In Need of Help
During this time Emin's circumstances had taken a turn for the better.
He had received letters through Biri from the coast. A regular postal
service was established and his dreary isolation was at an end. He also
learned that Dr. Fischer, the experienced explorer, had undertaken an
expedition for his rescue in 1886, but only got as far as the Victoria
Nyanza, for the Wagandans would not allow him to go further. He returned
to Germany and died shortly afterwards in consequence of his hardships.
Next Emin received an official despatch in French from Cairo, from the
Egyptian government, informing him that it was not impossible they might
have to evacuate the Soudan. In case this occurred, Emin was given full
permission to leave the Equatorial Provinces and for this purpose he was
authorized to draw upon the English Consul General at Zanzibar. Emin was
bitterly incensed at the cold business tone of the government. It had
not a word of thanks or of recognition of all his cares, troubles, and
struggles for three years, not a word of regret that he was compelled to
labor so many years without any support, and often hungry and in need.
And not a word of encouragement for the task imposed upon him of taking
the Egyptians home. An empty title, that of Pasha, was all the reward
for his exertions.
They fancied in Egypt that all Emin needed to do was to pack up his
effects and go by the coast to Zanzibar. It never occurred to them that
the greatest obstacle in Emin's way was his own Egyptian officers and
soldiers. While at Khartoum he had repeatedly notified the government
that it ought to change garrisons every two years, but it had never made
any reply. The larger part of his people, who had never left the
country, wanted to stay at home and live as their ancestors had lived.
For the Egyptians the Equatorial Provinces had become a second home and
more of a Paradise than they had ever found in their native land. They
had married and founded families, they had bought or stolen slaves, they
had cattle and goats. As they could not have these things in Egypt, why
should they leave such a country? Gordon had to meet the same
difficulties when he undertook the evacuation of the entire Soudan. He
too knew that such a problem could not be solved.
Emin's subordinates had very little confidence in the Egyptian
government, for they had been without pay or provisions for a year.
Again, the people could not understand why the government intended
giving up the whole of the Soudan. No one had the most distant idea that
the Mahdi's troops could stand against the Egyptian army. Not a person
in the Equatorial Provinces believed the reports of previous defeat or
the destruction of Hicks Pasha's army. So the efforts of Emin to
concentrate his entire strength in the Soudan were fruitless. His
officers had no intention of leaving Lado. Unfortunately the despatch
referring to evacuation was in French. Its genuineness was not only
doubted, but it was regarded as an invention of Emin's. With the
intention of going southward and thence to the east coast, Emin sent
messengers to Lado to prepare his people for their departure. A letter
informed him that in consequence of his orders revolt was spreading and
no one would go to the south. If they were forced to go, they would
seize all the weapons and supplies and kill all who opposed them.
Signs of this revolt were speedily apparent. In the middle of March,
1886, the old subordinate officers and the people of Bornu, Adamana, and
other places united in a plot to kill the officers at Lado as well as
the Soudanese and found a free state. An Egyptian officer heard of it
and reported it to his superior, who placed the leaders in chains, but
some days later let them go unpunished--a mistaken clemency for such a
time. In Dufile a sergeant fired at his officer, but missed him.
During this time of uneasiness Emin undertook three journeys to the
Albert Nyanza and discovered a large river flowing from the south, the
one called Semliki by Stanley, and the last of the hitherto unknown Nile
branches. For political reasons Emin devoted his entire attention to
that region which appeared to him the one which they had selected for
the retreat. Thereupon he proceeded with repairs on his two steamers.
By the middle of April, 1887, twelve stations were in Emin's possession,
nearly all of them those which Gordon had intrusted to him in his time.
In a letter to Dr. Felkir he writes: "We sow, harvest, spin, and live
every day as if it were to continue forever. It is curious how one long
shut away from the world develops his vegetative faculties. I shall not
leave my people. We have had hard and troublous days together and I
should consider it shameful to desert my post. We have known each other
for long years and I do not believe that my successor could gain their
confidence."
He is now preparing to leave the country with his people, but not until
a relief expedition reaches him. That such an expedition is on the way
he knows of a certainty. His European friends have communicated to him
their intention of helping him to carry out his plans.