EMIN PASHA AND HIS OFFICERS REACH OUR CAMP AT KAVALLI.
Lieut. Stairs and his caravan are sent for--Plans regarding the
release of Emin from Tunguru--Conversations with Jephson by which I
acquire a pretty correct idea of the state of affairs--The rebel
officers at Wadelai--They release Emin, and proceed in the s.s.
_Khedive_ and _Nyanza_ to our camp at Kavalli--Emin Pasha’s
arrival--Stairs and his caravan arrive at
Mazamboni’s--Characteristic letter from Jephson, who is sent to
bring Emin and his officers from the Lake to Kavalli--Short note
from the Pasha--Arrival of Emin Pasha’s caravan--We make a grand
display outside our camp--At the grand divan: Selim Bey--Stairs’
column rolls into camp with piles of wealth--Mr. Bonny despatched
to the Nyanza to bring up baggage--Text of my message to the rest
of the revolted officers at Wadelai--Note from Mr. Bonny--The Greek
merchant, Signor Marco, arrives--Suicide of Zanzibari named
Mrima--Neighbouring chiefs supply us with carriers--Captain Nelson
brings in Emin’s baggage--Arrangements with the chiefs from the
Ituri River to the Nyanza--The chief Kabba-Rega--Emin Pasha’s
daughter--Selim Bey receives a letter from Fadl-el-Mulla--The Pasha
appointed naturalist and meteorologist to the Expedition--The Pasha
a Materialist--Dr. Hassan’s arrival--My inspection over the
camp--Capt. Casati arrives--Mr. Bonny appears with Awash Effendi
and his baggage--The rarest doctor in the world--Discovery of some
chimpanzees--The Pasha in his vocation of
“collecting”--Measurements of the dwarfs--Why I differ with Emin in
the judgment of his men--Various journeys from the camp to the Lake
for men and baggage--The Zanzibaris’ complaints--The
ringleaders--Hassan Bakari--The Egyptian officers--Interview with
Shukri Agha--The flora on the Baregga Hills--The chief of Usiri
joins our confederacy--Conversation with Emin regarding Selim Bey
and Shukri Agha--Address by me to Stairs, Nelson, Jephson and Parke
before Emin Pasha--Their replies--Notices to Selim Bey and Shukri
Agha.
[Sidenote: 1889.
Feb. 7.
Kavalli’s.]
On February 7th I decided to send for Lieutenant Stairs and his caravan,
and despatched Rashid with thirty-five men to obtain a hundred carriers
from Mazamboni to assist the convalescents. My object was to collect the
expedition at Kavalli, and send letters in the meantime to Emin Pasha
proposing that he should: 1st. Seize a steamer and embark such people
as chose to leave Tunguru, and sail for our Lake shore camp. After which
we could man her with Zanzibaris, and perform with despatch any further
transport service necessary. If this was not practicable, then--
2nd. To march to Mswa station overland, and on arrival to report by
canoe that he had done so. If this was not possible.
3rd. Stay at Tunguru, and let me know by Chief Mogo whether he needed a
force of rescue.
[Illustration: VIEW OF CAMP AT KAVALLI.]
In which case, on arrival of Lieutenant Stairs, I proposed to march with
300 rifles and 2,000 native auxiliaries through Melindwa to Mswa
station, and thence to Tunguru, to employ force for the relief of the
Pasha. But it was absolutely necessary that I should be clearly told
what the Pasha wished. In his letter of the 27th January there was a
disposition to be somewhat lachrymose and melancholic, quite contrary to
what was expected in answer to the definite question given in the formal
letter of January 17th, “Was he disposed to accept our escort and
assistance to reach Zanzibar, or suggest to me any way by which I could
make myself useful or lend effective aid.” If he stated his wish
decisively then, then I promised “to strain every effort to perform
service to him.”
Perceiving that neither my letter to Mr. Jephson--which was intended to
be read to the Pasha--nor that my formal letter to himself was
understood by him, I proceeded to write one after a purely business
style, which I thought the dullest private in his army might understand,
but when Jephson heard it read he affected to be aghast at it.
As there was no intention to wound the most super-sensitive
susceptibilities of any person--least of all the Pasha--I wrote one
after a style which probably Chesterfield himself would have admitted
was the proper thing, which my friend Jephson pronounced was “charming,”
and “nice,” and “exquisitely sweet,” and on the 8th sent the couriers
down to the Lake with it.
Day by day, during conversation with Mr. Jephson--who was, “by the bye,”
a pronounced Eminist--I acquired a pretty correct idea of the state of
affairs. There was one confirmed habit I observed that Mr. Jephson had
contracted during his compulsory residence with the Pasha which provoked
a smile, and that was, while saying several crushing things about the
Province, he interlarded his clever remarks with--“Well, you know, the
poor, dear Pasha! He is a dear old fellow, you know. ‘Pon my word, I
can’t help but sympathise with the Pasha, he’s such a dear good man,”
&c., &c. They served to illuminate traits of character, and showed that,
at all events, Jephson had a kindly heart, and what he had seen and
heard only made him esteem the Pasha the more; but when he spoke of the
Egyptians, the most portentous vocabulary was requisitioned to load them
with abuse--“unmitigated scoundrels, depraved villains, treacherous
dogs, unscrupulously vile,” &c., &c. The Egyptians were “animals with
foxy natures,” the Soudanese were “brutishly stupid.” One chief clerk
had falsified accounts at the Khartoum Arsenal, and had been the
recipient of 1,500 stripes with the kourbash; another had been detected
making huge profits by mixing powdered charcoal with the gunpowder, and
filling Remington cartridges with it. A major had been convicted of
trading in Government stores; others had been sent to the Siberia of the
Equator as convicts, guilty of various felonies, arson, murder, &c.;
others were transported thither for being concerned in Arabi’s
rebellion, &c., &c.; and it became clear that whatever sanguine hopes
the Pasha had cherished, he must often have distrusted his powers during
his constrained intercourse with the penal outcasts placed under him.
While there was a reserve of dominating power, and an overshadowing
personality of stern justice in the figure of Gordon at Khartoum, the
penal serfs were under some control, though Gessi Pasha, even as far
back as 1879, was copious in complaints of Emin to Gordon, but when the
news spread throughout the Province that Khartoum was taken, and the
Governor-General slain, and all traces of Egyptian Government had
vanished, the native unruliness of the Egyptians, and brutish
stubbornness of the Soudanese found vent, and was manifested in utter
disregard to orders, and perverse misconduct. Emin was now a Pasha in
name and title only. Government was petrified, order was dead. Some men,
in Emin’s place, would have become so disgusted, that after arming
themselves with excuses for retreat by overt proofs of contempt of his
authority, would have collected a few faithful men, or have retired to
some small post like Mswa station at the remote South, reported frankly
the events, and have applied for relief and instructions. Others, again,
would have exacted performance of duty and discipline to the very end,
regardless of consequences. Others, again, would have removed with such
as were willing from the arena of perpetual discord, founded an empire
or a kingdom, and have applied for assistance from the civilized world,
which they would certainly have obtained. Others, like Emin did, would
have temporised and hoped. Men, however, reap only what they have sown;
as the seed is sown, so will be the harvest.
But while we were discussing the probable decision of the Pasha, and
awaiting the arrival of Stairs’s column, events unknown to us were
occurring, which decided the matter for us as well as for Emin.
The rebel officers, who were concentrated at Wadelai, while Jephson was
on his way to us South of Tunguru, heard of our arrival on the Lake.
Report had magnified our forces. We had several hundred Zanzibaris and
allies, and we were armed with machine guns and repeating rifles. The
Egyptian Government at Khartoum was dead, and in its place was a Khalif,
with resistless armies fully established. There were Mahdist agents and
traitors among them, the rest were indifferent. Emin was deposed, and a
prisoner. To him who hath shall be given. Like a rolling snowball,
power, when once established, attracts and grows; an isolated snowdrop
melts. Emin was the snowdrop, the Khalif of Khartoum was the growing
snowball.
It is easy, therefore, to understand the motives of the officers, who
are declared rebels, who have traitors and Mahdists among them to
influence their councils, and to predict what the natural outcome will
be. They will curry favour with the Khalif by betraying their would-be
rescuers and their former Pasha and his white companions into his hands,
and win honour and glory by so doing. For the machine guns, repeating
rifles and Remingtons, and a batch of white prisoners, the Khalif would
reward them handsomely, and promote those chiefly concerned in their
delivery to him to honourable and lucrative offices, and endow them with
robes of honour. But there is a difficulty. How will they gain access to
the camp of their rescuers when they have heard of the Pasha being
imprisoned and their friend Jephson having been treated so cruelly?
