Mr. Thayer to Mr. Seward.
Alexandria, Egypt, June 29, 1861.
Sir: I have the honor to inform yon of my arrival at this port on the morning of the 26th instant. The interruption of travel between Washington and New York, consequent on the late riotous proceedings in Baltimore, and my illness in Europe, necessarily prevented an earlier appearance at my post.
Immediate notice of my arrival, coupled with a request for an early interview with the viceroy, was served on the minister of foreign affairs, who telegraphed accordingly to the Pacha, then sojourning at his palace in Benha, about one hundred and twenty miles distant A reply arrived on the evening of the 28th instant, that his highness would visit Alexandria and give an official reception. The promptness of his response, and his obliging readiness in voluntarily foregoing the usage which has heretofore required diplomatic agents, when asking an immediate interview, to present themselves in whatever part of Egypt he may have happened to be, instead of his coming to meet them, are interpreted here as marks of special courtesy to the government of the United States.
At half-past eight, according to previous arrangement, the dragoman of the viceroy arrived at the United States consulate with the state carriage, in which, together with our vice-consul, Mr. Johnson, I was conveyed to the palace built by the late Mohammed Ali on the sea-shore. We were also accompanied by a cavalcade of guards and janizaries attached to the other consulates at Alexandria. As we entered the court-yard the troops were drawn up in a line, with quite a fine effect, on our right, and we were greeted with the vigorous music of a military band.
Passing up the steps of the palace, and between the numerous attendants and officers who stood in order on each side, I was welcomed by the minister of foreign affairs, and by him presented to the viceroy, who advanced towards the centre of the spacious hall of reception. I then addressed him as follows:
“Your Highness: I have the honor to present to your highness a letter of credence from the President of the United States, announcing that I have been duly appointed to be the consul general of the United States for Egypt and its dependencies.
“In thus accrediting me as a diplomatic agent, the President desires me to assure your highness of his cordial friendship, and of his satisfaction in the continuance of those amicable relations which have so long and so happily subsisted between the governments of your highness and of the United States.
“During my official residence it will be my pleasant duty, acting in harmony with these assurances of the President, to use all honorable means to protect the interests of my fellow-citizens, and at the same time to foster a good understanding between them and the subjects of your highness. May these purposes receive your highnesses benevolent approval.”
In accepting my credentials, his highness replied, in French, that he perfectly understood and was much pleased with what I had said; that he welcomed me to Egypt, and hoped that his relations with the United States woud be as agreeable hereafter as they had been in times past.
The viceroy then invited me to the divan, where we sat holding a few minutes of informal conversation, with the usual accompaniment of pipes and coffee. His highness was in his most affable humor. He hoped that Egypt would prove agreeable to me, though I might find it very different from the United States. Here in Egypt, he remarked, things go on very smoothly. I replied, in so far as things went smoothly, I trusted the United States would be able to imitate the government of his highness. The viceroy laughed, and then proceeding from gay to grave, mentioned the melancholy tidings he had heard the night before of the Sultan’s death. I responded that I lamented the sad event, but was very glad, nevertheless, that the viceroy was in excellent health. His highness, whose domains are but nominally a dependency of the Sultan’s, seemed to take pleasure in this compliment. To the suggestion that a voyage to the United States in one of the excellent steam yachts of his navy might be interesting to him, the viceroy answered that he could not leave his country for so long a time. This, I assured him, was the worst disability under which his highness labored. The viceroy made no explicit reference to the present domestic disturbances in the United States, but expressed his good wishes for the welfare and harmony of our government.
I was next invested with “the sabre of honor,” and returned home, escorted in the state carriage as before. Immediately on my reception by the viceroy a salvo of cannon had been fired, and at the signal, the national flags of all the fifteen consulates in Alexandria were raised for the day in compliment to the occasion. A horse, handsomely caparisoned, awaited me as I left the palace, and was led to the consulate as the gift of the viceroy. The uniform usage in Egypt makes this present so essential a part of a first official reception by the viceroy, that the refusal of it would be deemed ungracious, and our government, in the case of all my predecessors, has permitted its acceptance. As the oriental custom on such occasions made it necessary for me to disburse a considerable sum of money in gratuities to the very numerous soldiers and servants of the viceroy, his gift may be regarded as in some degree reciprocated. The pecuniary value of the horse is by no means large.
On returning to the consulate I found the military band of the viceroy stationed in front, who continued their complimentary services during the whole day. The consuls general of other nations, and the viceroy’s minister for foreign affairs, then called upon me, appearing in full uniform; and in the afternoon I returned their visits, paying my respects first to the minister. By the minister and by the consuls a deep and intelligent interest was manifested in the affairs of the United States, and warm wishes were expressed for the continuance of our Union. The vigor of our government, and the vastness, suddenness, and spontaneous character of the military movement of our people in the pending struggle for national integrity, seem to have filled them with surprise. Indeed, among all well-informed men here, as well as elsewhere abroad, the historic battle fields of Europe have paled in interest before the tremendous uprising of the great nation beyond the Atlantic. They almost forget the political complications nearer home in studying the military map of the United States. The book-shops of the principal transatlantic cities abound in maps, charts, and other publications illustrative of the American contest, and the United States will become to masses, hitherto ignorant of its geography, a ground more familiar than [Page 423] were India and the Crimea when the progress of armies made their localities significant to the whole world.
I have the honor to be, sir, your obedient servant,
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.