GOVERNOR-GENERAL OF THE SOUDAN
Colonel Gordon's visit to England was a very short one, for no sooner
did the Khedive Ismail realise the fact that such an able public
servant had definitely decided to quit his service, than he wrote
imploring him to return on his own terms, which were nothing less than
that he should be invested with the Governor-Generalship of the whole
Soudan, including the Equatorial Province, over which he had for three
years ruled. The Khedive was sufficiently wide awake to know what an
able, conscientious servant he had in Gordon, and, cost what it might,
was determined not to lose him. The truth of the matter was that Gordon
had made himself indispensable to the Khedive, and when a man does that
he may practically demand his own terms. His heart was thoroughly in
the work, and the only reason for his having resigned was that he was
disgusted with Ismail Yacoob, the Governor-General of the Soudan, who,
although Gordon was not under him, was from his position in many ways
able to hamper his reforms. The Khedive wisely decided to recall Ismail
Yacoob from Khartoum, and to put Colonel Gordon in his place. "Setting
a just value," wrote the Khedive, "on your honourable character, on
your zeal, and on the great services that you have already done me, I
have resolved to bring the Soudan, Darfour, and the provinces of the
Equator, into one great province, and to place it under you as
Governor-General. As the country which you are thus to govern is so
vast, you must have beneath you three vakeels (or deputy governors):
the first for the Soudan properly so called, the second for Darfour,
and the third for the shores of the Red Sea and the Eastern Soudan."
Thus, at the age of forty-four, Gordon had committed to his charge the
absolute control, including power over life and death, over a province
as large as France, Germany, and Spain together! He had already served
the Khedive for three years in the unhealthy Equatorial Province, and
now he was to govern for nearly three years more this larger and still
more unwieldy province, his reign only ceasing with the abdication of
Ismail.
When Gordon left England for Cairo, the appointment had not been
conferred upon him. He merely went out to see the Khedive, and it was
not till February 13, 1877, that the matter was finally decided.
Writing home in reference to the Khedive's kindness, he quotes that
text, "Ask of me, and I will give thee to the half of my kingdom," and
then he goes on to say:--
"And now for the reverse of the medal. It is the sacrifice of a
_living_ life. To give your life to be taken at once, is one
thing; to give a life such as is before me is another and more
trying ordeal. I have set my face to the work, and will give my
life to it. I feel as if I had nought to do with the Government.
God must undertake the work.... I think how many would be weighed
down by this immense charge; how they would shrink from accepting
it without some other help, for fear of their reputation. But for
me, I never gave the question a thought. I feel sure of success;
for I do not lean on my own understanding, and He directs my path."
On March 19th he writes with regard to his grand escort:--
"Here I met two hundred cavalry and infantry, who had come to meet
us. I am most carefully guarded--at six yards' radius round the
tree where I am sitting are six or eight sentries, and the other
men are in a circle round them. Now, just imagine this, and put
yourself in my position. However, I know they will all go to sleep,
so I do not fret myself. I can say truly, no man has ever been so
forced into a high position as I have. How many I know to whom the
incense would be the breath of their nostrils. To me it is irksome
beyond measure. Eight or ten men to help me off my camel! as if I
were an invalid. If I walk, every one gets off and walks; so,
furious, I get on again."
After being appointed Governor-General of the Soudan, the first thing
Colonel Gordon did was to attempt to bring about a definite peace
between the Khedive and the King of Abyssinia, whose territory adjoins
the Soudan. It will be remembered that in the year 1868 an English
expedition, under the late Lord (then Sir Robert) Napier, went against
Theodore, King of Abyssinia, to punish him for imprisoning and
ill-treating British subjects. Being defeated, that monarch committed
suicide. Before his defeat, as he was much hated, some of his
chieftains had broken into open revolt, and one of them had proclaimed
himself king of a certain province. Sir Robert Napier presented this
chieftain with four guns and a thousand rifles, and this recognition on
the part of the conquerors enabled the chief in question to mount the
Abyssinian throne, taking for himself the name of Johannis.
In 1874 a Swiss adventurer, who was at that time governor of Massowah,
under the Khedive, seized Bogos, a piece of territory belonging to
Abyssinia, and held it for his master, at the same time urging him to
add another province, that of Hamacen, to his ill-gotten gains. At this
time the Khedive was rich, having just received L4,000,000 from the
British Government for the Suez Canal shares, and instead of spending
the money in developing the resources of the territory he already
possessed, he was ill advised enough to go to war, and got defeated.