“Nothing easier,” says one; “let us send a deputation to the Pasha to
humbly ask forgiveness, and promise to reinstate him in power, and Emin
is so good-natured that he will readily condone our offences, and offer
to introduce us to his friends as penitents, who, wearied with trouble,
only now seek to prove their obedience and loyalty to their great
Government. Once in the stranger’s camp, we may see for ourselves what
further can be done, and if we then agree to capture the gang of whites
and their followers, nothing will be easier, for all white men are
soft-headed duffers. At any rate, it is wise to have two ways from which
to choose. If the Khalif is relentless, and his Donagla pursue us with
that fierceness so characteristic of them, and the door to his mercy is
closed, we can fall back upon the camp of the white men, and by apparent
obedience disarm all suspicion, make use of them to find us a land of
plenty, and suddenly possess ourselves of their arms and ammunition, and
either send them adrift as beggars, or slay the whites and make their
followers our slaves.”
We can imagine the thunders of applause that greeted this Egyptian son
of Beelzebub as he ended his oration. But whether such a speech was made
or not, the officers despatched a deputation to the Pasha, of fourteen
officers. They kissed Emin’s hands, they expressed humble contrition for
their offences, they offered to reinstate him in power as Governor, and
they implored him to accompany them to Stanley’s Camp at Kavalli, and to
speak for them, and the Pasha gladly acceded to their request. He
embarked on board the steamer _Khedive_; refugees crowded on board with
their goods and baggage, and Captain Casati was with them with his
following, and the _Nyanza_ likewise was freighted, and with every show
of honour the Pasha was brought to Mswa. At this station he met my
messengers with my last letter, and having read it, he resumed his
voyage to our Lake shore Camp.
While Jephson and I were at dinner on the evening of February 13th,
messengers came to us and delivered to us a letter from Emin Pasha.
Camp,
_February 13th_, 1889.
TO HENRY M. STANLEY, Esq., Commanding the Relief Expedition.
SIR,--
In answer to your letter of the 7th instant, for which I beg to
tender my best thanks, I have the honour to inform you that
yesterday, at 3 P.M., I arrived here with my two steamers, carrying
a first lot of people desirous to leave this country under your
escort. As soon as I have arranged for cover of my people, the
steamships have to start for Mswa station, to bring on another lot
of people awaiting transport.
With me there are some twelve officers anxious to see you, and only
forty soldiers. They have come under my orders to request you to
give them some time to bring their brothers--at least, such as are
willing to leave--from Wadelai, and I promised them to do my best
to assist them. Things having to some extent now changed, you will
be able to make them undergo whatever conditions you see fit to
impose upon them. To arrange these I shall start from here with the
officers for your camp, after having provided for the camp, and if
you send carriers I could avail me of some of them.
I hope sincerely that the great difficulties you have had to
undergo, and the great sacrifices made by your Expedition in its
way to assist us, may be rewarded by a full success in bringing out
my people. The wave of insanity which overran the country has
subsided, and of such people as are now coming with me we may be
sure.
Signor Casati requests me to give his best thanks for your kind
remembrance of him.
Permit me to express to you once more my cordial thanks for
whatever you have done for us until now, and believe me to be,
Yours very faithfully,
Dr. EMIN.
The Pasha evidently believes that his men are still faithful to him. He
says: “You will be able to make them undergo whatever conditions you see
fit to impose upon them....” “Of such people as are now coming with me
you may be sure.”
I hope so, but if one-half of what Jephson says is true, the Pasha must
have greater confidence in them than I can command. However, if the
“wave of insanity has subsided,” so much the better. All is well that
ends well. Jephson will go down to the Lake to-morrow with fifty rifles,
to escort the Pasha and his officers to the Plateau. I shall send
couriers also to Stairs at Mazamboni’s to bring up his force quickly,
that we may be all at hand to impress our rebel friends by the way our
wild fantastic warrior-carriers deploy at the word of command.
_February 16th_.--Received note from Stairs announcing arrival at
Mazamboni’s, which states he may arrive on the 17th or 18th instant. He
writes: “We were all delighted at the Ituri River Camp at the arrival of
your couriers with Chief Rashid, bringing the news that Jephson was with
you; but the news about Emin Pasha seemed very black. However, your
letter this morning dispels every foreboding, and now we all hope we
shall be able to move on with speed towards Zanzibar.”
Goodness, how impatient young men are! I wonder if we shall get away
within three months!
Another courier has arrived from Jephson with one of Jephson’s
characteristic letters.
Weré Camp, Albert Nyanza, _February 15th_, 1889.
DEAR SIR,--
I reached this camp yesterday, but owing to the natives leading us
by a very long road we did not arrive till morning.
We found the Pasha, Casati, Marco, Vita, the apothecary, and
several officers and clerks, who had made their camp in a very nice
spot about two miles north of our old camp, where we first met the
Pasha.
On arriving, after having delivered your letter, and having told
and heard the news, I asked the Pasha when he proposed moving. He
said he must speak to his officers first. This morning a meeting
was called, and it was decided that we should start to-morrow for
Kavalli’s, taking two days on the road.
The Pasha will come to see you, will perhaps stay a few days in
your camp, and then return and bring up his daughter and the rest
of his loads, which amount to about 200, which consist of millet,
salt, sesame, &c. The officers will only bring twenty loads, as
they are merely coming up to talk with you for bringing up their
troops and goods. The clerks bring up all their loads and remain
with us.
Both the steamers return to Mswa on the 18th, to bring up the rest
of the people and goods from that station, as well as to bring up
corn for the supply of the Lake camp.
On the arrival of the steamers at Mswa, the irregulars (some fifty
guns) will march overhead to Kavalli’s with such women as are able
to walk well, and the steamers, on their return here, will at once
take the officers down to Wadelai.
The Pasha has brought sixty tusks of ivory; the surplus will
doubtless be useful. Though there is a day’s delay, I do not regret
it, as both the Zanzibaris and myself were fairly worn out when we
reached here yesterday, and had we started to-day there would, I
fear, have been many sore feet. In spite, however, of our fatigue,
the Zanzibaris rushed madly into the camp, howling like demons.
They went through the usual mad exercises with imaginary enemies,
and then drew up in line before the Pasha. The soldiers drew up in
correct form and saluted him also. He was very pleased, and asked
me to say a few words to them, expressing his thanks to them for
all the trials they have gone through to help him, which I did, as
well as I was able, in my broken Ki-swa-hili. The Pasha set all the
women to grind corn, and I served out two cups apiece to them, the
Soudanese, Manyuema, and natives. To-day Saat Tato, the hunter, and
another, have brought in two kudu, and a springbok, so that they
have plenty to eat. I was much amused to see how the slothful ugly
Soudanese stared at the mad antics of the Zanzibaris, with the sort
of expression that said, What sort of people can these boisterous,
unruly Zanzibaris be?
I find Casati more impossible than ever. I asked him whether he
would go with us to-morrow, and he replied he would rather wait. I
then asked, “How many loads have you?”
“Oh,” he answered, “you know I have very few things. All my things
were taken by Kabba-Rega; perhaps I may want eighty carriers.”
Vita, the apothecary, wants forty carriers, and Marco, the Greek
trader, wants sixty, so at this rate our Zanzibaris will be killed
between here and Kavalli’s. The Pasha remonstrated with Casati for
taking all his grinding-stones, earthen jars, bedsteads for his
boys and women, &c., upon which he said:--
“Mr. Stanley has offered to take all our loads.”
These people have no conscience, and would rather load down our
long-suffering people than throw away a single load of rubbish
which they will eventually be obliged to discard.
Casati, so the Pasha tells me, was averse to their leaving Tunguru,
in spite of Shukri Aga’s offer of carriers, and my urgent letter,
and did all he could to prevent his coming down here, as he
considered it “impolitic.” One internally fumes at the selfishness
of these people, and at their inability or aversion from seeing
things as they really are.
The rumour of the “white man’s” expedition to Fallibeg has turned
out to be, as Clerk Jopson says, “all a bam,” and nothing more has
been heard of it.
Casati refuses to move until he has sufficient carriers to take him
and all his goods away together. The Pasha is very irritated about
it.
The boat (_Advance_) has been very well mended with bolts just like
our own. I am going on board the steamer this evening to get some
spanners, and, if possible, some spare bolts. The Pasha has also
brought the light oars, which belonged to Gordon’s india-rubber
boat, so that we have now the full complement.
