 That same year he tried to resign his commission but was not allowed to, because he had promised to serve ten years after his admission to the Royal military academy.In 1839, at the suggestion of King Leopold I of Belgium, he took a leave of absence to act as an observer in Egypt.He explored commercial possibilities for Belgium and visited Ethiopia (then known as "Abyssinia") together with the Belgian consul in Alexandria to try to establish a Belgian colonial outpost on the west coast of the Red Sea.