CHAPTER XXV.

EMIN PASHA, GOVERNOR OF THE SOUDANESE PROVINCES.

Sketch of his Early Life -- His Real Name -- A Silesian by Birth -- Student at the University of Breslau -- Becomes a Physician -- Goes to Turkey and thence to Antivari and Scutari -- Attached to the Court of Valis Ismael Pasha Haggi -- Returns home in 1873 -- In 1875 goes to Egypt -- Enters the Egyptian Service as “Dr. Emin Effendi” -- Meets with Gordon -- Receives the post of Commander of Lado, together with the Government of the Equatorial Provinces -- Death of General Gordon and Retreat of Lord Wolseley’s Army -- Becomes Dependent upon his own Resources, after all Communication with the Egyptian Government is Cut Off -- Encompassed by Hostile Tribes, is Lost to the Rest of the World -- A Resume of what he Effected in his Administration of Public Affairs -- His Diary -- Extracts sent to Friends -- Insurrection, and Invasion of the Province by the Mahdi’s Forces -- His Position very Critical -- Excites the Sympathy of the Whole World.

Mr. Stanley’s return to America at the close of the Congo expedition, in 1886, was his first in thirteen years. But he was not to enjoy the rest which he had promised himself. His services were even then being called for, by the course events were shaping themselves in the Egyptian Soudan. Through the infamous action of the British Ministry, in abandoning Gordon and his followers to their fate in Central Africa, public opinion became thoroughly aroused to the necessity of sending an expedition to their relief. And to Stanley the eyes of the world at once turned as the man to lead it. To understand fully, however, the situation, it will be necessary to recount some of the history of Emin and his career in the Egyptian Soudan.

For a sketch of the early life of Emin Pasha we are indebted to Dr. Schweinfurth. He tells us that Emin’s right name is Edward Schnitzer, and that he was born in 1840 at Oppeln, in Silesia. His father, a merchant, died in 1845, and three years before that date the family removed to Neisse, where Emin’s mother and sister are still living. When Edward Schnitzer had passed through the gymnasium at Neisse he devoted himself to the study of medicine at the University of Breslau. During the years 1863 and 1864 he pursued his studies at the Berlin Academy. The desire for adventure and an exceptional taste for natural science induced the young medical student to seek a field for his calling abroad. He therefore, at the end of 1864, left Berlin with the intention of obtaining the post of physician in Turkey. Chance carried him to Antivari and then to Scutari. Here he soon managed to attract the attention of Valis Ismael Pasha Haggi, and was received into the following of that dignitary, who, in his official position, had to travel through the various provinces of the empire. When, in this way, Dr. Schnitzer had learned to know Armenians, Syrians, and Arabians, he finally reached Constantinople, where the Pasha died in 1873. In the summer of 1875 Dr. Schnitzer returned to his relations in Neisse; but after a few months the old passion for travel again came over him, and he betook himself to Egypt, where favorable prospects were opened out to him. With the beginning of the year 1876 he appears as “Dr. Emin Effendi,” enters the Egyptian service, and places himself at the disposal of the Governor-General of the Soudan. In the post there given him Dr. Emin met with Gordon, who two years before (1874) had been intrusted with the administration of the newly-created Equatorial province. Gordon was just the man to respect an Emin, and correctly estimate his gifts and capabilities. He sent him on tours of inspection through the territory and on repeated missions to King Mtesa at Uganda. When Gordon Pasha, two years later, became administrator of all territory lying outside the narrower limits of Egypt, Dr. Emin Effendi received the post of commander at Lado, together with the government of the Equatorial province. With how much fidelity and self-denial he devoted himself to his task is well known.