The Pasha, Casati, and the officers desire me to send you their
greetings.
I am, &c., &c., &c.,
A. J. MOUNTENEY JEPHSON.
The Pasha, 200 loads! Casati, who has lost everything, eighty loads!
Vita, the apothecary, forty loads! Marco, the Greek, sixty loads! = 380
loads for four persons! True, I promised to convey everything up to the
Plateau Camp but grinding stones! Well, if I gave such a promise, we
must keep it, I suppose. However, there is no harm in Mr. Jephson fuming
a little.
From the Pasha the following note was received:--
DEAR SIR,--
Mr. Jephson with your people have arrived yesterday, and we
propose to start to-morrow morning; I shall therefore have the
pleasure to see you the day after to-morrow. My men are very
anxious to hear from your own lips that their foolish behaviour in
the past will not prevent you from guiding them.
I am greatly obliged for your kindly letter,[7] handed to me by Mr.
Jephson, and I hope that my being somewhat African in my moods may
not interfere with our friendly relations.
Agree, dear Sir, my best wishes, and believe me to be,
Yours very faithfully,
Dr. EMIN.
_February 17th_.--Emin Pasha’s caravan, consisting of about sixty-five
persons, reached this camp about noon. The officers, who are a
deputation from the revolted troops at Wadelai, are headed by Selim
Bey--promoted to Bey by the Pasha. He is six feet high, large of girth,
about fifty years old, black as coal: I am rather inclined to like him.
The malignant and deadly conspirator is always lean. I read in this
man’s face, indolence, a tendency to pet his animalism. He is a man to
be led, not to conspire. Feed him with good things to eat, and plenty to
drink, Selim Bey would be faithful. Ah, the sleepy eye of the
full-stomached man! This is a man to eat, and sleep, and snore, and play
the sluggard in bed, to dawdle slip-shod in the bed-chamber, to call for
coffee fifty times a day, and native beer by the gallon; to sip and sip
and smile and then to sleep again; and so and so to his grave. The
others are lean, of Cassius’ make. Three of them were Egyptians,
something of Arabi in their facial mould; the others are black
Soudanese.
We made a grand display outside the camp, banners waving, the Zanzibari
veterans like a wall of iron on each side of the pathway, the Manyuema
auxiliaries with a rough-and-ready look about them, the natives of
Kavalli and the neighbourhood in hundreds, banking the formation.
Through the centre of the twin lines the Pasha, small and wiry of
figure, like a Professor of Jurisprudence in appearance, despite his
fez and white clothes, was escorted to the great square of the camp, and
straight to the Barzah.
[Illustration: ADDRESS TO REBEL OFFICERS AT KAVALLI.]
The officers, in brand new uniforms, rarely aired, evidently created a
great sensation. The natives hungrily looked at them, and looked with
gaping lips and projected eyes.
At the Barzah house, the Pasha formally introduced these officers. We
mutually saluted. We enquired anxiously about each other’s healths, and
expressed ourselves mutually gratified that there was no fear of
consumption, diabetes, or dysentery troubling us, and that possibly,
without fear of these ailments, we might meet on the morrow at a grand
divan, whereat each one would be pleased to express his heart’s secret
desire.
_February 18th._--The grand divan was held to-day. Each person present
was arrayed in his best uniform. After an interchange of elegant
compliments and coffee had been served, the Pasha was requested to be
good enough to enquire of the deputation if they would be pleased to
state their errand, or whether they would prefer that I should disclose
the object of this gathering from twenty lands near the shores of their
Lake.
They expressed through the Pasha, who is admirable as a translator, and
who has the art of softening any rigour of speech that a plain
Anglo-Saxon might naturally use, that they would be greatly gratified to
hear me first.
[Sidenote: 1889.
Feb. 18.
Kavalli’s.]
Well, I said, open your ears that the words of truth may enter. The
English people, hearing from your late guest, Dr. Junker, that you were
in sore distress here, and sadly in need of ammunition to defend
yourselves against the infidels and the followers of the false prophet,
have collected money, which they entrusted to me to purchase ammunition,
and to convey it to you for your needs. But as I was going through
Egypt, the Khedive asked me to say to you, if you so desired you might
accompany us, but that if you elected to stay here, you were free to
act as you thought best; if you chose the latter, he disclaimed all
intention of forcing you in any manner. Therefore you will please
consult your own wishes entirely, and speak whatever lies hidden in your
hearts.
After the Pasha had translated there was a general murmur of
“Khweis”--good.
Then Selim Bey, the superior officer, said--
“The Khedive is most gracious and kind. We are His Highness’s most
devoted and loyal subjects. We cannot wish to stay here. We hail from
Cairo, and we desire nothing better than to visit the land of our
breeding again. Far be it from us to wish to stay here. What gain can be
obtained here? We are officers and soldiers of His Highness. He has but
to command, and we will obey. Those who choose to live among the pagans
here will do so. If they are left behind, it is their own fault. We have
been deputed by our brothers and friends at Wadelai to ask you to give
us only time to embark our families, so that we may assemble together in
your camp, and start for home.”
They then produced the following document, the translation of which is
as follows:--
“To His Excellency the Envoy of our Great Government, Mr. Stanley.
“When Selim Bey Mator, commander of the troops of this province,
came here and told us of the news of your coming, we were greatly
rejoiced to learn of your safe arrival in this Province, and our
desire to reach our Government has been greatly augmented, and
therefore we hope, with the help of God, to be very soon with you,
and to inform you of this we have written this letter.
Wadelai.
Mabruk Shereef, Lieutenant. Ali el Kurdi, Lieutenant.
Noor Abd el bein “ Ahmed Sultan “
Mustapha Ahmed “ Fadl el Mula Bakhit “
Halid Abdallah “ Dais el Bint Abdallah “
Faraj Sid Hamed “ Said Ibrahim “
Mursal Sudan “ Hussein Mohamed, Captain.
Murjan Ndeen “ Murjan Idris “
Sabah el Hami “ Mustapha el Adjemi “
Bakhit Mohamed “ Kher Yusuf es Said “
Adeen Ahmed “ Marjan Bakhit “
Ismail Hussein “ Surur Sudan “
Mohamed Abdu “ Abdallah Mauzal “
Halid Majib “ Fadl el Mulla el Emin “
Ahmed Idris “ Ahmed el Dinkani “
Rehan Rashid “ Kadi Ahmed “
Rikas Hamed en Nil “ Said Abd es Sid “
Halil Sid Ahmed “ Bakhit Bergoot, Adjutant Major.
Feraj Mohamed “ Bilal Dinkani “
[Illustration: DWARFS AND SOUDANESE, WITH OFFICERS.]
I then said: “I have heard with attention what you have spoken. I shall
give you a written promise to the effect that you are granted a
sufficient time to proceed from here to Wadelai to collect your troops
and embark them with your families on board the steamers. It takes five
days for a steamer to proceed to Wadelai, and five days to return. I
shall give you a reasonable time for this work, and if I see that you
are really serious in your intentions, I shall be quite willing to
extend the time in order that we may proceed homeward in comfort.”
Selim Bey and his officers answered simultaneously, “We are serious in
our intentions, and there is no occasion for delay.” To which I, wholly
convinced, readily assented. The meeting terminated. An ox was presented
to them and their followers for meat rations; and ten gallons of beer,
with loads of sweet potatoes and bananas, were dispatched to their
quarters for their entertainment.
At noon, Stairs’ column rolled into camp with piles of
wealth--Remington, Maxim and Winchester fixed ammunition, gunpowder,
percussion caps, bales of handkerchiefs, white cottons, blue cutch
cloths, royal striped robes, beads of all colours, coils of bright wire,
&c. &c. There were Zanzibaris, Madis, Lados, Soudanese, Manyuema,
Baregga, Bandusuma, dwarfs and giants; in all, 312 carriers.
The stay on the Ituri River had benefited the men greatly. As Surgeon
Parke came in, I mentally blessed him, for to this fine display of
convalescents he had largely contributed by his devotion.
The camp numbers now over 500 people, and the huts extend on each side
of a great open square, 200 yards long by 60 wide. As a fire would be
most destructive, a liberal space is preserved between each hut.
[Sidenote: 1889.
Feb. 19.
Kavalli’s.]
