ARABI PASHA A SPANIARD.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1187, 28 October 1882, Page 1 (Supplement)

ARABI PASHA A SPANIARD.

Mb Sala, in “ The Illustrated London News” says’—“There comes to me from Madrid, and in the columns of my Madrileno contemporary “ El Porvenir," the strangest of strange stories. Moat people have heard of Sir Ralph Abercrombie’s drummerboy, who was left behind in Egypt, turned Turk, and rose to be Governor of the Holy City of Mecca ; but it h even more astonishing to learn on the authority of a correspondent of “ El Universe ” of Barcelona, that the monstrous Arabi Pasha is a born and bred Spaniard I A gentleman signing himself Joachim Estevey Arabi writes ! to the “ El Universo ” to say he is a • nephew of Arabi, and that the father : of the Egyptian rebel was " un hon- i rado carpintero que le dedicaba a la construccion de cajas para passas " —a maker of the wooden cases in which dried raisins are packed. His Christian name was Diotiisio, and he was born at Masalaves, in the province of Denia. His wife, Maria Medius, was from Granada. Manuel Arabi (the monster) was brought up to his father's trade; but, manifesting a great love of reading, he was sent to the University of Valencia, where for four years he studied law. But he abandoned his legal studies to become a chorus singer at the theatre. After this calaverada or escapade, Arabi disappeared and his family heard nothing more about him till 1862, when Don Francisco de Mora, a lieutenant of cavalry, happening to visit Denia, made it known, that Manuel Arabi had in 1860, enlisted at Malaga, in a regiment of lancers, which was afterwards sent to serve in Morocco, and that for his bravery in the Moorish campaign the ex-law student and chorus-singer had received no less than three decorations and a commission as lieutenant. Shortly after the evacuation of Tetuan Lieutenant Arabi had fallen in love with the daughter of a rich Jewish merchant, and deserted from the Spanish army. But, besides falling in love, he seems to have fallen out with the Bloors, who gave him ‘ una soberana paliza’—such a sound cudgelling that he took refuge on board an English merchant vessel, which was shipwrecked in the Straits of Bab-el-Maudeb. Arabi escaped from the wrock, and after long wanderings in

Abyssinia and Nubia, settled in Egypt, whence he wrote to his relations in Spain narrating the strange vicissitudes which he had undergone. By this time he had become a Mahometan ; and his early forensic studies were of considerable use to him when he turned his attention to the Moslem law. He quitted the Ulema to resume a military career; and the rest of his horrible history is only too well known. Senor Joaquin Estevely Arabi furthermore stntes that news of Arabi was brought to Denia by a wandering seller of Moorish dates and babouches, who had visited Egypt and seen Arabi, who had entrusted him with a photograph of hims'elf (the rebel) for presentation to the Arabi family. At the bottom of the carte there was a dedication in Arabic characters. The signaleinent given by Senor J. Estevely Arabi describes his too notorious relative as a man of 45 —“ moreno, lornido. con ojos, grandes, boca grande tambien. mariz aquilina vivo refrato de sn padre que este in gloria." The alltt-ion to the honorable packing-case maker who s “ in glory ” is good.