Around 2:30 P.M. a large union Jack came into view. The barge of the British Rosetta consulate with union Jack awnings approached. Word had already reached them via foot messenger of Eaton’s impending visit, and they came to greet him. Eaton and Lieutenant Blake boarded the large British vessel for the half hour remaining to reach Rosetta.
Each minute heading south, Eaton became more impressed by the fertileness of the Nile delta. Rosetta served as the stopover point for travelers switching from a seacoast vessel to a Nile boat. The Arabs called the town “Rashid,” and it was one of the more beautiful and prosperous places in all Egypt, with ambitious gardens, groves of orange and lemon trees, and smart five-story brick houses. An Albanian governor, with a force of three hundred Albanians, kept the town safe for the Turks.
Major Missett, the British resident agent at Cairo, greeted Eaton at the Rosetta landing. (Missett had abandoned Cairo to avoid the conflict raging there.) Eaton handed him a letter of introduction. The two men quickly found they enjoyed each other’s company. “You will find in Major Missett all that can be comprized in the term of a Gentleman, with the frankness of an old soldier,” wrote Eaton to Captain Hull.
Also greeting him was Doctor Mendrici, whom Eaton had met in Tunis. Mendrici, family physician to the Bey, had often shared secrets with Eaton, and Mendrici, like Eaton, had been eventually banished from Tunis. Mendrici’s offense, Eaton described somewhat cryptically, was “possessing dispositions congenial to the interests of the Bey’s wife.” The good doctor had thrived since, and was now chief physician to the highest ranking man in Egypt—Viceroy Ahmet Pacha—and also on call to the British consulate. Eaton was thrilled to see Mendrici, who spoke Lingua Franca and Arabic and knew Hamet from Tunis.
The Americans stayed in the British consular house in Rosetta. Although Eaton found the surroundings magnificent, he wanted to head south immediately to Cairo and continue his hunt for Hamet. Unfortunately, the fast of Ramadan began that night, and a religious sheik traveling with a huge entourage had commandeered all the Nile boats in Rosetta. Eaton found himself with two days to kill before another boat would arrive. He spent the time with Major Missett, both lamenting the lack of port and Madeira. Missett filled Eaton in on the warring factions and complex political situation roiling Egypt. If attacked, Eaton might at least have a glimmer of understanding of the adversaries involved.
The Turks and Mamelukes had uneasily shared control of Egypt for almost three hundred years, from 1517 to the French invasion of 1798. Despite being fellow Moslems, the Turks amounted also to foreign invaders. To Westerners, the Mamelukes were an odd class of warrior-slaves to comprehend. They originated when the Turks bought Greek Orthodox Christian slaves, often fair-skinned, from regions of Georgia or Circassia, trained them in military arts, then freed them and converted them to Islam to act as an elite corps of Mamelukes. Over time, these warriors tired of their subservient role and seized control of Egypt, and developed great houses of Mameluke beys. Since generations of Mamelukes were handpicking the slaves that would refill their ranks, the Mamelukes were often strikingly handsome and athletic. They wore extremely baggy trousers (which would reach the chin if pulled up), a large sash, and yellow stockings and slippers. They always went about heavily armed with at least a curved scimitar and two pistols, and roamed the country, exacting taxes and inflicting justice.
Napoleon changed all that; he invaded in 1798, claiming he had the blessing of the Ottoman Empire to free Egypt from the oppression of the Mamelukes. His victory crumbled when Nelson left him ship-less, but the French ruled for a couple of years before British forces teamed up with the Turks to drive them out. (On December 2, while Eaton was chatting with Major Missett, Napoleon was crowning himself emperor in Notre Dame in Paris.)
The British Army eventually departed also, and by 1804 Egypt was a lawless mess. The Sultan in Istanbul appointed a pacha who in theory ruled all of Egypt but in reality controlled mainly the north near Alexandria. The Turks had used Albanian troops under a commander named Muhammad Ali, but he had branched out and claimed Cairo for himself. Bands of Albanian deserters raped and pillaged outside the main cities. And the Mameluke beys, having hired all the local Arab tribes, controlled Upper Egypt (i.e., south of Cairo), where Hamet had taken refuge. Further complicating matters, there were twenty-four Mameluke beys, and many of them hated one another. At that moment, the Turkish forces of mostly Albanian troops (with a few leftover Frenchmen) were attacking the Mamelukes south of Cairo. Further stirring the pot, diehard enemies England and France were sending spies to various camps, trying to align themselves with the eventual winner . . . whoever that might be.