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Roberts, Miss Emma, 1794-1840

"Notes of an Overland Journey Through France and Egypt to Bombay"

He told us that a quarrel having taken place
between the boatmen of a small vessel and the people of a village, the
former came on board in great numbers in the night, and murdered six
of the boatmen; and that on the affair being represented to the Pasha,
he sent three hundred soldiers to the village, and razed it to the
ground. He said that he had been in the service of several English
gentlemen, and had once an opportunity of going to England with a
captain in the navy, but that his mother was alive at that time, and
when he mentioned his wishes to her, she cried, and therefore he
could not go. The captain had told him that he would always repent not
having taken his offer; but though he wished to see England, he was
glad he had not grieved his mother. He had been at Malta, but had
taken a dislike to the Maltese, in consequence of a wrong he had
received, as a stranger, upon his landing.
Amongst the noblemen and gentlemen whom he had served, he mentioned
the Marquess of Waterford. We asked him what sort of a person he was,
and he immediately replied, "A young devil." Mohammed, who had been
in various services with English travellers, expressed a great desire
to go to England; he said, that if he could once get there, he would
"never return to this dirty country.


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