[Illustration: HENRY M. STANLEY.]
STANLEY’S
EMIN PASHA
EXPEDITION
BY
A. J. WAUTERS
CHIEF EDITOR OF THE MOUVEMENT GÉOGRAPHIQUE, BRUSSELS
With Map, Thirty-three Portraits and Illustrations
PHILADELPHIA:
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
1890.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
I. CONQUEST OF THE SOUDAN 1
II. REVOLT OF THE MAHDI--GORDON PASHA--SIEGE OF KHARTOUM
AND RELIEF EXPEDITION UNDER LORD WOLSELEY 23
III. THE EQUATORIAL PROVINCES--LUPTON BEY AND EMIN BEY 45
IV. DR. JUNKER AND CASATI--THE NIAM-NIAM--THE MONBUTTU 66
V. PRISONERS IN THE SOUDAN 84
VI. RETURN OF DR. JUNKER 103
VII. THE RELIEF EXPEDITION--TIPPOO TIB 123
VIII. ON THE LOWER CONGO 146
IX. THE DISTRICT OF THE FALLS 162
X. STANLEY POOL 188
XI. ON THE UPPER CONGO 211
XII. THE CAMP AT YAMBUYA 224
XIII. FIFTEEN MONTHS OF UNCERTAINTY: IS HE KILLED, UNABLE
TO LEAVE, OR A PRISONER?--THE WHITE PASHA 231
XIV. THROUGH AN UNKNOWN COUNTRY--FROM THE CAMP AT YAMBUYA
TO LAKE ALBERT 250
XV. MEETING OF STANLEY AND EMIN BEY ON LAKE ALBERT 273
XVI. TO THE ASSISTANCE OF THE REAR-GUARD--MURDER OF
MAJOR BARTTELOT--STARVING IN THE FOREST 292
XVII. REVOLT OF THE EGYPTIAN TROOPS--EMIN PASHA AND
JEPHSON PRISONERS--MAHDIST INVASION 313
XVIII. ANOTHER MEETING OF EMIN BEY AND STANLEY--THE SOUDAN
ABANDONED 326
XIX. RETREAT OF THE FIFTEEN HUNDRED--THE MOUNTAINS OF THE
MOON AND THE SOURCES OF THE NILE 347
XX. THE RETURN TO ZANZIBAR--THALASSA!--THALASSA! 360
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
1. PORTRAIT OF HENRY M. STANLEY _Frontispiece_
2. GENERAL VIEW OF KHARTOUM _To face page_ 4
3. GENERAL GORDON „ 14
4. LUPTON BEY „ 54
5. EMIN PASHA „ 63
6. CAPTAIN CASATI „ 75
7. BARI WARRIORS „ 85
8. BARI WOMEN „ 87
9. DR. JUNKER „ 94
10. TIPPOO TIB „ 138
11. THE FORCES OF THE CONGO STATE ON DRILL AT VIVI „ 148
12. GROUP OF KABINDA SERVANTS „ 150
13. ARRIVAL OF THE EXPEDITION AT BANANA „ 153
14. VIEW OF BOMA „ 156
15. BOYS OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF VIVI „ 158
16. THE CONGO AT THE STATION OF ISANGHILA „ 163
17. THE BELGIANS ON THE CONGO--DEPARTURE OF
A CARAVAN „ 166
18. THE EXPEDITION ON ITS WAY PAST THE FALLS „ 168
19. YOUNG CHIAIKA GIRL „ 171
20. NATIVES OF THE REGION OF THE FALLS „ 173
21. NATIVE CHIEF OF THE LOWER CONGO WITH HIS
MINISTERS AND BOYS „ 177
22. GROUP OF KROOBOY SERVANTS „ 180
23. THE CONGO IN THE DISTRICT OF THE FALLS „ 184
24. CROSSING-PLACE NEAR LUTETE „ 186
25. VIEW OF LEOPOLDVILLE IN 1885 „ 191
26. THE “STANLEY” ON STANLEY POOL „ 196
27. AT LEOPOLDVILLE--CAPTURE OF A HIPPOPOTAMUS „ 206
28. THE EXPEDITION ON THE UPPER CONGO „ 214
29. NATIVE CANOE ON THE UPPER CONGO „ 219
30. AKKA BOY „ 281
31. FISHING AT STANLEY FALLS „ 299
32. CAMP IN THE FOREST „ 311
33. MADI VILLAGE ON THE NILE BELOW WADELAI „ 333
INTRODUCTION.
