DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0071
64
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
in Egypt, Volney's Travels, and an Italian gram-
mar and dictionary. My only companion was my
servant; and as he is about to be somewhat inti-
mate with me, I take the liberty of introducing
him to the reader. Paollo Nuozzo, or, more fa-
miliarly, Paul, was a Maltese. I had met him at
Constantinople travelling with two of my coun-
trymen ; and though they did not seem to like him
much, I was very well pleased with him, and
thought myself quite fortunate, on my arrival at
Malta, to find him disengaged. He was a man
about thirty-five years old ; stout, square built, in-
telligent; a passionate admirer of ruins, particular-
ly the ruins of the Nile ; honest and faithful as the
sun, and one of the greatest cowards that luminary
ever shone upon. He called himself my drago-
man, and, I emember, wrote himself such in the
convent at Mount Sinai and the temple at Petra,
though he promised to make himself generally
useful, and was my only servant during my whole
tour. He spoke French. Italian, Maltese, Greek,
Turkish, and Arabic, but could not read any one
of these languages. He had lived several years in
Cairo, and had travelled on the Nile before, and
understood all the little arrangements necessary
for the voyage.
At about twelve o'clock, then, the hour when at
home my friends were commencing their New-
year visits, accompanied to the boat by my friend
from Alexandria, my first, last, and best friend in
Egypt, I embarked; and with a fair wind, and
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
in Egypt, Volney's Travels, and an Italian gram-
mar and dictionary. My only companion was my
servant; and as he is about to be somewhat inti-
mate with me, I take the liberty of introducing
him to the reader. Paollo Nuozzo, or, more fa-
miliarly, Paul, was a Maltese. I had met him at
Constantinople travelling with two of my coun-
trymen ; and though they did not seem to like him
much, I was very well pleased with him, and
thought myself quite fortunate, on my arrival at
Malta, to find him disengaged. He was a man
about thirty-five years old ; stout, square built, in-
telligent; a passionate admirer of ruins, particular-
ly the ruins of the Nile ; honest and faithful as the
sun, and one of the greatest cowards that luminary
ever shone upon. He called himself my drago-
man, and, I emember, wrote himself such in the
convent at Mount Sinai and the temple at Petra,
though he promised to make himself generally
useful, and was my only servant during my whole
tour. He spoke French. Italian, Maltese, Greek,
Turkish, and Arabic, but could not read any one
of these languages. He had lived several years in
Cairo, and had travelled on the Nile before, and
understood all the little arrangements necessary
for the voyage.
At about twelve o'clock, then, the hour when at
home my friends were commencing their New-
year visits, accompanied to the boat by my friend
from Alexandria, my first, last, and best friend in
Egypt, I embarked; and with a fair wind, and