Emin's Death
Camp was pitched in Undussuma to give the sick more careful attention
and the exhausted ones time to recuperate. A severe epidemic of smallpox
broke out there. Emin also had much to endure. His left eye was at last
entirely blinded and an injury to his knee, to which at first he paid no
attention, became inflamed, owing to the great dampness (it was the
rainy season) and caused him much pain. Besides this he suffered from
constant insomnia so that he grew very weak and could hardly move about.
He was confined to his tent day and night, the prey of gnawing
solicitude and racking his brain to find some reason for rescuing
something where there was nothing to rescue.
One morning the Pasha invited Stuhlmann for an interview. He stated to
him that a longer stay in that place would involve the death of all by
smallpox and that isolation was impossible. It was his duty to remove
the well ones at once. Stuhlmann must start homewards with them while he
would follow after with the sick when they recovered. Stuhlmann refused
to leave the Pasha, who was sick himself and in need of help, but Emin
threw all his authority into the scales. As his superior he must be
obeyed and he gave Stuhlmann a written order by which he could justify
himself before the world and to his own conscience. So they divided men,
weapons, munition, and supplies. Emin kept thirty-eight people, a part
of them women and children, while Stuhlmann led one hundred and
thirty-three to the coast and as a matter of fact saved them. On the
tenth of December, in the early morning, Stuhlmann departed with a sad
heart. "I hope," said Emin, "to see you again in a month. If I am
overcome by force and cannot come, remember me to my child." Only a
handshake, a last wave of the hand, and they parted, never to meet
again.
After Stuhlmann's departure Emin's health improved somewhat, but many of
the sick died. The natives had fled because of the pest and thus
supplies could not be procured and there was great suffering from
hunger. Dissatisfaction, drunkenness, and disorder prevailed and Emin
had to resort to the lash. The Soudanese were again the worst offenders.
In all his troubles Emin always found consolation in his scientific
observations, which he entered daily in his diary, notwithstanding his
impaired sight. As the sick were now recovering Emin began planning to
resume the journey and he succeeded in inducing Ismaili, an Arab, to
accompany him to the Congo and procure the necessary porters.
On the ninth of March, 1892, Emin left the camp, the scene of so many
sorrows, still trusting in his people, though he had been expressly
warned of their evil designs. But no choice was left him. Alone, he
could reach neither the east nor the west coast. Now at the mercy of a
hostile Arab, he was traversing that great region which had been visited
only by slave hunters, and the thought of his own weakness was a great
pain to him. How many years he had unweariedly fought these cruel
men-stealers, inspired at that time by the hope that Europe at last
would put an end to the infamous business. Now he looked out upon his
province, which under his administration had been a scene of peaceful
industry and of continually increasing prosperity, and heard only the
shrieks of victims in the silence of the night. The little that we know
of Emin's fate is from his diary, which is brought down to the
twenty-second of October, upon which date he met his fate, as the result
of revenge for the four prisoners murdered by the Warambas, a crime of
which he was believed to be guilty. Emin suspected all. It looks as if
he did not try to escape from his fate. We read in his diary that the
Arab chief, Kinene, met him and took him to his house at Kasango. "He
wants to make sure of me," writes Emin. He clearly saw through his
designs.
On the following morning Emin sat upon the beautiful veranda of his
false host's house. Upon the table before him were spread out birds and
plants, the spoils of the last few days, which he had investigated and
whose characteristics he had noted down. Before him was a letter from
the powerful Kibonge, whose possessions were on the Congo, inviting him
in a friendly manner to visit him and promising him protection. Emin was
in a cheerful mood. Once more it seemed that the cup passed from him. On
the morrow he would leave, go to the Congo and thence safely to the
coast.
Kinene entered and said: "Pasha, as you are going away in the morning,
let your people go to the plantations and provide themselves with manioc
and bananas. I will give them to you for the many fine things you have
brought to me." Emin looked up from his book and thanked him and then
sent for his people. Kinene said: "Let your people leave their guns here
on the veranda, for the women who work on the plantations would be
terrified if they saw men coming with guns." The men, fifty in number,
did as he suggested and betook themselves to the plantations a mile
away.