In February 1883 Dr. Junker had penetrated so far into the heart of
Africa that he found himself at the zeriba Ali Kobo, on the banks of
the Welle Makowa, in a region hitherto traversed by no other European.
For three years this indefatigable traveller had been exploring north
and south, east and west, the districts watered by the Welle, in the
hope of finding a definite solution to the important geographical
problem propounded by his friend Dr. Schweinfurth, thirteen years
previously, as to whether the Welle was connected with the Shary and
thence with Lake Tchad, or whether it flowed into the Congo.
It needed only a few more weeks of perseverance and progress towards
the west, and the explorer would have attained his end and reaped the
reward of his labours. He was within a few days’ march of the Congo and
was about to push onwards, when letters from Lupton Bey brought news of
startling import and put an end to further investigations.
Dr. Junker had for a considerable time been quite aware how the
country around Khartoum was harassed by the revolutionary action of an
agitator who professed himself to be the “Mahdi,” that is, a deliverer
invested with a supernatural mission. He had been apprised that the
powerful tribe of the Dinka had taken arms, and was threatening the
military settlements and zeribas on the Bahr-el-Ghazal; and had further
learnt from Lupton Bey, who was the representative of the Egyptian
government in that province, that the route between the Niam-niam
country and the landing-place of Rek on the Bahr-el-Ghazal was
completely blockaded, while the Mahdists were at the same time making
an alarming progress. Lupton Bey’s advice to him was that he should
endeavour forthwith to return to Egypt; and letters received at Semmio,
his station in the Niam-niam country, as well as those which came to
hand some weeks later, so far from representing the outlook in a more
reassuring light, pictured it as dark and overclouded. The Dinka round
Meshra-er-Rek, and the Mahdi’s forces about Khartoum, were steadily
gaining ground, so that the northern route was ever becoming more and
more impracticable. The conviction, therefore, could not fail to take
hold on his mind that he would be obliged to remain in the south for
the repression of the two revolts before he could carry out his design
of returning to Europe by way of Egypt and the Nile.
A certain presentiment of the hard times which he would have to face
had already occurred to him. In his journal of August 1, 1883, he made
the entry:--“All hope of seeing my country this year is fading away.
Thanks to frequent communications from Lupton Bey, I have been kept
informed of the events on the Bahr-el-Ghazal. Our gaze is fastened on
the north, whence with the utmost anxiety we are looking for relief.
The Khartoum steamer is expected. The last news from Lupton is urgent;
Hassan Mussa has been killed; sixty more guns have fallen into the
hands of the rebels: the road to Meshra-er-Rek is again closed, and 900
soldiers are about to make an effort to reopen it. My fears for the
population of the Rohl and for the station of Rumbek are verified,
for Lupton writes, ‘Rumbek is destroyed, only six soldiers managing
to escape,’ while he further announces the desertion of about thirty
Dongolese, drawn over by some fakirs to the Mahdi. If the disasters
that I forebode should come to pass, and the Arabs, driven down from
the north, should invade the Bahr-el-Ghazal, I foresee that there will
be no alternative for us but to retreat by the south. O that help may
arrive from Khartoum!”
But the hope was in vain. There was no longer any chance of relief from
the north. Neither Meshra nor Lado was again to welcome a steamer from
Khartoum. The northern road was closed, and the entire situation in
the Soudan was critical to a degree of which Dr. Junker in his remote
station in the Niam-niam country could form no conception.
The situation, in fact, was more than serious. In Kordofan and the
Bahr-el-Ghazal district the Arab and the negro were persistently
joining the rebels; Sennar and El-Obeid were threatened; the Egyptian
corps in Darfur, as well as the detachments under Lupton and Emin, was
absolutely cut off from the rest of the Soudan, and the Mahdi, whose
audacity increased with his prestige, had under him an army of at least
100,000 men. Moreover, the government troops had met with sanguinary
reverses, and were reduced to such a state of alarm that symptoms of
rebellion had begun to appear in their ranks. The governor-general,
Abd-el-Kadir, was almost overpowered, and compelled no longer to send
for a few battalions from Cairo, but to implore that an army might be
despatched to his aid. Altogether, things were becoming desperate.
It was in this emergency that the British government, rousing itself
from its protracted reserve, determined to substitute its own action
for the inadequate efforts of the Khedive, and proceeded to equip
10,000 soldiers who should start from Suakin, make forced marches, and
re-establish order in Kordofan.