Foremost among the Abyssinians in the conflict was Walad el Michael,
the hereditary prince of Bogos and Hamacen, who before the war was
imprisoned for having sought the aid of Napoleon III. against the
Abyssinian king. He was released at the commencement of hostilities,
and proved very successful. But, having defeated the Egyptians, Walad
got disgusted with the Abyssinian king for depriving him of his share
of the spoils of war, and consequently, when the Egyptians in 1876
sought to avenge their defeat, Walad turned against his own king. The
Egyptians were however again defeated, 9000 of them being killed, and
an enormous number taken prisoners. The spoils of war were great, for
all the Egyptian tents, twenty-five guns, 10,000 rifles, and a large
amount of English gold, were captured by the Abyssinians. So ignorant
were they of the value of this spoil, that they mistook English
sovereigns for brass counters, and thirty of them were sold for four
dollars! The Abyssinian king was so incensed at the conduct of Walad,
who had 7000 men and 700 rifles, that, as one of the conditions of
peace, he demanded that the Khedive should give him up. This of course
the Khedive could not do, and a long delay followed, during which the
Abyssinian monarch sent an envoy to Cairo. But the Khedive treated the
envoy badly, and he, rightly or wrongly, imagined that his life was in
danger. He managed to get away, and the ill-feeling between the two
monarchs was intense when Colonel Gordon arrived on the scene. Just at
this time the great bulk of the Egyptian troops were required for the
Turkish war against the Russians, and Gordon was left helpless, as he
had not sufficient force with him to compel Walad to cease his
intermittent attacks on Abyssinia.
Seeing the hopelessness of his position, Gordon decided to waste no
more time over the question, more especially as he had not yet been to
Khartoum, the capital of his huge province, to take up his duties, and
all the time there was a revolt going on in Darfour, on the extreme
west of his dominion. Having once made up his mind, he lost no time in
getting to Khartoum, leaving Walad to be dealt with at his leisure
later on. On reaching Khartoum, which he did by travelling forty-five
miles a day in the extremely hot months of April and May, he had to
submit to the ordeal of installation. It was on this occasion, after
the firman had been read and the royal salute had been fired, that he
made the memorable speech which so delighted the people, and which may
be summed up in one sentence that he made use of, "With the help of God
I will hold the balance level." By this he meant to say, that as long
as he was Governor-General there should be none of the cruel, grinding
tyranny that had existed in the time of his predecessor. It may be well
here, anticipating events, to illustrate the desperate condition of the
people under the tyranny of the Egyptian rule. Mr. Frank Power,
correspondent of the _Times_, in a private letter to his mother in the
year 1884, describes the way in which the poor people were ground down
with taxation. He says:--
"Every Arab must pay a tax for himself, children, and wife or
wives. This he has to pay three times over--once for the Khedive,
once for the tax collector or local Beys, and once for the
Governor-General. The last two are illegal, but still scrupulously
collected to the piastre. To pay this he must grow some corn, and
for the privilege of growing corn he must pay L3 per annum. To grow
corn the desert earth must have water: the means of irrigation is a
'Sakeh,' a wheel like a mill-wheel with buckets on it, which raise
the water into a trough, and then it flows in little streams over
the land. A sakeh is turned by two oxen. Every man who uses a sakeh
must pay L7: if he does not use it, he must go into prison for
life, and have his hut burned. Every one must pay for the right of
working to earn money; every one must pay if they are idle; in any
case every one must pay to make the officials rich. If you have a
trading boat, you are fined L4 if you do not continually fly the
Egyptian flag, and you must pay L4 for the privilege of flying it."
In another letter he says:--
"If they wish to grow corn they must pay for permission to do so,
pay for liberty to take water from the broad Nile, and pay for
liberty to sell the corn. If the crop is good, pay double taxes
(one for private purse of the Pasha and one for the Government at
Cairo). If they don't grow the corn they can't pay the taxes at
all, and get kourbashed (flogged) and put into prison. No matter
how they make a few piastres, the dragoman of some Bey or Pasha
will steal it for his master. They frequently pull down huts and
tear up yards and fields to find where the coins are hidden. If the
peasant buys a few rags for his wife or child, or mends a hole in
his hut to keep out the sun, he is told he must have got money
somewhere, and he is doubly taxed; and after all, his sole
possessions are a hut made of mud and river reeds, a rush bed, a
rush mat, and an earthen pot."