_February 19th._--I have despatched Mr. William Bonny to the Nyanza with
thirty rifles and sixty-four Bavira natives, to bring up the baggage of
Captain Casati, Signor Marco, the Greek, and Dr. Vita Hassan. I propose
sending at intervals a company of men from our camp (which is on top of
the plateau, 4,800 feet above the sea level) to the Lake shore, which is
about 2,400 above the sea. The journey is a long and tiring day’s march,
but the round trip is made within three days. The plateau slope is very
steep and stony. I have vowed not to descend it again for any idle
purpose. I have already been up and down four times; would as soon
undergo shot-drill or the treadmill as undertake it again. Bonny, of
course, will be curious to see the Lake, as this is his first visit.
Called Selim Bey and his officers to the Barzah house, and delivered to
him my message to the revolted officers at Wadelai.
SALAAMS!
The officers, Selim Bey, and others, having requested Mr. Stanley
to await the arrival of their friends from Wadelai, Mr. Stanley
causes his answer to be written down in order to prevent
misunderstanding.
Mr. Stanley and his officers having been specially sent by the
Khedive as guides to show the road to such people as desired to
leave the Equatorial province for Cairo, cannot do otherwise than
consent to give such reasonable time as may be required for the
assembling of all people willing to depart with him.
It must, however, be positively understood that all men proposing
to depart with Mr. Stanley must provide their own means of carriage
for themselves, their families, and baggage. No exception can be
made except for the Pasha, Captain Casati, and the Greek merchant
named Marco, the two last being strangers and not in the Egyptian
service.
Therefore all officers and men proposing to depart from this
country with Mr. Stanley will be careful to provide such animals
and porters as they may need for the transport of their children
and goods.
They will also be careful not to burden themselves with superfluous
articles; arms, clothing, ammunition, cooking pots, and provisions
being the only necessaries needed.
The reserve ammunition, which has been brought from Egypt for the
service of the Pasha and his people, is of course at the
disposition of the Pasha only, according to the orders of His
Highness the Khedive.
Mr. Stanley wishes it to be distinctly understood that he is
responsible only for finding the right road, and for provisioning
all the people according to the nature of the country.
Mr. Stanley, however, holds himself in honor bound to do all in his
power for the comfort, safety, and welfare of Emin Pasha and his
people, and to assist his friends in all things to the best of his
ability.
On the arrival of this answer before the officers at Wadelai, the
officers responsible for the direction of the people will do well
to hold a general council, and consider this answer before moving.
Such people as believe in their hearts that they have the courage
and means to depart from the Equatorial Province will prepare to
proceed to this camp as directed by the Pasha. Such people as are
doubtful of their power and ability to move, will act as the
superiors of the party will decide.
Mr. Stanley, in the meanwhile, will form an advance camp to make
ready for the reception of such people as are going out.
At Kavalli’s, HENRY M. STANLEY,
_February 19th, 1889._ Commanding the Relief Expedition.
[Sidenote: 1889.
Feb. 21.
Kavalli’s.]
_February 21st_.--Chief Katonza on the Lake shore has been sending
messengers to the Lake camp to inform Captain Casati that Kabba Regga,
King of Unyoro, had seized his cattle on the 19th inst., and that his
next objective was Casati’s camp.
What followed may be gleaned from the following note just received from
Mr. W. Bonny:--
“At the wish of Signor Casati I send you this note. He is writing
his own views to the Pasha. He states that Kabba Regga’s general
has a strong force somewhere near, and wishes me to remain another
day that you may reinforce me. I have agreed to send a messenger,
but decline to remain. I have pointed out to him, that if there is
danger, I cannot risk my men unnecessarily. My men will leave with
the loads this morning. I have endeavoured to persuade Casati that
if he wishes to avoid danger, he can march under our escort to the
Plateau. If Kabba Regga’s people meet me on the road I hope to make
them learn that they have met some of Stanley’s men.
“Yours, &c.,
“W. BONNY.”
The native courier arrived with this news at 2 P.M. The Pasha and
officers started immediately for the Lake camp with sixty rifles and
sixty natives of the plateau. I do not think there will be any irruption
of the Wanyoro into territory protected by us, but it is better to be on
the safe side.
_February 22nd._--The Greek merchant Signor Marco, a fine manly-looking
man much browned by tropic heat, arrived to-day, escorted by Mr. Bonny.
Marco has an eye to comfort I see. In his train are domestics bearing
parrots, pigeons, bedsteads for himself and harem, heavy Persian
carpets, ox-hide mats and enormous baskets, and, oh horror! he has
actually brought three hundredweight of stone to serve as grinding
stones to reduce his grain to flour, as though the natives here could
not lend us any number of grinding stones. He has brought, besides, ten
gallon pots to make beer, and to use as water vessels. If all the
refugees are similarly encumbered, we shall, I fear, be employed here
for months. That was a rash promise of mine to convey all their
property. I will wait a little to note if all the officers, clerks, and
soldiers expect me to regard stone as baggage.
[Sidenote: 1889.
Feb. 23.
Kavalli’s.]
_Feb. 23rd._--One of our Zanzibaris named Mrima, impatient at the slow
progress towards recovery from a large and painful ulcer, shot himself
with a Remington rifle to-day. Poor fellow, I remember him as a cheery,
willing, and quick boy.
The Pasha writes me that all is well at the Lake camp.
_Feb. 24th._--Sent twenty-five rifles, under headman Wadi Khamis, to
escort fifty of Mpinga’s natives as carriers.
I have notified all the chiefs of the various tribes on the plateau that
they must supply carriers varying from fifty to one hundred each,
according to their strength, to assist me in the transport of the
baggage of our guests. Eleven have consented to proceed to the Lake in
rotation, provided I protect their people from the brutality of the
strangers, who, they say, have been beating their people in the most
cruel manner, and making them carry “stones” of too heavy a weight for a
man. This is the first time I have heard of this, and will make
inquiries immediately.
_Feb. 25th._--Captain Nelson, who escorted the Pasha to the Lake the
other day, brought in sixty loads of baggage, mostly belonging to the
Pasha. I observe an immense number of articles that must necessarily be
thrown away. There is an old Saratoga trunk, which was borne by two men.
I tried to lift one end of it, and from its weight I should say it
contains stones or treasure. What a story that old trunk could tell
since it left Cairo. How many poor natives has it killed? How much
anguish has it caused? The Zanzibaris smile grimly at the preposterously
large size of the boxes they have to carry. They declare there are
thousands of such cumbrous articles yet, and that they will be kept here
for ten years. The square is littered with sea-chests and clumsy
coffin-like coffers, the ten-gallon jars increase in number, and the
baskets look bigger and ominously heavy.
[Sidenote: 1889.
Feb. 25.
Kavalli’s.]
One man, an Egyptian, named Achmet Effendi, who came up, is about
fifty-five years old, bent, thin, feeble, and sick. He is unable to ride
a donkey without assistance.
I foresee a terrible mortality, if only sick and feeble men and women
propose to undertake the 1,400 miles journey to the sea. Already a large
number of small children, from one to eight years old, have arrived.
These will have to be carried. By whom?
A Soudanese woman gave birth to a child on the road. Another child is so
ill that it cannot survive long.
Lieut. Stairs was despatched with Chief Mwité to stir up his refractory
people, who for the last four days have sent us no food.
We have formed a confederacy on the plateau, embracing all the region
from the Ituri River to the Nyanza. For protection granted them against
marauding Balegga of the mountains and the Warasura Kabba Rega, the
chiefs agree to supply us with contributions of grain and cattle, and to
surrender the government of the country into my hands, to raise fighting
men whenever ordered, and to assist me in invading Unyoro should
retaliation for invasion of their soil by the Warasura render it
necessary.
_Feb. 26th._--An ally of Kabba Rega was attacked this morning, and 125
head of cattle were captured. Much mischief has been done by this man,
and already he occupies the country between here and the Pasha’s
province, and Kabba Rega relied on him for assistance when the grand
struggle between him and the Pasha should begin. Communication is made
across the Lake in canoes, and Kabba Rega is well informed of our
movements. When we retire from here we shall have to reckon with Kabba
Rega. He possesses 1,500 guns; mostly rifles and double-barrelled shot
guns, Jocelyn and Starr, Sharp, Henry-Martini, and Snider rifles, and
carbines. Having undertaken the serious work of protecting these
hundreds of refugees to the sea, I shall enter on the affair with a
clear conscience. We will not seek a struggle; the opposing forces are
not matched, but there is only one road, and that runs through a portion
of Unyoro.
[Sidenote: 1889.
Feb. 27.
Kavalli’s.]