All along, throughout this time, at Lado, at Meshra, and at Semmio,
anxious eyes were turned towards Khartoum awaiting help. But no help
was forthcoming. The drama of the Soudan had commenced.
On a stage of which the scenery extended from the Red Sea to Lake
Victoria, from the frontier of Abyssinia to the remote confines of
Darfur, scenes wild and bloody were about to be enacted. Face to face
with the invincible Mahdi and his fierce general Osman Digna were now
to appear successively Hicks Pasha, Baker Pasha, General Graham, and
Admiral Hewett; in his turn should follow General Gordon, the hero
_sans peur et sans reproche_; and then finally a second British
army under the command of the renowned Lord Wolseley, the victor at
Tel-el-Kebir.
And so for three years along the Nile there ensued a series of terrible
struggles, of brilliant, sanguinary, yet futile engagements, of which
the eventual results were alike disastrous to the cause of civilisation
and damaging to English prestige.
The drama came to an end. When Baker was worsted, Khartoum captured,
Gordon massacred, Wolseley in retreat, and the Soudan abandoned to the
hands of the Mussulman and slave-hunter, it seemed as if civilisation
was arrested, the hope of years was extinguished, inasmuch as not an
individual remained who could give effect to the counsels of Europe.
The Khamsin, which at the bidding of a fanatical leader had arisen in
the desert, had made all things retire before it, and the region of
the Nile-sources must again relapse into the gloom of night.
Such, at least, for a considerable time was the general conviction,
until, one day, from beyond the domain of the bloodthirsty tyrant of
Uganda, from Msalala, the Christian mission station by the southern
shore of Lake Victoria, suddenly there rose the voice of Junker.
He announced that he was safe, and that Emin with the soldiers who had
remained faithful to him was safe also; so too was the Italian explorer
Casati. All three had succeeded in securing their liberty amidst the
break-down of the Egyptian authority in the Soudan.
The time had come for Dr. Junker to realise the truth of what in 1883
he had written in his diary, that if the events he dreaded should come
to pass, there would be no alternative but that he must take a southern
route.
After two years and a half of suspense, of struggle and privation, the
explorer resolved to attempt his retreat by this southerly route, that
he might make Egypt and Europe aware of the existence and critical
position of these last defenders of the lost Soudan. It was another
year before he succeeded in reaching Zanzibar. Europe was stirred
by his appeal, and this time, without hesitation or delay, England
undertook to organise an expedition of relief.
But the difficulty was great: the obstacles were many. What forces
would be requisite to break through the enemies by which Emin was
environed? What route towards Wadelai should be chosen? The hordes of
the Mahdi barred all access from the north; the warlike Masai and the
battalions of Uganda held the east and the south; the regions to the
west were utterly unknown. Beyond all there lay the further question
as to who should be the leader of such an enterprise. The way into the
heart of that mysterious region was over mountains and valleys, through
deserts, virgin forests and marshes, amidst savage and relentless
tribes, beneath the rays of the equatorial sun. Who should be found
competent to conduct a caravan made up of numerous and promiscuous
followers, equally ready to quarrel with nature and with their fellows,
yet indispensable for the conveyance along that weary route of the
double cargo of victuals, ammunition, and supplies?
The answer was forthcoming. Then it was that for the fifth time
Central Africa was to behold the hero, at once the discoverer and
deliverer of Livingstone. Stanley was ready for the task. He chose
the Congo route, which he had himself opened up for the commercial
enterprise of Europe, while the opposition of the Mahdi was closing
all access by the Nile. More fortunate than Wolseley, who only reached
Khartoum in time to register its fall and the slaughter of its
defenders, he accomplishes his arduous undertaking, and after three
years’ undaunted perseverance he has brought back Emin and Casati, with
their faithful adherents, in safety and triumph to Zanzibar.
* * * * *
It is the history of this ever-memorable expedition and of the dramatic
events that led up to it, together with the important geographical
discoveries resulting from it, that forms the subject of the ensuing
pages.
CHAPTER I.
CONQUEST OF THE SOUDAN.
