated them to the utmost of his power. Strongly
attached to European customs, manners, and institutions, he will lose
no opportunity of improving the condition of his countrymen, or of
inducing them to discard those prejudices which retard the progress
of civilization. He was naturally very anxious concerning his future
destiny, for the Pasha's favour is not always to be depended upon,
while the salary of many of the appointments which he does bestow is
by no means adequate to the support of men whom his liberality has
enabled to live in great respectability and comfort in England.
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