_Feb. 27th_.--Our cattle were driven to pasture this morning, but the
calves were most intractable, and created great fun and not a little
trouble. We have milk and meat for our sick now.
I hear that Selim Bey and the Egyptian officers departed on the 26th
inst. by the steamers _Khedive_ and _Nyanza_, which brought to the Lake
camp from Mswa a large cargo of baggage and several score of fresh
refugees.
Emin Pasha reached camp this morning from the Lake. He was accompanied
by his daughter, a little girl of six years old, named Ferida, the
offspring of an Abyssinian woman. She is extremely pretty, with large,
beautiful black eyes.
104 carriers conveyed the Pasha’s luggage and stores of flour, millet,
sesamum, honey, and salt.
The head man, Wadi Khamis, who escorted this caravan, reports that one
of Selim Bey’s officers stole a Remington rifle and took it with him.
This is odd. If these people meditate returning here they should be
aware that theft of arms is severely punished.
The Pasha informs me that another mail arrived from Wadelai on the 25th,
and that an official letter was handed to Selim Bey from the rebel
officers headed by Fadl-el-Mulla, announcing to him that he was deposed
from his position as Chief Commander of the Troops, and that he, the
Pasha and Casati, were sentenced to death by court-martial. Captain
Fadl-el-Mulla has promoted himself on assuming authority to the rank of
Bey or Colonel. This is quite in Jack Cade’s style. We must now call him
Fadl-el-Mulla Bey.
_Feb. 28th_.--Sent fifty rifles and seventy-two natives of the Wabiaasi
and Ruguji tribes under Lieut. Stairs to the Lake camp to escort another
contingent of refugees and convey baggage up to the plateau.
_March 1st_.--The Pasha, with his own consent, and indeed on his own
proposal, has been appointed naturalist and meteorologist to the
Expedition. He has accordingly received one aneroid, one max. and min.
thermometer, one Bath thermometer, one standard thermometer, two
boiling-point thermometers, which, added to his own instruments, equip
him completely. No expedition could be so well served as ours will be.
He is the most industrious and exact observer that I know.[8]
[Sidenote: 1889.
March 1.
Kavalli’s.]
The Pasha is in his proper element as naturalist and meteorologist. He
is of the school of Schweinfurth and Holub. His love of science borders
on fanaticism. I have attempted to discover during our daily chats
whether he was Christian or Moslem, Jew or Pagan, and I rather suspect
that he is nothing more than a Materialist. Who can say why votaries of
science, though eminently kindly in their social relations, are so
angular of character? In my analysis of the scientific nature I am
constrained to associate with it, as compared with that of men who are
more Christians than scientists, a certain hardness, or rather
indelicacy of feeling. They strike me as being somewhat unsympathetic,
and capable of only cold friendship, coolly indifferent to the warmer
human feelings. I may best express what I mean by saying that I think
they are more apt to feel an affection for one’s bleached skull and
frame of unsightly bones, than for what is divine within a man. If one
talks about the inner beauty, which to some of us is the only beauty
worth anything, they are apt to yawn, and to return an apologetic and
compassionate smile. They seem to wish you to infer that they have
explored the body through and through, and that it is waste of time to
discuss what only exists in the imagination.
Sent seventy-two natives of Mpigwa’s tribe under twelve Zanzibaris to
Lake camp for baggage.
Up to date 514 loads of baggage have been conveyed from the Lake shore
to our camp on the plateau.
_March 2nd_.--Dr. Vita Hassan, of Tunis, has arrived in charge of
Lieut. Stairs, with 122 carriers.
_March 3rd_.--Mr. Bonny descended to the Nyanza to-day with fifty-two
Zanzibaris and forty natives of the tribe of Malai and Mabisé.
[Sidenote: 1889.
March 3.
Kavalli’s.]
I went over the camp on an inspection. I find that we have here
representatives of Germany, Greece, Tunis, England, Ireland, Italy,
America, Egypt, Nubia, Madiland, Monbuttu, Langgo, Bari, Shuli,
Zanzibar, Usagara, Useguhha, Udoé, Unyamwezi, Uganda, Unyoro, Bavira,
Wahuma, Marungu, Manyuema, Basoko, Usongora, Congo, Arabia, Johanna,
Comoro, Madagascar, Somali, Circassia, Turkey!!! besides pigmies from
the Great Forest, and giants from the Blue Nile.
The camp is rapidly spreading out into a town. Order is maintained
without any trouble. Eighty gallons of milk are served out daily to the
sick, and six pounds of beef per week per man, besides flour, sweet
potatoes, peas, beans, and bananas with liberal measure.
There must be a fearful consumption of food in the Soudanese camp if one
may judge from the quantity of flour that is being ground. From the
early morning until late in the afternoon the sound of the grinding
stones and the sweet voices of the grinders are heard.
The tribe of Mpigwa arrived with seventy loads from the Lake shore.
These came up with Capt. Casati, to whom the baggage belongs.
_March 5th_.--Mr. Bonny appeared this morning with ninety-four loads of
luggage from below. He was accompanied by the Major of the 2nd
Battalion, Awash Effendi. I am told all this monstrous pile belongs to
him alone. Ninety-four loads represent a weight of 2⅓ tons.
Mr. Mounteney Jephson started for the Nyanza this morning with forty-two
Zanzibaris and Manyuema.
During the six weeks we have been here three men and a baby have died.
This Expedition possesses the rarest doctor in the world. No country in
Europe can produce his equal in my opinion. There may be many more
learned perhaps, more skilful, older, or younger, as the case may be,
but the best of them have something to learn from our doctor. He is such
a combination of sweetness and simplicity. So unostentatious, so
genuinely unobtrusive. We are all bound to him with cords of love. We
have seen him do so much out of pure love for his “cases,” that human
nature becomes ennobled by this gem. He is tenderness itself. He has
saved many lives by his devoted nursing. We see him each day at 8 A.M..
and 5 P.M. with his selectest circle of “sick” around him. None with
tender stomach dare approach it. He sits in the centre as though it were
a rare perfume. The sloughing ulcers are exposed to view, some fearful
to behold, and presenting a spectacle of horror. The doctor smiles and
sweetly sniffs the tainted air, handles the swollen limbs, cleanses them
from impurity, pours the soothing lotion, cheers the sufferers, binds up
the painful wounds, and sends the patient away with a hopeful and
gratified look. May the kindly angels record this nobleness and
obliterate all else. I greatly honour what is divine in man. This gift
of gentleness and exquisite sensibility appeal to the dullest. At
Abu-Klea our doctor was great; the wounded had cause to bless him; on
the green sward of Kavalli, daily ministering to these suffering blacks,
unknowing and unheeding whether any regarded him, our doctor was greater
still.
[Sidenote: 1889.
March 5.
Kavalli’s.]
_March 6th_.--Some chimpanzees have been discovered in a grove which
fills a deep hollow in the Baregga Hills. The Pasha has shown me a
carefully prepared skull of one which he procured near Mswa. It exactly
resembles one I picked up at Addiguhha, a village between the two
branches of the Ihuru River. The chimpanzee is the “soko” of
Livingstone, though he grows to an unusual size in the Congo forest.
During the few days we have been here the Pasha has been indefatigable
in adding to his collection of birds, larks, thrushes, finches,
bee-eaters, plantain eaters, sunbirds, &c., &c.
The Pasha appears to be extraordinarily happy in this vocation of
“collecting.” I have ordered the Zanzibaris to carry every strange
insect, bird, and reptile to him. Even vermin do not appear amiss to
him. We are rewarded by seeing him happy.
Each morning his clerk Rajab roams around to murder every winged fowl of
the air, and every victim of his aim he brings to his master, and then
after lovingly patting the dead object he coolly gives the order to skin
it. By night we see it suspended, with a stuffing of cotton within, to
be in a day or two packed up as a treasure for the British Museum!
[Sidenote: 1889.
March 6.
Kavalli’s.]
These “collectors” strike me as being a rare race. Schweinfurth boiled
the heads of the slain in Monbuttu once to prepare the skulls for a
Berlin museum. Emin Pasha proposes to do the same should we have a brush
with the Wanyoro. I suggested to him that the idea was shocking; that
possibly the Zanzibaris might object to it. He smiled: “All for
science.”