In still another letter he says:--
"Some of these merchants, who sit all day in their little stalls in
the bazaar, are really millionaires, and would buy up many of the
London merchant-princes. They live like kings in what, outside,
looks like a mud hut. If one shows any outward signs of wealth, the
Pasha lets him know quietly that he will at once be charged as a
rebel or something, and put in prison if he does not make him a
little present, generally from L300 to L1000. One Pasha left here
last year, admitting, report says, that in three years he had made
L60,000. He came here three years ago as a clerk on L2 a month.
Abdul-Kereem Pasha, the Governor, took a fancy to him, and made him
chief of the tax-gatherers; in three years he gained the rank of
Pasha and L60,000--meaning 5000 ruined homes, several million
strokes of the bastinado, rapine, robbery, and men driven to
exasperation, and shot down at their doors."
Need we wonder that people so ground down by tyranny were delighted to
hear their Governor-General announce that he would hold the balance
level, and that no longer should the rich and powerful trample on the
weak and poor?
The prominent characteristic of the Egyptian rule in the Soudan was
fittingly summed up in the sentence, "_Kourbash, kourbash, et toujours
kourbash_," which being interpreted means, "Flogging, flogging, always
flogging." As to administration of justice, there was no such thing. He
who could bribe the judges the highest got judgment delivered in his
favour, while his opponent received the kourbash. The symbol of
authority might well have been a kourbash, which corresponds to the
English cat-o'-nine-tails. Men were often kourbashed for no other
reason than that they would not, or could not, bribe any official who
had the power of administering this form of punishment not to inflict
it on them. Nor must it be supposed that an ordinary flogging, such as
we understand by that term, would satisfy these tyrannical perpetrators
of cruelty. Often the use of the kourbash meant that the victim was
maimed for life, and the unfortunate one might always consider himself
lucky if he escaped without any permanent injury. In many cases it
amounted to nothing more or less than a form of torture, such as used
to be inflicted in England in the barbarous Middle Ages, and if the
sufferer had not actually got the money he was supposed to have, he
would often have to borrow as much as he could of the required amount,
in order to avoid further torture. We can imagine how Gordon's blood
must have boiled with indignation at such gross miscarriages of
justice; and during the whole time he served the Khedive, his object
was to do away with this kind of tyranny. Often his journeys from place
to place were marked by signs of fallen greatness, as he would not
tolerate tyranny. "In one month," he says, "I have turned out three
generals of division, one general of brigade, and four lieutenant-colonels.
It is no use mincing matters."
He allowed every one to approach him and to make complaints. A box
always stood at his tent or palace, into which any one who had a
grievance could drop his written complaint, with a certainty that it
would receive immediate investigation. Such a method gave publicity to
instances of cruelty and oppression, and often, directly Gordon heard
of cases of this kind, he would jump on his camel, pay a personal visit
to the individual concerned, and having investigated the case on the
spot, would deal out justice upon the culprit. Of course, in such an
extensive province as his, without railways, it was absolutely
impossible to investigate all the cases, but by taking the more
prominent and the grosser ones, he could strike terror into the hearts
of evil-doers in high places; and in this way he considerably reduced
the evil of tyrannical rule, and taught the oppressed people that they
had as much right to live as their oppressors had.
Of course Gordon was a much-hated man among the oppressor class, as
reformers of deep-seated abuses usually are; but he knew that the weak
and helpless at all events would appreciate him. When Wilberforce, the
great slavery abolitionist, was accused by an opponent of interference
with the rights of man, he asked what those rights were, and received
for answer, "The right that every man has to lick his own nigger!" To
rights of this kind, however long established, Gordon was an inveterate
enemy; his object was to show that the weak and the helpless had rights
as well as their oppressors, and in this he succeeded to a marvellous
extent. "My great desire," said he, "is to be a shelter to the people,
to ease their burdens, and to soften their hard lot in these
inhospitable lands." And again:--
"I have an enormous province to look after; but it is a great
blessing to me to know that God has undertaken the administration
of it, and it is His work, and not mine. If I fail, it is His will;
if I succeed, it is His work certainly. He has given me the joy of
not regarding the honours of this world, and to value my union with
Him above all things. May I be humbled to the dust and fail, so
that He may glorify Himself. The greatness of my position only
depresses me, and I cannot help wishing that the time had come when
He will lay me aside and use some other worm to do His work."