Project of Mehemet Ali--Khartoum--Meeting of Baker, Speke,
and Grant at Gondokoro--First Explorers of the Upper
Nile--Ismailia, and expedition of Baker against Fatiko
slave-traders--Exploration of the Bahr-el-Ghazal and
discovery of the Welle by Schweinfurth--_Zeribas_ on
the Bahr-el-Ghazal--Ivory trade and kidnapping--Gordon’s
government--Europeans at the King of Uganda’s court--Gessi
Pasha on Lake Albert--Conquest of Darfur, Shekka,
and Dar-Fertit--Revolt of Suleiman Bey--The Egyptian
Soudan--Deposition of Ismail Pasha and Recall of Gordon--Raouf
Pasha at Khartoum.
At the date of the earliest events which it is the purpose of this book
to narrate, M. Louis Vossion, then French Vice-Consul at Khartoum,
wrote the following description of the place:--
“Khartoum, the capital of the Egyptian Soudan, stands on the left bank
of the Blue Nile, just at its junction with the White Nile.
“Any traveller arriving at the town for the first time could not
fail to experience much surprise. After passing what is called the
Ras-el-Khartoum at the confluence of the two streams, a low tract
of alluvial soil, covered with thick herbage relieved by occasional
clumps of palms, the boat, all sails set, glides into the Blue Nile.
A few minutes more and, hailed by the vociferous shouts of the Nubian
boatmen, the town rises suddenly into view, with its palm-trees, its
lines of little houses along the shore, its white mosques, with their
pointed minarets, all standing out sharply against the clear blue
sky. Heavy boats called ‘nuggers,’ laden with durra-corn, wood, and
gum-arabic, are ranged for nearly half a mile along the river-bank. The
stone buildings of the Roman Mission of Verona and of Marquet’s factory
are conspicuous above the dwellings of Nile mud to which they are in
proximity.
“Upon landing, the stranger will find himself surrounded by a whole
swarm of inquisitive negroes, and his astonishment will increase at
every step; he will at once be struck by the variety of the types of
the tribes of the Soudan into which he is thrown so suddenly. There
are the Denka, Shilluk of the White River, Bari from Gondokoro, people
from Unyoro, Niam-niam from Makraka, Mombuttu, Nuer, Jur, Bongo, Fertit
from the Bahr-el-Ghazal, Galla, Abyssinians, negroes from Jebel-Nuba,
Dongola, Darfur, and Kordofan; add to these Arabs of the various
semi-independent tribes, Bishareens, Hadendoas, Shukries, Kababishes,
Bagaras, Jews, Syrians, Greeks, and it may be imagined what a strange
and well-nigh unique spectacle is presented by such an agglomeration
of nationalities, all retaining their own traditions and marked out by
their peculiar costumes!
“The general impression is intensified when it is remembered that
Khartoum is on the very fringe of the civilised world, and is the
threshold of that mysterious Africa which holds so many secrets in its
bosom.”
* * * * *
When, in 1838, the energetic Viceroy Mehemet Ali made his journey
into the Soudan, Khartoum was a mere fishing village; but with a
quick appreciation of its importance as a geographical position, he
determined to rear upon its site a town that should become the capital
of the new equatorial province over which it was his dream that he
should reign. His successors, one after another, added a stone to the
edifice by increasing the area of the new city, to which it was found
that traders, not only from Egypt but from Europe, were ready and eager
to flock.
The increase of the population of Khartoum, thus rapid, was altogether
beyond and out of proportion to the progress of its internal
appliances. Sir Samuel Baker, who saw it for the first time in June
1862, describes it as one of the most dirty, miserable, and unhealthy
places that could be imagined. Built of sun-dried bricks, it stood
upon a low-lying flat, which was often quite under water at the period
of the floods. Notwithstanding that the houses were overcrowded with
a population exceeding 30,000, there was no drainage nor sanitary
arrangements of any kind. The streets were full of filth of every
description; the bodies of the dead animals that lay about were so many
centres of corruption and disease. The entire aspect was that of utter
misery.
[Illustration: GENERAL VIEW OF KHARTOOM.
(_From a Photograph by Herr Richard Buchta._)]
In matters of administration things were even worse. Musa Pasha,
by his deplorable misgovernment, was ruining the country. From the
highest to the lowest of his officials, dishonesty and fraud were
the common characteristics; every one cheated according to his rank.
Slave traffic, with all its abominations, was the leading business of
the place, a fact which has been demonstrated alike by Baker and
Schweinfurth, who, at separate times, had ample opportunity of studying
the matter upon the very scene of the misdoings.