This trait in the scientific man casts some light upon a mystery. I have
been attempting to discover the reasons why we two, he and I, differ in
our judgments of his men. We have some dwarfs in the camp. The Pasha
wished to measure their skulls; I devoted my observations to their inner
nature. He proceeded to fold his tape round the circumference of the
chest; I wished to study the face. The Pasha wondered at the feel of the
body; I marvelled at the quick play of the feelings as revealed in
lightning movements of the facial muscles. The Pasha admired the breadth
of the frontal bone;[9] I studied the tones of the voice, and watched
how beautifully a slight flash of the eye coincided with the slightest
twitch of a lip. The Pasha might know to a grain what the body of the
pigmy weighed, but I only cared to know what the inner capacity was.
[Illustration: THE PYGMIES UNDER THE LENS, AS COMPARED TO CAPTAIN
CASATI’S SERVANT OKILI.]
And this is the reason the Pasha and I differ about the characters of
his men. He knows their names, their families, their tribes, their
customs; and little as I have been with them, I think I know their
natures. The Pasha says they are faithful; I declare they are false. He
believes that the day he leaves Kavalli they will all follow him to a
man; I imagine he will be wofully deceived. He argues that he has known
them for thirteen years, and he ought to know better than I who have not
known them as many weeks. Very well, let it be so. Time will decide.
Nevertheless, these discussions make the days at Kavalli pass smoothly,
for the Pasha is an accomplished conversationalist.
_March 7th_.--Mr. Mounteney Jephson arrived from the Lake shore with
Mohammed Emin and family, an Egyptian widow, and four orphan children.
Surgeon Parke was permitted a holiday, to be devoted to leading to the
Nyanza fifty-two Zanzibaris, thirty natives, and nineteen Manyuema for
conveyance of luggage here.
_March 8th_.--Uledi, the hero of old days, was despatched with
twenty-one carriers to carry loads from the Lake to this camp.
_March 9th_.--Surgeon Parke has returned with his caravan. “Well,
doctor,” said I, “how did you like your holiday?” He smiled. “It may be
agreeable as a change, but it is fearful work. I see that the best men
are pulled down by that steep long climb up the plateau slope. I hear a
great deal of grumbling.”
“I am aware,” I replied, “of what is going on. But what can we do?
These people are our guests. We are bound to help them as much as
possible. We indeed came here for that purpose. I wish, however, they
would leave those stones behind, for even the carriers laugh at the
absurd idea of carrying an 80lb. rock such a fearful height. However,
when the Zanzibaris are tired of it, they will let me know in some way.
Meantime, let us see to how far a point they will push our patience.”
[Sidenote: 1889.
March 9.
Kavalli’s.]
_March 10th_.--This morning as the Zanzibaris mustered for the detail to
be picked out for the usual caravan to the Nyanza, they demanded to
speak to me. The speaker was applauded every few minutes by the
companies as they stood under their respective officers.
“Sir,” said he, “we are tired of this work of carrying rocks, and great
double-load boxes, and wooden bedsteads. If we did not think it were a
waste of labour we would not speak. Whither can they take the rubbish we
have been obliged to carry up here? Will any one man undertake to carry
one of those huge coffins a day’s march through the bush? The strongest
man in the world would be killed under it. For whom are we doing it? For
a set of thankless, heartless people, who profess God with their lips,
and know nothing of Him or of the prophet Mohammed--blessed be his name!
Besides, what do they think of us? They call us _abid_--slaves. They
think that any one of them can lick ten of us. They say that some day
they will take our rifles from us, and make us their slaves. We know
enough Arabic to know what they mean, bad as their slang Arabic is. We
have come to ask you how long this is to last? If you mean to kill us,
who were saved out of the forest, with this ungrateful work, please tell
us. We are your servants, and we must do your bidding.”
“It is well,” I replied. “I have heard your speech. I knew you would
come to this. But you must have some faith in me. Trust to me. Go on to
the Nyanza to-day, and when you return I will explain further.”
Captain Nelson was appointed leader of the caravan of 81 Zanzibaris,
Soudanese, and Manyuema, and marched away with them.
I observed that the people declined their rations for the journey, and
that they were unmistakably discontented and in an evil mood. Fearing
trouble, I sent messengers after Captain Nelson to send me the two who
seemed to be the principals under guard back to camp. The Captain on
receipt of the order commanded the Soudanese to take them, upon which
the fifty Zanzibaris set up a loud yell of defiance, and some cried,
“Shoot them all, and let us go to Mazamboni.”
[Sidenote: 1889.
March 10.
Kavalli’s.]
The Captain, however, was firm, and insisted on sending them to me,
whereupon they said they would all return to camp to protect their
friends.
Seeing the caravan return, the signal to muster under arms was given,
and the companies were drawn up in position to prevent any sudden
manœuvre.
The malcontents were formed in line in the centre, and on looking at
them I saw that little was needed to provoke strife. I sympathised with
them secretly, but could not overlook such a serious breach of
discipline.
“Now, my men,” I said, “obey me at once, and to the letter. He who
hesitates is lost. Open your ears and be sharp. ‘Ground arms!’ It was
done promptly. ‘Retire four paces to the rear!’ They withdrew quietly.
‘Now, Captain Stairs, march your company to the front, and take
possession of the rifles,” which was done.
Captain Nelson was then ordered to make his report as to the cause of
the caravan’s return. He pointed out the ringleaders concerned in the
outbreak, and those who had cried, “Shoot them all, and let us run to
Mazamboni.” These were at once seized and punished. The ringleaders were
tied to the flag-staff. The caravan was again entrusted to Captain
Nelson, but without arms, and was marched away to its duty.
Near sunset, Hassan Bakari having absented himself without permission,
was lightly punished with a cane by the captain of his company. On being
released, he rushed in a furious temper to his hut, vowing he would
shoot himself. He was caught in the act of preparing his rifle for the
deed. Five men were required to restrain him. Hearing the news, I
proceeded to the scene, and gently asked the reason of this outburst. He
declaimed against the shame which had been put on him, as he was a
freeman of good family and was not accustomed to be struck like a slave.
Remarks appropriate to his wounded feelings were addressed to him, to
which he gratefully responded. His rifle was restored to him with a
smile. He did not use it.
_March 11th_.--Forty-one natives descended to the Nyanza to-day for more
baggage. These make a total of 928 men sent down for the same purpose up
to date.
_March 12th_.--“Three O’clock,” the hunter, took a caravan to the
Nyanza, consisting of thirty-four Zanzibaris and twenty-five natives.
_March 13th_.--Lieut. Stairs, R.E., took down to the Lake sixty-three
Zanzibaris and Manyuema.
The forty-one natives who left on the 11th inst. returned to-day,
bringing with them absolute rubbish--wooden bedsteads, twenty gallon
copper pots, and some more flat rocks, which the Soudanese call
grinding-stones. They complained that when they objected to carry these
heavy, useless weights they were cruelly beaten.
As I have informed the Pasha several times that I cannot allow such
rubbish to be carried, and as the Pasha has written to that effect to
Osman Latif Effendi, the commander of the Lake shore camp, and his
orders are not obeyed, I shall presently have to stop this cruel work.
_March 14th_.--Twenty-one of the Balegga have offered their services,
and have been sent down to the Lake to carry baggage. Total loads up to
date, 1,037.
I consider this carrier work to which I have subjected myself, officers,
and men, as an essential part of my duty to my guests. They may not be
deserving of this sacrifice on our part, but that makes no difference.
What I regret is that such severe labour should be incurred uselessly.
If any one of them were to express a concern that we were put to so much
trouble, most of us would regard it as some compensation. But I have
heard nothing which would lead me to believe that they regard this
assistance as anything more than their due.
[Illustration: CLIMBING THE PLATEAU-SLOPES.]
I see the Egyptian officers congregating in special and select groups
each day, seated on their mats, smoking cigarettes, and discussing our
absolute slavishness. They have an idea that any one of them is better
than ten Zanzibaris, but I have not seen any ten of them that could be
so useful in Africa as one Zanzibari.
[Sidenote: 1889.
March 14.
Kavalli’s.]
_March 15th_.--Lieut. Stairs appeared with his caravan to-day. He
reports that there are 100 people still at the Nyanza Camp, with an
immense pile of baggage of the usual useless kind just arrived from Mswa
station.
[Illustration: SHUKRI AGHA, COMMANDANT OF MSWA STATION.]
