On the morning of 25 August 1865, Charles Hale, consul-general of the United States for Egypt, boarded a small boat on the bank of the Nile near Cairo. He was rowed to the Island of Gezira where the Viceroy, Ismail Pacha, kept an official residence. Until this morning, Hale had been somewhat idle. He spent most of his time at social events or, in his quiet moments, studying the Egyptian cotton industry. But at this meeting in the heat of 1865 his job became considerably more involved…