It was the laudable ambition to ascertain the true sources of the Nile
that took Baker into regions south of Khartoum that had previously
been unexplored. Accompanied by his courageous wife, on February 2,
1863, he reached Gondokoro, then a miserable group of turf-cabins
occupied only for two months in the year by the Khartoum traders whose
“_dahabiehs_” could go no farther. He landed there to meet Speke
and Grant, who, weary, ragged, and destitute, were on their way back
from the interior along the Nile, of which they had just discovered
the real springs. The meeting was a memorable epoch in the history of
the Soudan; it marked a new stage in the progress of the opening up of
Equatorial Africa, betokening at the same time a fresh extension of
Egyptian rule towards the south.
In his own lively manner Baker gives a description of the
incident:--“Shots in the distance. The ivory-bearers that I have been
expecting have arrived. My people are running frantically towards
my boat and shouting that two white men from the sea are with them.
Is it possible that they can be Speke and Grant? Away I start. True
enough, there they are! Hurrah for old England! Returned they have from
the Victoria Nyanza; thence it is that the Nile flows forth; ... the
mystery of the ages is solved.
“At the same time, with all the excitement of joy there is mingled a
sense of disappointment. It would have pleased me better to meet them
farther on. However, it was satisfactory to know that I had made such
arrangements as would have ensured my meeting them in case they were
in any difficulty, as I ascertained that they had returned by the very
route which I had proposed to follow.
“My people are mad with delight: in firing a salute they have managed
to kill one of my donkeys, a melancholy sacrifice in celebration of the
accomplishment of the great geographical discovery!
“When I first caught sight of them they were approaching my boats. At
the distance of some hundred yards, I recognised my old friend Speke;
my heart throbbed with ecstasy, and raising my cap, I called aloud
‘Hurrah!’ and ran towards him. At first he did not know me; a beard
and moustache of ten years’ growth had so altered my countenance that,
not expecting to meet me, he did not comprehend my sudden apparition.
There was no need for Speke to introduce me to his companion, as we
already felt like intimate friends. When the first transports of this
propitious meeting were over we all proceeded to my _dahabieh_,
through a cloud of smoke raised by the continuous salutes of my
people.”
A year after the exploration of Lake Victoria by Speke and Grant,
Baker made his name illustrious by the discovery of Lake Albert.
Thenceforward an increasing interest was centred on these regions, and
Gondokoro, from being the mere halting-place that it was when the three
English travellers met there, became a new centre for the commercial
activity of the Khartoum traders, as well as a starting-point for
various scientific expeditions, the history of the Soudan becoming from
that time intimately connected with the history of discovery.
Antecedent to the enterprises that were undertaken by the three
great Englishmen, there had already been various expeditions, half
scientific, half commercial, which had partially raised the veil that
concealed the inland regions of Africa from the curiosity of European
eyes. William Lejean and Petherick had visited the Upper Nile; Piaggia
had explored the Jur country and the Bahr-el-Ghazal; Dr. Peney had
reached Mount Nyiri; Dr. Cuny had penetrated to Darfur, Poncet to
Dar-Fertit, and Munziger to Kordofan.
Greedier than the vultures and hyenas of the desert, the Egyptian
troops and Government officials had followed in the wake of the
explorers and traders, so that, little by little, the political limits
of the new province were extended, while the native populations (their
opposition and outbreaks being promptly suppressed by relentless
bloodshed) successively submitted to the conqueror.
In 1870 the extension of Egyptian territory towards the south was
pushed forward by a larger and more rapid impetus. During that year
Ismail Pasha, alarmed no doubt by the reports that reached him that
the Soudan was becoming overrun by the Bashi-Bazouks, who, beyond
control, were making perpetual incursions into it, made an appeal
for European assistance to strengthen him in completing the conquest
of Central Africa. Baker was accordingly placed in command of 1200
men, supplied with cannon and steam-boats, and received the title
of Governour-General of the provinces which he was commissioned to
subdue. Having elected to make Gondokoro the seat of his government, he
changed its name to Ismailia. He was not long in bringing the Bari to
submission, and then, advancing southwards, he came to the districts
of Dufilé and Fatiko, a healthy region endowed by nature with fertile
valleys and irrigated by limpid streams, but for years past converted
into a sort of hell upon earth by the slave-hunters who had made it
their headquarters.
From these pests Baker delivered the locality, and having by his tact
and energy overcome the distrust of the native rulers, he established
over their territory a certain number of small military settlements,
by means of which communication could be kept up with Egypt, and its
authority over the country be maintained.
