EMIN, THE LAST OF THE SOUDAN HEROES.
Mr. Stanley returned to civilization, and in 1886 revisited America for
the first time in thirteen years. He was received with the highest
honors, and the lectures which he delivered were attended by crowded and
delighted audiences. It seemed at last as though he were to enjoy a
considerable period of rest. He had opened up the Dark Continent, and
founded the Congo Free State on a secure basis. He might now direct its
operations from London or Brussels, and spend his years in well-won
ease. But this was not to be. He was abruptly summoned to undertake one
of the most arduous of all his tasks, which was to lead an expedition to
the relief of Emin Pasha at Wadelai, on the Nile.
The history of Emin Pasha is a most romantic and noble one. His real
name is Edward Schnitzer, and he was born in 1840 at Oppeln, in Silesia.
His father, a merchant, died in 1845, and three years before that date
the family removed to Neisse. When Edward Schnitzer had passed through
the gymnasium at Neisse he devoted himself to the study of medicine at
the University of Breslau. During the years 1863 and 1864 he pursued
his studies at the Berlin Academy. The desire for adventure and an
exceptional taste for natural sciences induced the young medical student
to seek a field for his calling abroad. He, therefore, at the end of
1864, left Berlin with the intention of obtaining a post of physician in
Turkey. Chance carried him to Antivari and then to Scutari. Here he soon
managed to attract the attention of Valis Ismael Pasha Haggi, and was
received into the following of that dignitary, who, in his official
position, had to travel through the various provinces of the empire.
When, in this way, Dr. Schnitzer had learned to know Armenians, Syrians,
and Arabians, he finally reached Constantinople, where the Pasha died in
1873. In the summer of 1875 Dr. Schnitzer returned to Neisse; but after
a few months the old passion for travel again came over him, and he
betook himself to Egypt, where favorable prospects were opened out to
him. With the beginning of the year 1876 he appears as "Dr. Emin
Effendi," enters the Egyptian service, and places himself at the
disposal of the Governor-General of the Soudan. In the post there given
him Dr. Emin met with Gordon, who two years before (1874) had been
intrusted with the administration of the newly-created Equatorial
province. Gordon sent him on tours of inspection through the territory
and on repeated missions to King M'tesa at Uganda. When Gordon Pasha,
two years later, became administrator of all territory lying outside the
narrower limits of Egypt, Dr. Emin Effendi received the post of
commander at Lado, together with the government of the Equatorial
province. With how much fidelity and self-denial he devoted himself to
his task is well known.
During the first three years of his term he drove out the slave-traders
from a populous region with six million inhabitants. He converted a
deficiency of revenues into a surplus. He conducted the government on
the lines marked out by General Gordon, and was equally modest,
disinterested, and conscientious. When the Mahdi's rebellion broke out,
a governor-general of another stamp was at Khartoum. Emin's warning from
the remote South passed unheeded. Hicks' army, recruited from Arabi's
demoralized regiments, was massacred; the Egyptian garrisons throughout
the Soudan were abandoned to their fate; atrocious campaigns of
unnecessary bloodshed were fought on the seaboard, and General Gordon
was sent to Khartoum to perish miserably while waiting for a relief
expedition that crawled by slow stages up the Nile, and was too late to
be of practical service. During all these years of stupid misgovernment
and wasted blood Emin remained at his post. When the death of General
Gordon and the retreat of Lord Wolseley's army wiped out the last
vestige of Egyptian rule in the regions of the Upper Nile, the
Equatorial Provinces were cut off, neglected, and forgotten.
It then became impossible for Emin to communicate with the Egyptian
Government, and he was practically lost to the world. He was dependent
upon his own resources in a region encompassed by hostile tribes. He
might easily have cut his way out to safety, by the way of the Congo or
Zanzibar, with the best of his troops, leaving the women and children
behind to their fate. But this he scorned to do. He stood at his post,
and bravely upheld the standard of civilization in Africa. He had with
him about four thousand troops at the outset. He organized auxiliary
forces of native soldiers; he was constantly engaged in warfare with
surrounding tribes; he garrisoned a dozen river stations lying long
distances apart; his ammunition ran low, and he lacked the money needed
for paying his small army. But, in the face of manifold difficulties and
dangers, he maintained his position, governed the country well, and
taught the natives how to raise cotton, rice, indigo, and coffee, and
also how to weave cloth, and make shoes, candles, soap, and many
articles of commerce. He vaccinated the natives by the thousand, in
order to stamp out small-pox; he opened the first hospital known in that
quarter; he established a regular post-route with forty offices; he
made important geographical discoveries in the basin of the Albert Lake;
and in many ways demonstrated his capacity for governing barbarous
races.
The last European who visited him was Dr. Junker, the German traveller,
who parted from him at Wadelai on January 1st, 1886. His position was
then more favorable, but he had been reduced at one time to extremities,
his soldiers having escaped by a desperate sortie, cutting their way
through the enemy after they had been many days without food, and "when
the last torn leather of the last boot had been eaten." Letters written
by him in October, 1886, at Wadelai, describing his geographical
discoveries, were received in England in 1887, with a contributed
article for a Scotch scientific journal. The provisions and ammunition
sent to him by Dr. Junker had had a very encouraging effect upon his
troops. He wrote: "I am still holding out here, and will not forsake my
people."
The betrayal of Gordon at Khartoum by the British Government had so
disgusted and exasperated decent public opinion in England that a
popular demand was made for the rescue of Emin. The Government took no
step other than to allow a small grant of money to be made from the
Egyptian treasury. But private subscriptions furnished an ample sum, and
an "Emin Relief Committee" was formed to press the work.