Gilbert Parker

“ Futility was written over the Temple of Endeavour, and by-and-by Flinders lost hope and health and heart. He had Nilotic fever, he had ophthalmia; and hot with indomitable will, he had striven to save one great basin from destruction, for one whole week, without sleeping or resting night and day: working like a navvy, sleeping like a fellah, eating like a Bedouin.
Then the end came. He was stricken down, and lay above Assouan in a hut by the shore, from which he could see the Temple of Philæ, and Pharaoh's Bed, and the great rocks, and the swift-flowing Nile. ”

“ Egypt offered an opportunity for a man like Flinders, and he always said that his going there was the one inspiration of his life. He did not know that the inspiration was that of Lucy Gray. She had purposely thrown him in the way of General Duncan Pasha, who, making a reputation in Egypt, had been rewarded by a good command in England and a K.C.B.
After a talk with the General, who had spent his Egyptian days in the agreeable strife with native premiers and hesitating Khedives, Flinders rose elated, with his mission in his hand. ”

“ In the far distance was the Maydoum Pyramid, “the Imperfect One,” unexplored by man these thousands of years, and all round it the soft yellowish desert, with a mirage quivering over it in the distance, a mirage of trees and water and green hills. ”

“ Day in, day out, week in, week out, month in, month out, when the whole land lay sweltering with the moist heat of flood-time, in the period of the khamseen, in the dry heat which turned the hair grey and chapped the skin like a bitter wind, he slaved and schemed, the unconquerable enthusiast, who built houses which immediately fell down. ”

“ But we are in the hands of the nations. Poor Egypt cannot act alone—our Egypt that we love. The Council sits to-morrow—we shall see.” This was the fashion of the Pasha's speech.
After the sitting of the Council, Flinders would be sent away with unfruitful promises. Meanwhile the rich man robbed the poor, and the man with five feddans of land preyed on the man with one feddan, and when the man with one feddan was at the corvée the tax gatherer came and seized his land, and the rich man harvested it, and made no return. ”

“ It is not the will of God!”
“It is the will of God that water shall be distributed as I am going to distribute it; and that is, according to every man's just claim. And in another three years there'll be no corvée either, save what you rich pashas have to pay for,” answered Flinders stubbornly, and he did not understand the vague smile which met his remark.
It took him a long time to understand it, and even at the last he did not realise how all along the Nile from Assouan to Cairo, and from Cairo to Alexandria, his way had been ruthlessly beset with traps ”

“ And having seen, you feel now that Egypt must be saved—eh?”
Imshi Pasha was an Egyptian of the Egyptians—a Turk of the Turks, oriental in mind with the polish of a Frenchman. He did not like Flinders, but he did not say so. He knew it was better to let a man have his fling and come a cropper over his own work than to have him unoccupied, excited, and troublesome, especially when he was an Englishman and knew about what he was talking. Imshi Pasha saw that Flinders was a dangerous man, as all enthusiasts are, no matter how right-headed ”

“ In this way he soon forgot that he had remembered Lucy Gray, and the incident of Mahommed Melik and the girl. His progress up the river, however, was marked by incidents whose significance he did not at once see. Everywhere his steamer stopped, people came with backsheesh in the shape of butter, cream, flour, eggs, fowls, cloths, and a myriad things. Jewels from mummy cases, antichi, donkeys, were offered him: all of which he steadfastly refused, sometimes with contumely. ”

“ With something very like emotion he thanked Imshi Pasha, and said he was proud that the new responsibility had not been offered him through the intercession of English authority, but had come direct from an Egyptian Minister renowned above all others.
“Ah, my dear friend,” answered the Pasha, “the love of Egypt has helped us to understand each other. And we shall know each other better still by-and-by-by-and-by.... You shall be gazetted to-morrow. Allah preserve you from all error!”
III.
This began the second period of Flinders' career. ”

“ FLINDERS' prospects had suddenly ceased by the productive marriage of a rich uncle late in life; and then his career began. He went to Egypt at the time when men who knew things had their chance to do things. ”