This expedition was accompanied by M. de Bizemont, a lieutenant in
the French navy, as scientific _attaché_; but in spite of the
favourable auspices which attended it at its outset, it can hardly be
said to have fulfilled the expectations that had been formed about
it. From the very first Baker had protested too strongly that he had
come to the Upper Nile to destroy the slave-trade, and the consequence
was, that he made himself enemies at once amongst the Viceroy’s
officials, who were all more or less interested in the negro traffic,
and conspired accordingly to frustrate his plans and to impede his
progress. The result was, that he found himself unable to carry out his
design of advancing as far as Lake Albert, and had to stop short at
Masindi, the residence of Kamrasi, the native king of Unyoro.
Baker returned to Europe flattering himself with the delusion that
he had put an end to the scourge of slave-dealing. It was true that
various slave-dealers’ dens on the Upper Nile had been destroyed, a
number of outlaws had been shot, and a few thousand miserable slaves
had been set at liberty; but beyond that nothing had been accomplished;
no sooner had the liberator turned his back than the odious traffic
recommenced with more vigour than before through the region south of
Gondokoro.
This, however, was only one of the slave-hunting districts, and by no
means the worst. To the west the basin of the Bahr-el-Ghazal was far
more infested. Nowhere throughout the Soudan had the negro trade been
more hideous and disastrous in its working than in the fertile and
populous plains inhabited by the Denka, the Jur, the Bongo, and the
Niam-niam. While Baker was at Cairo organising his second expedition,
Dr. Schweinfurth was exploring all this fine and interesting country,
pushing forward to the Mombuttu land, where he discovered the large
river Welle. The story of his journey, which claims to be remembered
as one of the most important scientific records of Equatorial Africa
ever published, has thrown light upon districts in which for the
last quarter of a century the Khartoum traders have established a
series of fortified depôts. As this eminent traveller points out,
these depôts were originally brought into existence for the sake of
the ivory trade. They were set up in places where elephants were
most abundant, and in the midst of peaceable populations, devoted to
agriculture and cattle-breeding, and every year were visited by the
Khartoumers, who carried back the ivory that had been procured. The
men who were armed and despatched on these annual expeditions were
composed of the very scum of the people. Ascending the Nile as far
as Lake No, they spread themselves over the lands adjacent to the
Bahr-el-Ghazal, the Bahr-el-Arab, and their affluents, and having thus
gained a footing, proceeded to apportion the country amongst them.
They reduced the natives to a state of subjection, and for the purpose
of securing a base for further operations and obtaining free access
to the surrounding districts, they established isolated settlements,
which they enclosed by palisades and thorn-hedges, and which hence
were called _zeribas_. The whole line of the various watercourses was
thus studded with these _zeribas_, which usually bore the names of the
traders to whom they belonged, and are so distinguished upon the maps.
But although originally designed purely for mercantile purposes,
the settlements became gradually transformed into centres for
slave-hunting. They were (and, though in a diminished degree, they are)
the starting-points for expeditions of armed marauders, who made sudden
attacks upon the native villages, to which they set fire, and then,
having reduced the terrified residents to a condition of helplessness,
carried off the women and children, along with the ivory and the
cattle. Destined to be bartered by the slavers for either money or
merchandise, the miserable captives were yoked two and two together,
and dragged in long caravans to some place of embarkation, where they
were crammed down into the holds of the _dahabiehs_, and conveyed
to the markets either on the coast or in the interior.
Such was the way in which the ill-fated districts of the Egyptian
Soudan, and especially those of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, Darfur, Kordofan,
and Jebel-Nuba, became, as it were, the nursery whence were supplied
more than 30,000 slaves every year to satisfy the requirements of
Oriental luxury and debauch.
But the eyes of the civilised world were at length opened to the
atrocities that at the close of the nineteenth century were thus
being perpetrated in the Soudan with the knowledge, and often by the
connivance, of the Egyptian authorities. Under European compulsion,
therefore, the Khedive Ismail undertook to promote measures to put a
stop to the scandal. He entered into various conventions with England
on the subject; and in order to convince the Powers of the sincerity
of his intentions, he consented to put the equatorial provinces under
the administration of an European officer, who should be commissioned
to carry on the work of repression, conquest, and organisation that
had been commenced by Baker. His choice fell upon a man of exceptional
ability, a brilliant officer trained at Woolwich, who had already
gained high renown in China, not only for military talent, but for his
adroitness and skill in negotiation and diplomacy. This was Colonel
Gordon, familiarly known as “Chinese Gordon,” who was now to add fresh
lustre to his name in Egypt as Gordon Pasha.