When they were gone, Kinene spoke in a friendly way to Emin and
regretted his speedy departure. Ismaili and Mamba, a slave, stood behind
Emin's chair and at a sign from the chief seized him by the arms. Emin
turned angrily and asked them what they meant. Then said Kinene: "Pasha,
you must die."
"What do you mean?" said Emin. "Is this a sorry joke? How dare you
restrain me? What do you mean by saying I must die? Who are you, Kinene,
that you should dare to kill me?"
Kinene answered: "It is the will of Kibonge. I must obey him."
Three persons stepped forward and held Emin securely as he tried to free
himself. When he saw that his efforts were useless, he said: "This is a
mistake. Here is a letter from Kibonge which promises me safe conduct."
Kinene replied: "Pasha, if you can read Arabic, read this letter."
And Emin read the second letter of the false Kibonge, which ordered him
to be killed. He gave a deep sigh, then frowned and said: "Well, you
will kill me, but do not think that I am the only white man in this
country. Many will come to avenge my death and believe me, in two years
there will not be a single Arab left in this region to tell the story of
the destruction of his people."
Kinene remained unmoved and when Emin saw there was no hope of escape he
protested no longer and Ismaili, his treacherous guide, severed the head
of the defenseless one from his body.
Two years elapsed before definite news of Emin's fate was received, and
as nothing was heard of him all that time, it was generally believed
that he had been killed by Arabs, and that the truth had been concealed.
At last Baron Dhanis, at the head of a Belgian expedition, came to the
vicinity of Kinene's possessions. There by chance Emin's trunk and diary
were found in a cabin, and the discovery led to the arrest of Ismaili
and three others, who had participated in the murder, and their
confession. The murderers were condemned to be hanged. A year later the
treacherous Kibonge was made to pay for his infamy, for he was taken
prisoner by a European expedition and put to death.
Thus Emin, the quiet, genial man, who never did an injury to anyone, but
conferred almost endless benefactions, died as he had lived--alone. The
serious, strenuous work of his life brought him little gratitude. He
lived to see the collapse of his great creation--the Equatorial
Provinces. But the one thing which was his consolation in all his hard
days and which was occupying him at the very hour of his death was his
devotion to science, which did not die with him, but has been and always
will be of great value to the world. The museums of Europe tell of the
activity of this collector, and scholars who have studied his diaries
are amazed at the richness of their contents. He will never die in the
memory of his own people or of the civilized world; his name is
indelibly engraved upon the tablets of history.
Footnotes
[1]Dr. Wilhelm Junker was born at Moscow in 1846 and died at St.
Petersburg in 1892. Between 1873 and 1886 he explored Algeria, Tunis,
Lower Egypt, and a considerable part of Central Africa.
[2]Lado is in Central Africa on the White Nile, near Gondokoro, and was
founded by General Gordon in 1874.
[3]The Bari are a negro race in the eastern Soudan, and are both
agricultural and pastoral.
[4]Termites are white ants which grow to a very large size in Africa.
[5]The native name of the sweet potato.
[6]The statements in the "Life of Gordon" in this series of "Life
Stories" are at variance with this. According to the former,
Lieutenant Wilson left Khartoum by steamer to urge haste upon General
Wolseley, who was coming to the rescue, but his vessel was wrecked
and he was murdered by natives. The steamers which came in sight of
Khartoum that morning and found it in possession of the Mahdi were
bringing a part of the rescuing force, but finding it was too late,
returned. As the German author's statements in his "Life of Gordon"
are confirmed by Sir William Butler, in his well-known "Life,"
preference should be given to it.
[7]Verney L. Cameron was a distinguished Anglo-African explorer and the
first to cross Africa from east to west.
Appendix
The following is a chronological statement of the most important events
in the life of Emin Pasha:
1840 Birth of Emin Pasha.
1865 Visits Turkey and professes Islamism.
1876 Explored the Nile up to Lake Albert.
1878 Made Pasha and Governor of the Equatorial Provinces.
1883 Cut off by the Mahdi.
1889 Stanley's relief expedition.
1890 Return to the lakes in German service.
1891 Rebellion of his carriers.
1892 Killed by Arabs.
LIFE STORIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
_Translated from the German by_
GEORGE P. UPTON
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