Shukri Agha, commandant of Mswa, has also arrived. At an interview with
him, in the presence of the Pasha, I informed him in plain terms that if
he expected to retire to the coast he would have to set about it
immediately. I told him that I had been amazed at many things since my
arrival the third time at the Lake, but the most wonderful thing of all
was the utter disregard to instructions and orders manifested by
everybody. In May last, ten months ago, they had all been informed of
the cause of our coming. They had promised to be ready, and now he,
Shukri Agha, had come to us to ask us for instructions, just as though
he had never heard anything of the matter. If he, a commandant of a
station, and commander of troops, appeared to be so slow to comprehend,
how ever was it possible to convey it into the sense of the Soudanese
soldier. All I had to say now was, that unless he, Shukri Agha, paid
attention to what I said, he would be left behind to take the
consequences.
[Sidenote: 1889.
March 15.
Kavalli’s.]
“Ah,” says Shukri, “I will go back to Mswa, and the very next day I
shall embark the women and children on the steamers, and I shall march
with our cattle through Melindwa overland, and we shall all be here in
seven days.”
“I shall expect you on the tenth day from this, with your families,
soldiers, and cattle.”
The Pasha said to me in the evening, “Shukri Agha has given me his
solemn promise that he will obey the orders I have given him to depart
from Mswa at once.”
“Did you write them firmly, Pasha, in such a manner that there can be no
doubt!”
“Surely, I did so.”
“Do you think he will obey them?”
“Most certainly. What, Shukri Agha! He will be here in ten days without
fail, and all his soldiers with him.”
_March 16th_.--Shukri Agha descended to the Nyanza to-day; also 108
carriers, natives, for baggage.
_March 17th_.--Twenty-nine natives of Malai’s tribe, and sixteen natives
of Bugombi, have been sent to the Nyanza Camp. Total, 1,190 carriers up
to date.
The Pasha proceeded this morning to the Baregga Hills for a picnic, and
to increase his ornithological and entomological collections. A goat was
taken up also to be slaughtered for the lunch. Lieut. Stairs, Mr.
Jephson, Captain Nelson, Surgeon Parke, and Mr. Bonny have gone up with
quite a following to encourage him to do his best and keep him company.
[Sidenote: 1889.
March 17.
Kavalli’s.]
Yesterday Jephson and I had examined the summits of the hills, and in
one of the hollows we had discovered tree ferns, standing eight feet
high, with stalks eight inches in diameter. We also brought with us a
few purple flowering heliotropes, aloes, and rock ferns for the Pasha.
All this has inspired him with a desire to investigate the flora for
himself.
These hills have an altitude varying from 5,400 to 5,600 feet above the
sea. The folds and hollows between these hills are here and there
somewhat picturesque, though on account of late grass burnings they are
not at their best just now. Each of the hollows has its own clear water
rillet, and along their courses are bamboos, tree ferns, small palms,
and bush, much of which is in flower. From the lively singing of the
birds I heard yesterday, it was thought likely this insatiable collector
might be able to add to his store of stuffed giant-larks, thrushes,
bee-eaters, sun-birds, large pigeons, &c. Only four specimens were
obtained, and the Pasha is not happy.
In a bowl-like basin, rimmed around by rugged and bare rocks, I saw a
level terrace a mile and a half long by a mile wide, green as a tennis
lawn. Round about the foot of this terrace ran a clear rivulet, through
a thick bank of woods, the tops of which just came to the level of the
terrace. It has been the nicest site for a mission or a community of
white men that I have seen for a long time. The altitude was 5,500 feet
above the sea. From the crest of the rocky hills encircling it we may
obtain a view covering 3,000 square miles of one of the most gloriously
beautiful lands in the world. Pisgah, sixty miles westward, dominates
all eminences and ridges in the direction of the forest world;
Ruwenzori, 18,000 to 19,000, white with perpetual snow, eighty miles
off, bounds the view south; to the east the eye looks far over the
country of Unyoro; and north-east lies the length of the Albert Nyanza.
On the terrace the picnic was held.
[Sidenote: 1889.
March 18.
Kavalli’s.]
_March 18th_.--The redoubtable Rudimi, chief of Usiri, has at last
joined our confederacy. Besides seven head of cattle, seven goats, and
an ample store of millet flour and sweet potatoes, he brought me
thirty-one carriers. They were immediately sent to the Lake shore camp.
We can now trust these natives to handle any property unguarded.
Altogether fifteen chiefs have submitted to our stipulation that they
shall cease fighting with one another; that they shall submit all causes
of complaint to us, and agree to our decisions. The result is that the
Wavira shake hands with the Wasiri, the Balegga, and the Wahuma. The
cases are frequently very trivial, but so far our decisions have given
satisfaction.
The camp now consists of 339 huts and five tents, exclusive of Kavalli’s
village, on the southern side of which our town has grown. There are
sometimes as many as 2,000 people in it.
_March 21st_.--The natives of Melindwa, having made a descent upon
Ruguji’s, one of our Wahuma allies, and captured forty head of his
cattle, Lieut. Stairs and Mr. Jephson were despatched with Companies 1
and 2, and returned with 310 head of cattle. Ruguji recognised his
cattle and received them. The Wahuma are all herdsmen and shepherds. The
Wavira devote themselves to agriculture.
_March 22nd_.--The Pasha, with Mr. Marco, paid a visit to Mpigwa, chief
of Nyamsassi, and were well received, returning with large gifts of
food.
_March 23rd_.--Contributions of provisions have come in from many chiefs
to-day as an expression of gratitude for the retaliatory raid on
Melindwa.
_March 26th_.--Yesterday afternoon the steamer _Nyanza_ came in with the
mails from Wadelai, and carriers came in this morning with them.
Selim Bey writes from Wadelai to the Pasha that he is sure all the
rebels will follow him, and that they may be expected at our camp. The
Pasha, beaming with joy, came to me and imparted this news, and said,
“What did I tell you? You see I was right? I was sure they would all
come.”
[Sidenote: 1889.
March 26.
Kavalli’s.]
Let us see what this good news amounts to.
Selim Bey left our camp on the 26th February with a promise that I
should wait “a reasonable time.” Though the distance is only five days,
we will give him eight days. He arrives at Wadelai on the 4th March. He
promised solemnly to begin embarking as soon as possible. We will grant
him five days for this, considering that such people have no idea of
time, and eight days for the voyage from Wadelai to our Lake camp. He
should then have arrived on the 17th inst. He has not appeared yet, and
in his letters to the Pasha he only states that his intentions are what
they were on the 26th February last, viz., to start.
On the 14th of March Shukri Agha, commandant of Mswa, appeared to obtain
instructions from the Pasha, and on the 17th Shukri Agha was back again
at Mswa station, having received an order to abandon that station and to
be here on the 27th. We are now told that Shukri Agha is still at Mswa,
and Selim Bey still at Wadelai, and that every order issued by the Pasha
has been disregarded, and every promise broken.
I replied to the Pasha that I was only aware of our folly in relying on
any promise made by such people, that neither Selim Bey nor probably
Shukri Agha had any intention of accompanying us anywhere. Days had
passed into weeks, and weeks had grown into months, and years would
doubtless elapse before we should leave Africa.
“I must beg leave, Pasha, to impress on you that, besides my duty to you
and to your people, I have a duty to perform to the Relief Committee.
Every month I stay in Africa costs about £400. I have a duty to perform
to my officers. They have their careers in the army to think of--their
leave of absence has long ago expired. Then we must think of the
Zanzibaris. They will want to return to their homes; they are already
waxing impatient. If we had only some proof that Selim Bey and his men
had any real intention of leaving Africa, and would furnish this proof
by sending a couple of companies of soldiers, and I could see that the
soldiers were under control, there would be no difficulty in staying
some months more. But if you think that from the 1st of May, 1888, to
the end of March, 1889, are eleven months, and that we have been only
able to get about forty officers and clerks and their families, and that
the baggage of these has required all the carriers on this plateau one
month to carry it two days’ march, you will perceive that I have no
reason to share in your joy.
“I pray you also to remember, that I have been at great pains to get at
the correct state of mind which those officers at Wadelai are in. I have
been told most curious things. Major Awash Effendi, of the 2nd
Battalion, Osman Latif Effendi, Mohamed the engineer, have told me
secretly that neither Selim Bey or Fadl-el-Mulla Bey will leave for
Egypt. The former may perhaps come as far as here and settle in this
district. But whatever the Wadelai officers may profess to be desirous
of doing, I have been warned that I must be on my guard. Nobody places
any faith in them except yourself. While believing that you may perhaps
be right after all, you must admit that I have the best of reasons for
doubting their good intentions. They have revolted three times against
you. They captured Mr. Jephson, and in menacing him with rifles they
insulted me. They have made it known widely enough that they intended to
capture me on my return here. But, Pasha, let me tell you this much: it
is not in the power of all the troops of the province to capture me, and
before they arrive within rifle-shot of this camp, every officer will be
in my power.”
