It took considerable time to hire the "voyageurs" in Canada and bring them to Egypt, which delayed the expedition. Some of the ""voyageurs"" who arrived in Egypt turned out to be lawyers led by an alderman from Toronto who wanted to see "the fun" of war and were useless as boatmen. Wolseley was a bureaucratic general whose talents lay in administrative work, and as a field commander, Wolseley was slow, methodical, and cautious, making him in the opinion of Urban supremely unqualified to lead the relief expedition as he found one excuse after another to proceed down the Nile at a sluggish pace. For example, Wolseley could have hired Egyptian boatmen who knew the Nile to serve as river pilots instead of bringing over "voyageurs" from Canada, who knew nothing of the Nile, and moreover Wolseley only called for the "voyageurs" after his arrival in Egypt.