Fresh Troubles
At last Fort Bodo was reached and there fortunately Stanley found all
well and hoped that troubles were at an end. In the eight months of his
absence he expected that Emin Pasha would certainly be ready to take his
departure, and that the united company could enter upon its journey to
the coast without delay. He impatiently waited daily news from the
Pasha, for he must certainly be in camp by the lake with his people in
the neighborhood of the storehouse which he had engaged to erect. At
last a messenger came from Kavalli and Stanley learned what we have
already learned. The news occasioned him bitter disappointment and a
feeling of dread. The letter read:
Dufile, 6. 11. 88
Dear Sir,--I have been held a prisoner here since August. We knew as
soon as the Mahdists arrived and captured the station of Redjaf that
we should be attacked one day or another, and there seemed to be
little hope that we should escape. Jephson, who has been of great
assistance to me in all my difficulties, will inform you what has been
done here and will also give you valuable advice in case you decide to
come here as the people wish. Should you come, you will greatly oblige
me if you will take measures for the safety of my little girl, for I
am very anxious about her. Should you, on the other hand, decide not
to come, then I can only wish you a safe and happy return home. I beg
you to convey to your officers and men my hearty thanks and my most
cordial gratitude to all those in England by whose generosity the
expedition was sent out.
Believe me, dear sir,
Your most devoted,
Dr. Emin
Thus Emin was in the power of his barbarous inferiors, who, if they felt
so disposed, could end his life any moment. But the province was in
danger of being overrun by the swarms of Mahdists, and in that case
there would be no alternative for man, woman, or child, but death or
slavery. The efforts of the relief expedition had been wasted for a
year, a very hell of torment had been endured, and hundreds of lives had
been sacrificed, only at last to hasten the doom of Emin, for there is
no doubt that the arrival of Stanley with his tattered, hungry people
kindled the torch of revolt. The people of the Equatorial Provinces
would not leave their country and exchange its comfort for poverty and
wretchedness, and deaf to every protest of reason imprisoned their
governor, who they believed would take them to strange countries, sell
them as slaves, and forsake them. Fortunately Jephson reached the camp
and Stanley learned from his own mouth what had transpired. He described
the dissensions and insubordination of the Soudanese officers which made
it impossible to organize any defence against the enemy approaching from
the north.
Stanley was indignant at the condition of affairs. "As they will not go
they can stay and perish. But how can we save the Pasha?"
"The Pasha would come to us if there were nothing to hinder," said
Jephson, "but he will not be rescued alone. These people have deceived
him, imprisoned him, and treated him shamefully, and yet he will not be
induced to forsake them when it means their certain destruction."
"That is bad," said Stanley. "We shall have to carry him off by force."
The situation was a doubtful one. Stanley could not wait any longer at
his camp on the shore of the lake, for he was in a country destitute of
supplies and he was constantly exposed to danger from the hostile people
in his vicinity. At last he succeeded in getting Emin with some of his
most faithful officers to come to the camp and after endless
discussions, deliberations, and protests, the tenth of April, 1889, was
fixed upon for the march to the coast. Those of the Soudanese who would
not join them within two months must take the consequences. Emin gave up
with a sad heart. Over and over he declared he could not leave his
people. The indifferent manner with which Stanley imposed his will
grieved the man whom the negroes rightly designated as "father and
mother of their country." At last he had to yield. Of all his people
only six hundred were in camp at the right time and saved from the
dreadful cruelty of the Mahdi.