I lodged with young Edward King, who is making such a name in New
England. He was just the man who would have delighted to tell the
journal he was engaged upon what young Mr. Bennett was doing, and
what errand I was bound upon.
I should have liked to exchange opinions with him upon the probable
results of my journey, but I dared not do so. Though oppressed
with the great task before me, I had to appear as if only going to
be present at the Suez Canal. Young King followed me to the
express train bound for Marseilles, and at the station we parted:
he to go and read the newspapers at Bowles' Reading-room - I to
Central Africa and - who knows?
There is no need to recapitulate what I did before going to Central
Africa.
I went up the Nile and saw Mr. Higginbotham, chief engineer in
Baker's Expedition, at Philae, and was the means of preventing
a duel between him and a mad young Frenchman, who wanted to fight
Mr. Higginbotham with pistols, because that gentleman resented
the idea of being taken for an Egyptian, through wearing a fez cap.
I had a talk with Capt. Warren at Jerusalem, and descended one
of the pits with a sergeant of engineers to see the marks of
the Tyrian workmen on the foundation-stones of the Temple of Solomon.
I visited the mosques of Stamboul with the Minister Resident of
the United States, and the American Consul-General.