Gordon was appointed Governour-General of the Soudan in 1874. With him
were associated Chaillé-Long, an American officer, who was chief of his
staff; the German, Dr. Emin Effendi, medical officer to the expedition;
Lieutenants Chippendall and Watson; Gessi and Kemp, engineers; two
Englishmen, Messrs. Russell and Anson; and two Frenchmen, MM. Auguste
and Ernest Linant de Bellefonds, sons of an engineer who had been
Minister of Public Works under Mehemet Ali.
[Illustration: GENERAL GORDON.
(_From a Photograph by Herr Richard Buchta._)]
Thenceforward the territories, of which so little had hitherto been
known, became the continual scene of military movements and scientific
excursions.
Colonel Chaillé-Long, with a mission from Gordon to Mtesa, the king
of Uganda, reached the residence of that potentate without hindrance,
and was entertained with much magnificence. He availed himself of
the opportunity to explore the northern section of Lake Victoria,
and descending the Somerset Nile, not without some conflict with the
native tribes, he discovered on his way the lake which he designated
by the name of Ibrahim Pasha. He rejoined Gordon at Gondokoro, and was
subsequently despatched by him, in company with Marno, the Austrian
naturalist, to make an exploration of the Makraka district.
Shortly after Chaillé-Long had taken his departure from Uganda, Mtesa
received other European visitors. M. Ernest Linant de Bellefonds
arrived at the court, and was much surprised to find that the king had
already welcomed another white stranger, who was seated at his side.
His first impression was that this must be Cameron, but it proved
to be Stanley, who, having started from Zanzibar to make further
investigations at Lake Victoria, had been for some days the guest of
the black chief.
Subsequently there arrived the German, Dr. Schnitzer, then known as
Emin Effendi, but afterwards as Emin Bey. In the mission with which he
was charged by Gordon to Mtesa he exhibited such diplomatic skill as to
attract the approbation of his superior, and to mark him out for the
important duties which he would afterwards be called to fulfil.
All the time that Gordon was thus negotiating with Mtesa, and
endeavouring to secure him as an ally who would acquiesce in his
schemes, he was likewise laying himself out to extend his own authority
in the direction of Lake Albert. Two others of his party, the
Englishmen Chippendall and Kemp, were sent out to explore the unknown
portion of the Nile between Gondokoro and the lake, and succeeded
in launching, above the rapids, a steam vessel, the “Khedive,” and
two iron-plated boats. On board one of these, the Italian engineer
Gessi, accompanied by his fellow-countryman Piaggia, made his grand
circumnavigation of Lake Albert in March and April 1876, taking
possession of it in the name of the Khedive.
Two years previously, after Ismail Ayoub’s smart campaign, Darfur,
Shekka, and Dar-Fertit had been annexed, Colonels Purdy, Colston,
and Mason having, by a series of military advances, united the new
conquests to Dongola and Khartoum.
In the meanwhile Gordon Pasha, on his part, was vigorously carrying
on the work of organisation in the equatorial provinces. Leaving
Gondokoro, which was situated in a bad and unhealthy locality, exposed
to the miasma of stagnant water, he crossed over to Lado, on the other
bank of the Nile, and there established the seat of his government.
The storm which had broken out at the time of his arrival seemed now
to have subsided into a calm; hostilities had been overcome, and the
Soudan was so far conquered as to be held by about a dozen military
outposts stationed along the Nile from Lake No to Lakes Albert and
Ibrahim.
In that Darfur campaign the Government had been backed up by a rich
trader, Zebehr, the owner of numerous _zeribas_ and of large
companies of armed slaves in the Bahr-el-Ghazal district. Having been
rewarded for his support with the title of Bey and Mudir of Shekka,
he seemed to be able to set no bounds to his ambition. Dazzled by
his power, and irritated by the request of the Government that he
should desist from his slave-raids, he broke out in revolt, and making
alliance with the dethroned Sultan of Darfur, he attacked the Egyptian
outposts, and fostered an insurrection which very nearly led to the
loss of the province and that of the Bahr-el-Ghazal.
