man was then taken
to Constantinople, where his punishment bore testimony to the victory
rather than the clemency of his conquerors.

In reward for his services, the sultan sent Ibrahim a mantle of honour
and named him Pasha of Egypt, which title conferred on him the highest
rank among the viziers and pashas, and even placed him above his own
father in the hierarchy of the dignitaries of the Turkish Empire. At the
same time Mehemet Ali was raised to the dignity of khan, an attribute
of the Ottomans, and the greatest distinction obtainable for a pasha,
inasmuch as it was formerly exclusively reserved for the sovereigns of
the Crimea.

[Illustration: 157.jpg THE COTTON PLANT]

After destroying Daryeh, the capital of Nedj, Mehemet Ali conceived
the idea of extending his possessions in the interior of Africa, and
of subduing the country of the negroes, where he hoped to find much
treasure. He accordingly sent his son, Ishmail Pasha, with five thousand
men, upon this expedition, which ended most disastrously with the murder
of Ishmail and his guard by Melek Nemr, and the destruction of the
remainder of his forces.

In the year 1824, Sultan Mahmud, realising the impossibility of putting
down the Greek insurrection by his own unaided forces, bent his pride
sufficiently to ask help of his vassal Mehemet Ali. Mehemet was now in
possession of a well-drilled army and a well-equipped fleet, which were
placed at the service of the sultan, who promised him in return the
sovereignty of Crete, the pashalic of Syria, and possibly the reversion
of Morea for his son Ibrahim. The Greeks, deceived by their easy
successes over the undisciplined Turkish hosts, failed to realise
the greatness of the danger which threatened them. The Egyptian fleet
managed, without serious opposition, to enter the Archipelago, and, in
December, 1824, Ibrahim, to whom Mehemet Ali had entrusted the supreme
command of the expedition, established his base in Crete, within
striking distance of the Greek mainland. The following February he
landed with four thousand regular infantry and five hundred cavalry at
Modon, in the south of Morea.

The Greeks were utterly unable to hold their own against the
well-disciplined fellaheen of Ibrahim Bey, and, before the end of
the year, the whole of the Peloponnesus, with the exception of a few
strongholds, was at the mercy of the invader, and the report was spread
that Ibrahim intended to deport the Greek population and re