Besides putting an end to cruelty and injustice, he introduced into
Khartoum a system of water supply. But important as his work at
Khartoum was, he was on May 19 compelled to leave, a revolt having
broken out at Darfour, where his immediate presence was required. So
off he went on his camel into the very heart of the slave-hunting
district. Writing from Fogia, on the frontier of Darfour, he says:--
"I have a splendid camel--none like it; it flies along, and quite
astonishes the Arabs. I came flying into this station in marshal's
uniform, and before the men had time to unpile arms, I had arrived
with only one man with me. I could not help it; the escort did not
come in for an hour and a half afterwards. The Arab chief who was
with me said it was the telegraph.... It is fearful to see the
Governor-General arrayed in gold clothes flying along like a
madman, with only a guide, as if he was pursued.... Specks had been
seen in the vast plain around the station moving towards it (like
Jehu's advance), but the specks were few--only two or three--and
were supposed to be the advanced guard, and before the men of Fogia
knew where they were, the station was taken!"
Writing from Oomchanga near Fascher, the capital of Darfour, he says:--
"All this revolt is the fault of the Bashi-Bazouks. I said the
other day, 'If the people of this country were Ryahs or Christians,
I might understand your bad treatment of them, but I do not when I
see they are Mussulmans, as you.' Upon which the Darfourians were
delighted, and clapped their hands. Now the Darfourians were so
fanatical that they would never let a Christian into their country,
and now they ask me to send Christian Governors!"
Their hatred of the Bashi-Bazouks was well illustrated by an incident
Gordon mentions, which was told him by one of the officers. "An officer
declared to me," he said, "that a woman with an officer escaped with
the child he had by her, and taking the child to the chief of the
insurgents, asked him to kill it, as 'the child of a Turk,' which the
chief did."
On June 29 Gordon was able to write, "We have made peace with the
tribes around here half-way to Fascher;" but he records, "I speak my
mind, and I cannot help saying to some" (of the Darfourians who had
come in to ask for peace), "'You ought to pardon me.' Really no people
could have been treated worse than these people."
* * *
No sooner was one trouble settled than he was off on another
expedition, and this time his steps were directed towards Dara, the
stronghold of the great prince of slave-dealers, Zebehr Rahama. _En
route_ he was nearly starved as well as poisoned by putrid water.
Writing from Toashia on July 3, he says, "We have been two whole days
without meat," and he finds a garrison who for three years have been
without pay! He left Toashia on July 11 with 500 men, of whom 150 only
were any good. On this march there was a threatened attack, which
fortunately did not come off, but that he felt he was in great danger
we may gather from the extract: "We have, thank God, passed our
dangers. Whether they were imaginary or not, I do not know, but we were
threatened by an attack from thousands of determined blacks, who knew I
was here. Now very few Englishmen know what it is to be with troops
they have not a bit of confidence in.... I do not fear death, but I
fear, from want of faith, the results of my death--for the whole
country would have risen."
At Dara he came across a gang of 210 slaves, who had been rescued, but
who had received no food for thirty-six hours. His heart was filled
with pity for them, and he wrote:--
"I am a fool, I dare say, but I cannot see the sufferings of these
people without tears in my eyes.... It is a sad sight to see the
poor starved creatures looking so wistfully at one. What can I do?
Poor souls! I cannot feed or look after them. I must leave it to
God, who will arrange all in kindness. Some of them were so
miserably thin. I have sent them some dhoora. I declare solemnly
that I would give my life willingly to save the sufferings of these
people; and if I would do this, how much more does He care for them
than such imperfection as I am! You would have felt sick had you
seen them. Poor creatures! thirty-six hours without food!"
The more experience Colonel Gordon had of his Bashi-Bazouk soldiers,
the more he seems to have disliked them:--
"I am worn to a shadow by the utter uselessness of the
Bashi-Bazouks. The very sight of them excites my ire. I never saw
such a useless, expensive set. I hate (there is no other word for
it) these Arabs; and I like the Blacks--patient, enduring, and
friendly, as much as the Arab is cowardly, cruel, and effeminate.
All the misery is due to these Arab and Circassian Pashas and
authorities. I would not stay a day here for these wretched
creatures, but I would give my life for these Blacks."