“But what answer shall I give them?” asked the Pasha.
“You had better hear it from the officers yourself. Come, without
saying a word to them. I will call them here and ask them in your
presence, because they are involved in the question as much as I am
myself.”
“Very well,” he replied.
[Sidenote: 1889.
March 26.
Kavalli’s.]
A messenger was sent to summon the officers, Stairs, Nelson, Jephson,
and Parke, and when they were seated I addressed them:--
“Gentlemen,--Before giving me the benefit of your advice at this
important period, let me sum up some facts as they have transpired.
“Emin Pasha has received a mail from Wadelai. Selim Bey, who left
the post below here on the 26th February last, with a promise that
he would hurry up such people as wished to go to Egypt, writes from
Wadelai that the steamers are engaged in transporting some people
from Dufflé to Wadelai, that the work of transport between Wadelai
and Tunguru will be resumed upon the accomplishment of the other
task. When he went away from here, we were informed that he was
deposed, and that Emin Pasha and he were sentenced to death by the
rebel officers. We now learn that the rebel officers, ten in
number, and all their faction, are desirous of proceeding to Egypt;
we may suppose, therefore, that Selim Bey’s party is in the
ascendant again.
“Shukri Agha, the chief of the Mswa Station--the station nearest to
us--paid us a visit there in the middle of March. He was informed
on the 16th of March, the day that he departed, that our departure
for Zanzibar would positively begin on the 10th of April. He took
with him urgent letters for Selim Bey, announcing that fact in
unmistakable terms.
“Eight days later we hear that Shukri Agha is still at Mswa, having
only sent a few women and children to the Nyanza Camp; yet he and
his people might have been here by this if they intended to
accompany us.
“Thirty days ago Selim Bey left us with a promise of a reasonable
time. The Pasha thought once that twenty days would be a reasonable
time. However, we have extended it to forty-four days. Judging by
the length of time Selim Bey has already taken, only reaching
Tunguru with one-sixteenth of the expected force, I personally am
quite prepared to give the Pasha my decision. For you must know,
gentlemen, that the Pasha having heard from Selim Bey ‘intelligence
so encouraging,’ wishes to know my decision, but I have preferred
to call you to answer for me.
“You are aware that our instructions were to carry relief to Emin
Pasha, and to escort such as were willing to accompany us to Egypt.
We arrived at the Nyanza, and met Emin Pasha in the latter part of
April, 1888, just twelve months ago. We handed him his letters from
the Khedive and his Government, and also the first instalment of
relief, and asked him whether we were to have the pleasure of his
company to Zanzibar. He replied that his decision depended on that
of his people.
“This was the first adverse news that we received. Instead of
meeting with a number of people only too anxious to leave Africa,
it was questionable whether there would be any except a few
Egyptian clerks. With Major Barttelot so far distant in the rear,
we could not wait at the Nyanza for his decision, as that might
possibly require months; it would be more profitable to seek and
assist the rear column, and by the time we arrived here again,
those willing to go to Egypt would be probably impatient to start.
We, therefore, leaving Mr. Jephson to convey our message to the
Pasha’s troops, returned to the forest region for the rear column,
and in nine months were back again on the Nyanza. But instead of
discovering a camp of people anxious and ready to depart from
Africa, we found no camp at all, but hear that both the Pasha and
Mr. Jephson are prisoners, that the Pasha has been in imminent
danger of his life from the rebels, and at another time is in
danger of being bound on his bedstead and taken to the interior of
Makkaraka country. It has been current talk in the Province that we
were only a party of conspirators and adventurers, that the letters
of the Khedive and Nubar Pasha were forgeries, concocted by the
vile Christians, Stanley and Casati, assisted by Mohammed Emin
Pasha. So elated have the rebels been by their bloodless victory
over the Pasha and Mr. Jephson, that they have confidently boasted
of their purpose to entrap me by cajoling words, and strip our
Expedition of every article belonging to it, and send us adrift
into the wilds to perish. We need not dwell on the ingratitude of
these men, or on their intense ignorance and evil natures, but you
must bear in mind the facts to guide you to a clear decision.
“We believed when we volunteered for this work that we should be
met with open arms. We were received with indifference, until we
were lead to doubt whether any people wished to depart. My
representative was made a prisoner, menaced with rifles, threats
were freely used. The Pasha was deposed, and for three months was a
close prisoner. I am told this is the third revolt in the Province.
Well, in the face of all this, we have waited nearly twelve months
to obtain the few hundreds of unarmed men, women, and children in
this camp. As I promised Selim Bey and his officers that I would
give a reasonable time, Selim Bey and his officers repeatedly
promised to us there should be no delay. The Pasha has already
fixed April 10th, which extended their time to forty-four days,
sufficient for three round voyages for each steamer. The news
brought to-day is not that Selim Bey is close to here, but that he
has not started from Wadelai yet.
“In addition to his own friends, who are said to be loyal and
obedient to him, he brings the ten rebel officers, and some six
hundred or seven hundred soldiers, their faction.
“Remembering the three revolts which these same officers have
inspired, their pronounced intentions against this Expedition,
their plots and counterplots, the life of conspiracy and smiling
treachery they have led, we may well pause to consider what object
principally animates them now--that from being ungovernably
rebellious against all constituted authority, they have suddenly
become obedient and loyal soldiers of the Khedive and his ‘Great
Government.’ You must be aware that, exclusive of the thirty-one
boxes of ammunition delivered to the Pasha by us in May, 1888, the
rebels possess ammunition of the Provincial Government equal to
twenty of our cases. We are bound to credit them with intelligence
enough to perceive that such a small supply would be fired in an
hour’s fighting among so many rifles, and that only a show of
submission and apparent loyalty will ensure a further supply from
us. Though the Pasha brightens up each time he obtains a plausible
letter from these people, strangers like we are may also be
forgiven for not readily trusting those men whom they have such
good cause to mistrust. Could we have some guarantee of good faith,
there could be no objection to delivering to them all they
required: that is, with the permission of the Pasha. Can we be
certain, however, that if we admit them into this camp as good
friends and loyal soldiers of Egypt, they will not rise up some
night and possess themselves of all the ammunition, and so deprive
us of the power of returning to Zanzibar? It would be a very easy
matter for them to do so, after they had acquired the knowledge of
the rules of the camp. With our minds filled with Mr. Jephson’s
extraordinary revelations of what has been going on in the Province
since the closing of the Nile route, beholding the Pasha here
before my very eyes, who was lately supposed to have several
thousands of people under him, but now without any important
following, and bearing in mind the ‘cajoling’ and ‘wiles’ by which
we were to be entrapped, I ask you, would we be wise in extending
the time of delay beyond the date fixed, that is, the 10th of
April?”
The officers one after another replied in the negative.
“There, Pasha,” I said, “you have your answer. We march on the 10th of
April.”
The Pasha then asked if we could “in our conscience acquit him of having
abandoned his people,” supposing they had not arrived by the 10th of
April. We replied, “Most certainly.”
_March 27th_.--The couriers have left to embark for Wadelai.
They bore the following:
Notice to Selim Bey and the Rebel Officers.
Camp at Kavalli,
_March 26th_, 1889.
“Salaams,--The Commander of the Relief Expedition having promised
to grant a reasonable time for the arrival of such people at this
camp as were desirous to quit the country, notifies Selim Bey and
his brother officers that this is the 30th day since they departed
from the Nyanza Camp for Wadelai to assemble their people.
“The ‘reasonable time’ promised to them has expired to-day.
“However, as the Pasha has requested an extension of time, it is
hereby notified to all concerned that the Expedition will make a
further halt at this camp of fourteen days from this date, or, in
other words, that the Expedition will positively commence the march
toward Zanzibar on the morning of the TENTH OF APRIL next. All
those people not arriving by that date must abide the consequences
of their absence on the day of our departure.
“HENRY M. STANLEY.”
Notice to Shukri Agha, Commanding Mswa.
“The Commander of the Relief Expedition hereby announces to the
good and loyal officer Shukri Agha, that in order to allow him
sufficient time to reach this camp, the Expedition will make a
further halt of fourteen days from this date, at this camp, but
that on the morning of the tenth day of April next, no matter who
or who may not be ready to march on that date, positively no
further delay will be granted.
“The Commander of the Expedition, out of sincere affection for
Shukri Agha, begs that he will take this last notice into his
earnest consideration, and act accordingly,
“HENRY M. STANLEY.”