PREFACE.
THE author's purpose has not been to write a history of Egypt, but to trace to their probable causes the events which have for the last decade made Egypt so conspicuous a thread in the tangled skein of Old World politics.
An acquaintance of more than a quarter of a century with Eastern lands and peoples, and ten years passed in high command in Egypt itself, with unlimited opportunities for study and observation in every direction, may perhaps justify the writer in hoping that the results here presented may not be unwelcome to the general reader.
He has endeavored to give in succinct outline such features of Egypt's history, political, religious, and social, as was deemed necessary to a complete understanding of the drama now being enacted on her soil. He has dealt in some detail with her last six rulers, more particularly with Ismail Pacha, the ex-Khedive, to his thinking the only man who thoroughly understood the wants of his country, or who had any adequate idea of how to engraft upon the customs and habits of a people accustomed for ages to despotism in its most absolute form such features of modern civilization as would gradually open the way to a regeneration of the land.
Another interesting figure has appeared lately in Egypt in the person of El Mahdi, a new prophet, who has suddenly caused wonderful excitement both as a military and political leader. Destined to play an important though brief part in the future of Egypt, something has been said of his antecedents and recent exploits, together with the traditional pretensions under the authority of which he assumes the rôle of prophet.
The selfish, cruel policy of the two Western powers, France and England, but more particularly of the latter, has been outlined, to the best of the author's ability, with impartial truth.
To these main features of the work are added brief accounts of recent explorations, and the reasons for penetrating the Dark Continent, as well as the influences which operated upon Mehemet Ali, the founder of the present dynasty, and Ismail Pacha, the greatest of his successors, in undertaking to extend the area of their empire. As a part of this policy, encroachments were made upon the frontier of Abyssinia. War followed these ambitious designs, and in its train came further financial and political embarrassments to Egypt.
It is therefore proper that there should be given an account of the Abyssinians and the campaign into their country; and as the author was a participant, he has thought it essential to relate somewhat in detail accounts of battles and the terrible tragedies which followed.
NEW YORK, April, 1884.