Writing from Dara, he mentions an instance which occurred on the march
to that place to show the cowardly nature of his men, as well as the
bravery of the Blacks. His force of 3500 men was attacked by the
Leopard tribe, numbering only 700 men. In spite of these overwhelming
odds in their favour, Gordon says that his men were nearly beaten. "I
was sickened," he said, "to see twenty brave men of the tribes in
alliance with me ride out to meet the Leopard tribe, unsupported by my
men, who crowded into the stockade. It was terribly painful. The only
thing which restrained me from riding out to the attack was the
sheep-like state in which my people would have been had I been killed.
What, also, would have become of the province?"
Notwithstanding the inferior quality of his troops, Colonel Gordon was
determined to march on and pay a visit to Zebehr Rahama's camp, one of
the boldest acts of his life. Zebehr, himself the head of the cursed
slave traffic, was at this time practically a prisoner in Cairo. He
had, foolishly enough, gone there with L100,000, in the hope that he
could bribe the Khedive and his officials, and he even had the
effrontery to ask Gordon to intercede for him. Unfortunately for
Zebehr, he was too powerful a man for the Khedive to care to have at
large. He was practically an independent chief, his power and influence
being greater in the Soudan than that of the Khedive. He lived in regal
style, and every one trembled at his name. Dr. Schweinfurth thus
describes the surroundings of this remarkable man. He was "surrounded
with a court that was little less than princely in its details. Special
rooms, provided with carpeted divans, were reserved as ante-chambers,
and into these all visitors were conducted by richly-dressed slaves.
The regal aspect of these halls of state was increased by the
introduction of some lions, secured, as may be supposed, by
sufficiently strong and massive chains." Dr. Birkbeck Hill says, "He
owned no less than thirty stations. These fortified posts were carried
far into the heart of Africa; and all along the line from one to
another, and round each one of them far and wide, the slave-dealer
exercised despotic rule."
The only foolish act this prince of slave-hunters ever did was to put
himself into the power of the Khedive, by going to visit him at his
capital. Once at Cairo, the Khedive kept him there as a prisoner.
Zebehr's son, Suleiman, was at the head of his army of some 3000
fighting men, as plucky as Gordon's men were cowardly. When the father
was detained at Cairo, he telegraphed in cipher to his son to break
into open revolt, and even to attack the Government. Gordon knew that
his men were utterly unable to meet Suleiman's troops in the field, so
he tried another method to intimidate the rebels. He rode on alone
ahead of his escort, covering eighty-five miles in a day and a half, in
the heat of August, and dashing into the camp of these robbers,
summoned their chief to an interview. Suleiman and his followers were
dumbfounded by this bold act, and offered no resistance. The
Governor-General then told Suleiman that he was aware of the meditated
revolt, and that if he did not submit to his authority, his band should
be broken up and disarmed. Suleiman and his chiefs went off to consider
their course of action. Of course many were for making Gordon a
prisoner, and he had, humanly speaking, a narrow escape. However,
Suleiman decided to submit, and though afterwards we hear of him again
in open revolt, for the time being Gordon carried the day. Nothing but
his daring courage preserved him on that occasion. He even accepted an
invitation to visit Suleiman at Shaka, where he spent two days. When
Suleiman asked for an appointment, it was refused, on the ground that
he had not yet shown his loyalty to the Khedive. Gordon, however, made
him a present of his own gun, and taught him to use it.
Gordon often used to speak of this adventure as a most remarkable
answer to prayer. He had prayed for Suleiman before starting, and had
also asked for guidance for himself, and God heard him. It has
sometimes been represented as a mad freak on Gordon's part to put
himself into the lion's den in this way, but it was nothing of the
kind. Suleiman was in revolt, supported by a splendid army. Gordon was
absolutely at his mercy, for he could not rely on his troops. It was
only Gordon's daring courage that intimidated Suleiman, and made him
think Gordon was stronger than he really was.
* * *
After obtaining the submission of Suleiman, Gordon returned to
Khartoum, and again for a time resumed his ordinary official duties.
