Viceroy exclaimed to the Turkish officers around him, – “Look! do you wonder that these Christians excel us.”
Mehemed Ali had previously offered “Cleopatra’s Needle” to Captain Smyth, as a present to King George IV., and he now volunteered to assist him in the embarkation of the fallen obelisk, adding, that he would instantly construct a pier from where it was lying, into the centre of the port. The attempt was only postponed for official authority, and afterwards circumstances prevented the Adventure’s return to Alexandria, or it would certainly have been undertaken, – for Captain Smyth had viewed it as an erroneous postulate to doubt of success, especially on comparing our naval means with those which the ancients possessed when they transported still larger masses to Rome. On his return to England, in 1824, he waited on Mr. Herries, at the Treasury, and made such representations that another naval officer. Captain Arbuthnot, was appointed to proceed to Egypt; but we are not aware why so noble a memorial of antiquity is not now decorating the British metropolis.
Captain Smyth was the senior naval officer at Gibraltar, in 1824, when a body of constitutionalists, under the command of Don Francisco Valdes, surprised Tariffa; and as they were known to have sallied from the rock, General Latour, commander of the French troops at Cadiz, and the Spanish General Don Jose O’Donell, were bitterly enraged. Amongst the consequences that ensued. Captain Smyth was involved in a disagreeable correspondence; scarcely a boat could move without giving oflFcnce to one or other of the parties; and a French man of war was stationed off Cabritta point, to report every motion in the bay. On the 11th of August, the Earl of Chatham sent a report on board the Adventure, stating that the constitutionalists had insulted the British flag, by firing at a merchant vessel, and carrying her under their fortress; whereupon the Pandora sloop was sent over by Captain Smyth to demand an explanation. This was construed by the French and Spanish authorities into an act of supplying the “rebels” with arms and provisions; and every means were resorted to for making an unfavorable impression. At
