Gentz, 1869

Only a few days after his first visit to Alexine, Gentz's attention was drawn to a lady who was passing by in a carriage and waving to him. Gentz relates about his visit to her as follows.

‘One day, while promenading in the Grand Allée of the Schubrah, where all the fine carriages of the harems of the Grand Khedive of Egypt and the Pashas were rolling by in state, a friendly motion of a hand and head in one of the carriages greeted me, and I perceived that it came form a veiled lady, enveloped in dazzling silk. My astonishment was great, for I lived for many years in Egypt, and knew the stern customs that bind oriental ladies.

I first thought it an intentional and jesting mystification, until I learned from one of the accompanying servants that the inmate of the carriage was Miss Tinné. I had made her acquaintance through Heuglin, at the time of her grand expedition to the region of the Gazelle-river, at the same time that I made the acquaintance of the English Consul for Central Africa, who, with his wife, was ascending the river by orders of the English government to meet Speke and Grant on their return [Petherick]. After years of hardship they returned again into the regions of civilisation, and I was the first European who had the pleasure of congratulating them, on their return, at their success in overcoming so many terrible difficulties!

Miss Tinné was at that time extremely low-spirited. She had lost her mother and aunt on the fatal journey, in consequence of the deadly climate, and by whom she was ardently loved. And Dr. Steudner, her physician, whom she greatly esteemed, became also a victim, as did one after another of her faithful European maids. Death had robbed her of nearly every dear relative, and taken from her all the European connections. She seemed determined to leave things in this condition, and repeatedly declared that she would never again visit Europe, although her step-brother had kindly hastened to her assistance and escort.

She stood firm against all enticements in this direction, and was maturing a plan to build a castle near Cairo, on the island of Rhodes, in the Nile, where the gardens of Ibrahim Pasha were proud in the beauty of southern vegetation.