But this was not for long; he had before him another visit to Walad el
Michael, the turbulent Abyssinian chief, whom he had visited before
taking up his duties at Khartoum. Gordon's object was to persuade Walad
to submit to the authority of King Johannis of Abyssinia. But nothing
would induce Walad to do this. He was surrounded by 7000 soldiers, and
Gordon felt himself, in spite of the denials of the rebel chief,
practically a prisoner. Walad demanded authority to go on attacking
Johannis, but to this of course the Governor-General could not assent.
He therefore compromised matters by offering Walad L1000 per mensem, on
condition that he should leave his old king alone.
Having settled Walad, Gordon left, intending to return to Khartoum, but
was intercepted by a telegram from the Khedive begging him to go to
Cairo to help him in his financial difficulties, and he started for
Cairo on February 3, 1878, having completed one year's service as
Governor-General of the Soudan.
In spite of the hard rough life of the Soudan, he infinitely preferred
it to the more artificial civilised existence which the officials were
living at Cairo. He arrived there on March 7th, and left again on the
30th; and during the whole of his stay he was wretched. At first the
Khedive paid great attention to him, receiving him with a splendour
which suggested the "Arabian Nights." He asked him to be the president
of a commission of inquiry into the finances of the country, with the
condition attached that he should use his influence to arrange with the
representatives of the different countries that the commissioners of
the debt or the representatives of the creditors who had lent money to
Egypt should not serve on that commission of inquiry. After a good deal
of discussion, it was finally ascertained that this condition would not
be consented to by the foreign Governments. This of course relieved
Colonel Gordon of any obligations in the matter, and he, seeing that he
could be of no further service, decided to return to his province.
Considering how much Gordon had done to try and accomplish the desires
of the Khedive, there can be little question that he was in this matter
treated very badly. "I left Cairo," said he, "with no honours, by the
ordinary train, paying my own passage. The sun which rose with such
splendour set in the deepest obscurity. I calculate my financial
episode cost me L800. His Highness was bored with me after my failure,
and could not bear the sight of me."
Fortunately for Gordon, he cared very little for official favour. "I
now only look," said he in a letter written a short time after this,
"to benefiting the people." It was in this spirit he visited Harrar, a
small province detached from the Soudan, and lying to the south of
Abyssinia, on the eastern coast of Africa, almost opposite to Aden.
This province had once belonged to Turkey, but had been transferred to
the Khedive in exchange for L15,000 per annum extra tribute. The
governor of the province was Raouf Pasha, whom Colonel Gordon, it will
be remembered, had refused to employ on account of his cruel treatment
of the natives in the Equatorial Province four years before. Again he
had been playing the tyrant, and Gordon felt it to be his duty to turn
him out. As this man afterwards succeeded Colonel Gordon as
Governor-General of the Soudan, it is to him more than any one that the
present Khedive is indebted for having lost the whole of the Soudan. By
his tyranny, following after Gordon's kindness, the province was
stirred into revolt, and the Mahdi enabled to usurp authority. We are,
however, anticipating events.
Having freed Harrar of this tyrant, he went to Massowah, and thence on
May 22nd to Khartoum. Back once more at his capital, he devoted himself
first to a thorough reform of the prisons and the administration of the
law. "The prisons," he wrote, "were dens of injustice, and I am glad to
have had time to go into the question of each individual prisoner."
* * *
Although he used to tell amusing stories against himself and his own
personal expenditure of money, yet Gordon had great aptitude for
finance, and could make money go farther than most men. Had his views
been adopted for Egypt, it is more than likely that we should have been
saved the Egyptian war, to say nothing of the loss of the Soudan, and
all that was associated with it. In the Soudan province there was an
annual deficit amounting to something like L259,000. By dint of cutting
down expenditure and increasing the receipts, Gordon reduced this
during the second year to L50,600! Had he continued Governor-General
for many years, there can be no question that he would have not only
made the two ends meet, but would have obtained sufficient to carry out
his schemes of opening up the country by railways and steamers, thus at
the same time developing trade and reducing slavery. He calculated that
with great economy, and utilising the machinery and the rails that were
already lying idle in the country, a highway from Cairo to Khartoum
might have been opened up for L70,000, a sum of money which over and
over again has been frittered away in building great useless palaces
for the Khedive or some other Egyptian official, which bring in no
income, and are a great expense to keep up. The traffic, especially the
conveyance of ivory and other merchandise, would soon have recouped the
Government for their original outlay. The way in which Colonel Gordon
was thwarted in every possible manner at this time troubled him a good
deal. "As for myself," he writes, "I am exceedingly weary, and wish,
with a degree of bitterness, that it was all over. I am cooped up here
now, but am much occupied with finances, which are in a very low state.
