My dear Minny, —... I spent two days at Alexandria this week making preparations for putting up the additional troops which will have to go there, and looking out for quarters for myself. I shall occupy those where General Earle ^* is now living, a nice suite of rooms on a flat which will take in myself and one A.D.C., having a spare room for visitors; the other A.D.C. and military secretary will have to live in lodgings. The house I am now in here is, of course, a far better one, but it is, if anything, too much so, and entails expense. Thinking I was on the point of leaving I gave a ball the other night, which went off fairly well, but has left my pocket in rather an exhausted condition, but I am obliged to entertain here a good deal, the position to be kept up being a prominent one, which has to be acted up to. At Alexandria there will not be so much, I want Ella's helping hand here sadly to regulate household expenses, having neither time nor experience to go into those matters myself, and although I have to leave them to the care of a very clever A.D.C, still a certain amount of robbery goes on which it is extremely difficult to prevent. Lady Strangford," amongst other arrivals, has lately come out to this part of the world to look after a hospital which she has established at Cairo, and to superintend another at Port Said; she is an active, energetic woman, who devotes herself to this work. There are very few other visitors; indeed Cairo will be very empty this winter, the cholera and the discomforts of a lengthened quarantine for those returning home overland will keep people away. Alexandria cannot
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quite shake itself clear of the cholera, and that frightens people at a distance; there are still one or two fatal cases there daily. I poke about the Pyramids at Gizeh, and the tombs at Sakhara, whenever I have a chance, and store up pleasant and interesting recollections. I don't, however, see my way just yet to going to the Upper Nile. I am afraid I shall not be able to get away while the movement of the troops is taking place, though I should much like to make the trip before going away from Cairo. Colonel Romilly whose son is one of my A.D.C.'s, is coming to stay with me next week with his wife and daughter; they will afterwards go up the Nile, and I should be glad if I could go with them. The Khedive has intimated a wish to give us an entertainment of some kind before we leave, and I have promised to let him know when the time will arrive for his doing so, which now will not be so soon as we thought.... I have taken to the Arabian Nights lately, never having read them very thoroughly, and as Cairo is the scene of some of the stories, and as the habits, dress, and manners of the people are probably exactly as they were when the stories were written, now is a good opportunity for reading them.... — Yours affectionately,
Fredk. Stephenson.
To his Nephew, {now) Admiral George A. Giffard, C.M.G.
Cairo, December 17, 1883.
... The recent success of the Mahdi will in all probability lead to the abandonment of the Soudan and to the withdrawal of the Egyptian frontier to somewhere about the Second Cataract, possibly to the First. The utter collapse of Egypt, both in its civil government and in its military capabilities, now become so apparent, will lead, I think, to our assuming the Protectorate of the country, as the only means of guarding it against anarchy and ruin, and that we are bound to guard against, not only from the obligations we have in-
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curred towards other powers, but in our own interests as regards the road to India. If we don't assume this charge it will sooner or later devolve upon some other power, and that would never do. The Egyptian has lately proved himself beyond all doubt to be entirely devoid of any fighting power, and the defence, even of his own country, must be undertaken by others; the same remark applies in an equal degree to his capacity for governing — corruption, tyranny, and selfishness are too deeply engrained in the leading classes. I may and probably shall have, before many months, to go to the proposed new frontier, possibly Assouan, to support the Egyptian army in its defence in the event of the Mahdi making an advance upon Egypt Proper....
To his Nephew, Henry Ry croft Giffard ^