Had it not been for the energy and courage of Gessi, whom Gordon
despatched with all speed to quell the rising rebellion, there is
every probability that not only the Bahr-el-Ghazal and Darfur, but
part of Kordofan also, would have repudiated the authority of the
Khedive, and relapsed into the control of the slave-hunters. Gessi,
however, was equal to his task. Although without provisions, and almost
without ammunition, and supported by a comparatively small force, he
made an intrepid advance, and by his resolution not only succeeded
in preventing the two enemies from effecting a junction, but routed
them separately before they could combine. Suleiman Bey and his chief
officers were arrested and executed, Gessi taking up his quarters in
the Bahr-el-Ghazal, of which he was appointed Governour.
Under Gessi’s administration the province was enabled to enjoy a period
of peace and prosperity. Owing to his energy and skill, ways of
communication were opened, forsaken villages were repopulated, lands
were brought afresh into cultivation, slave-raids ceased, the natives
regained confidence, and agriculture and commerce began to take a new
start.
In 1876 Gordon went back to Cairo. Nevertheless, although he was
wearied with the continual struggle of the past two years, worn down
by the incessant labours of internal organisation and geographical
investigations, disheartened, too, by the jealousies, rivalries, and
intrigues of all around him, and by the ill feeling of the very people
whom the Khedive’s Government had sent to support him, he consented to
return again to his post; this time with the title of Governour-General
of the Soudan, Darfur, and the Equatorial Provinces. At the beginning
of 1877 he took possession of the Government palace at Khartoum, at the
gate of which, eight years afterwards, so dire a tragedy was destined
to be performed.
Egyptian authority, allied with European civilisation, appeared now at
length to be taking some hold on the various districts, and the Cairo
Government might begin to look forward to a time when it could reckon
on some reward for its labours and sacrifices.
The area of the new Egyptian Soudan had now become immense.
Geographically, its centre included the entire valley of the Nile
proper, from Berber to the great lakes; on the east were such portions
of the valleys of the Blue Nile and Atbara as lay outside Abyssinia;
and on the west were the districts watered by the Bahr-el-Ghazal and
the Bahr-el-Arab, right away to the confines of Wadaï. Politically, it
consisted of Upper Nubia, the ancient island of Meroë, Sennar, Bagara,
Kordofan, Darfur, Shekka, Dar-Fertit, the lands of the Shilluk, Nuer,
Denka, Bongo, Bari, Lattuka, Madi, and Aluri, with the northern part of
Unyoro.
The dream of Mehemet Ali was in a measure realised. The foundations of
a great Soudanese empire under Egyptian rule had been laid upon the
Upper Nile, and the little fishing village which the first conqueror,
with far-seeing augury, had destined for its capital, had grown into a
flourishing town, with a population of more than 45,000, and was the
seat of government and the general trade-centre of the entire region.
Unfortunately in 1879 Ismail Pasha was deposed, and, to the grievous
loss of the Soudan, Gordon was recalled. As the immediate consequence,
the country fell back into the hands of Turkish pashas; apathy,
disorder, carelessness, and ill feeling reappeared at Khartoum, and
the Arab slave-dealers, who had for a period been kept under by Baker,
Gessi, and Gordon, came once more to the front.
It is only too obvious that the slave-trade must for a long time be
the great obstacle to any true progress in the Soudan, preventing
its taking its own proper part in the movement which will ultimately
result in its civilisation. The Arab merchants, to the present day,
consider the traffic in slaves to be perfectly legitimate, and detest
not only the Egyptian Government, but especially the European officers
in its employ, for obstructing their operations, seizing their boats,
liberating the negroes, and otherwise damaging their abominable trade.
This detestation is made manifest on every conceivable occasion.
Year after year had Gordon, as Governour-General, to deal with the
hordes of Arab slave-dealers; and although he succeeded in suppressing
their rebellions and punishing their misdoings, he was never able to
quench the spirit of revolt, which, nurtured by fanaticism and hatred
to the infidel, secretly brooded underneath all outward appearance of
submission, keeping up amongst them the hope that some accident would
open up for them an opportunity to overthrow the administration which
they hated, and bring back the old _régime_, under which they
could continue their nefarious practices free and uncontrolled.
It was Raouf Pasha who, in 1879, succeeded Gordon as Governour-General.
He had three Europeans as his subordinates--Emin Bey, who, before
Gordon left, had been placed in charge of the province of the equator;
Lupton Bey, an Englishman, who had followed Gessi as Governour on the
Bahr-el-Ghazal; and Slatin Bey, an Austrian, in command at Darfur.
Raouf had barely been two years at Khartoum when the Mahdi appeared on
the scene.