My life is burthensome and weary, but I feel that it is better to be
employed here than to be idle elsewhere."
Writing on November 20, 1878, he says:--
"I will give you an instance of the miserable way the Cairo
Government treats the Soudan. I asked H.H.[8] a long time ago to
send up a man A. H.H. replied he wanted the man A., and could not
send him. To-day I got a request for L7, 10s., stating that I had
asked for A., who was at Port Said; that in consequence A. went to
Cairo and said that he did not want to come; so they ask me to pay
the L7, 10s. for his passage from Port Said to Cairo and return,
which I have refused to do."
[8] The abbreviation he generally used for His Highness
the Khedive.
Closely associated with this question of finance was the still more
important question of slavery. The Khedive's Government were at this
time at their wit's end for money. They wrote to Colonel Gordon asking
him to send them L12,000, and he replied that he had no funds
available. Nubar Pasha, who was Minister at the time, was casting about
to see how money could be raised, and not being troubled with
conscientious scruples on the subject of slavery, he made overtures to
the great slave-dealer Zebehr, who, it will be remembered, was
practically a prisoner in Cairo. Zebehr jumped at the offer, and
promised to send L25,000 per annum to Cairo from the Soudan, if he were
made Governor-General in place of Gordon. This of course meant that he
would be allowed a perfectly free hand to kidnap as many slaves as
possible, in order to make up the annual deficit in addition to this
subsidy of L25,000. Writing from Khartoum on February 18, 1879, Gordon
says that he was ordered to return to Cairo for consultation. This,
however, he steadily refused to do, on the ground of certain
disturbances which had occurred. There was a simultaneous rebellion of
slave-dealers in the Bahr-Gazelle, and also risings in Darfour and
Kordofan, and Gordon felt it to be his duty to go and assist his
lieutenant, Gessi, who was endeavouring to crush Zebehr's gang. Again
all the horrors of the slave-trade were forced upon Gordon's mind.
"I declare if I could stop this traffic I would willingly be shot
this night. This shows my ardent desire; and yet, strive as I can,
I can scarcely see any hope of arresting the evil. Now comes the
question, Could I sacrifice my life and remain in Kordofan and
Darfour? To die quickly would be to me nothing; but the long
crucifixion that a residence in these horrid countries entails
appalls me. Yet I feel that, if I could screw up my mind to it, I
could cause the trade to cease, for its roots are in these
countries.... I have written to the Khedive to say I will not
remain as Governor-General, for I feel I cannot govern the country
to satisfy myself.... Now as I will not stay as Governor-General of
the whole of the Soudan, query, shall I stay as Governor of the
West Soudan, and crush the slave-dealers? I agree, if the death was
speedy; but oh! it is a long and weary one, and for the moment I
cannot face it."
Again, writing from Kalaka at the beginning of May 1879, he says:--
"All the road from here to Shaka is marked by the camping-places of
the slave-dealers, and there are numerous skulls by the side of the
road. What thousands have passed along here! I hear some districts
are completely depopulated, all the inhabitants having been
captured or starved to death."
But though Gordon could not do all he desired, he was enabled to do
more perhaps than any other man could have accomplished in the
circumstances, and by the end of June 1879, Suleiman, the son of the
great Zebehr, had been hunted down by Gessi, who discovered papers
clearly proving the guilt of both father and son. The latter was tried
by court-martial and shot, and Gordon sent the evidence against the
father to the Khedive. No notice was taken of it, and Gordon bitterly
complains that, instead of being punished, Zebehr was _pensioned_!
"What pensions," he asks, "have the widows and orphans whom Zebehr has
made by the thousand? What allowance have the poor worn-out bodies of
men, strong enough till he dragged them from their homes, who are now
draining the last bitter dregs of life in cruel slavery? What
recompense has been made to those whose bleached bones mark the track
of his trade over many and many a league of ground?"
Space does not permit a detailed account of the interesting and
exciting campaign in which Gessi delivered this crushing blow against
the great slave-dealer. No man had imbibed more of Gordon's detestation
to the slave trade than Gessi, and with quite a small force he captured
the redoubtable Suleiman, who had a large force at his disposal. Gordon
made him a Pasha and gave him a reward of L2000, which he richly
deserved.