During the first three years of his term he drove out the slave-traders from a populous region of six million inhabitants. He converted a deficiency of revenues into a surplus. He conducted the government on the lines marked out by General Gordon, and was equally modest, disinterested, and conscientious. When the Mahdi’s rebellion broke out a governor-general of another stamp was at Khartoum. Emin’s warning from the remote south passed unheeded. Hick’s army, recruited from Arabi’s demoralized regiments, was massacred; the Egyptian garrisons throughout the Soudan were abandoned to their fate, atrocious campaigns of unnecessary bloodshed were fought on the seaboard, and General Gordon was sent to Khartoum to perish miserably while waiting for a relief expedition that crawled by slow stages up the Nile, and was too late to be of practical service. During all these years of stupid misgovernment and wasted blood Emin remained at his post. When the death of General Gordon and the retreat of Lord Wolseley’s army wiped out the last vestige of Egyptian rule in the regions of the upper Nile, the Equatorial provinces were cut off, neglected, and forgotten.

It then became impossible for Emin to communicate with the Egyptian Government, and he was practically lost to the rest of the world. He was dependent upon his own resources in a region encompassed by hostile tribes. He might easily have cut his way out to safety, by the way of the Congo or Zanzibar, with the best of his troops, leaving the women and children behind to their fate. But this he scorned to do. He stood at his post, and bravely upheld the standard of civilization in Africa. He had with him about four thousand troops at the outset. He organized auxiliary forces of native soldiers; he was constantly engaged in warfare with surrounding tribes; he garrisoned a dozen river stations lying long distances apart; his ammunition ran low, and he lacked the money needed for paying his small army. But, in the face of manifold difficulties and dangers, he maintained his position, governed the country well, and taught the natives how to raise cotton, rice, indigo, and coffee, and also how to weave cloth, and make shoes, candles, soap, and many articles of commerce. He vaccinated the natives by the thousand in order to stamp out small-pox; he opened the first hospital known in that quarter; he established a regular post-route with forty offices; he made important geographical discoveries in the basin of the Albert Lake; and in many ways demonstrated his capacity for governing barbarous races by the methods and standards of European civilization. The last European who visited him was Dr. Junker, the German traveller, who parted from him at Wadelai on January 1st, 1886. His position was then more favorable, but he had been reduced at one time to extremities, his soldiers having escaped by a desperate sortie, cutting their way through the enemy after they had been many days without food, and “when the last torn leather of the last boot had been eaten.” Letters written by him in October, 1886, at Wadelai, describing his geographical discoveries, were received in England in 1887, with a contributed article for a Scotch scientific journal. The provisions and ammunition sent to him by Dr. Junker had had a very encouraging effect upon his troops. He wrote: “I am still holding out here, and will not forsake my people.”

Emin kept a diary of his life and work, and, whenever opportunity offered, sent extracts from it in the form of letters to friends in Europe. From these a graphic idea may be formed of his unique career. In August, 1883, he wrote:

“It seems to me that when disturbances arise among a newly-subdued people it is chiefly to be attributed to wrong methods of action on the part of our people, who make exaggerated demands, forgetting that a newly-captured bird must first become accustomed to its cage. Intercourse with negroes and their treatment are not so difficult as often appears to inexperienced travellers, who know their mendacity, and, where they have the power, their extortion. It only requires inexhaustible patience and unruffled composure--virtues which are certainly not often acquired from the brandy-bottle. A sojourn of nearly eight years here has taught me that, with a little kind treatment, negroes are tolerably easy to govern. I have also certainly learnt that for Equatorial Africa temperance is a good habit....

“It is a beautiful characteristic of the Sandeh--the worst anthropophagi of our country--that they have the greatest affection for their wives and daughters, and would bear anything rather than their loss....

“From Gambari’s village, four days’ march brought me to Tingasi, our headquarters in Monbuttu, an hour’s march from Tangara’s residence. To this place visitors from all sides flocked in such numbers that I was often quite overwhelmed. From west and south came the chiefs with their trains--the Sandeh princes Bori, Kanna’s nephew; Mbiltima and Ikva, Uando’s sons; Mbrú and Massinse, the Monbuttu princes Tangara, Asanga, Munsa’s brother; Mbala, Munsa’s son; Kadabó, Benda, and others. In addition to these, the women, often as many as fifty or sixty, seated on little stools, were grouped round me, all beautifully painted black, with high chignons; those belonging to the princely houses, such as Munsa’s and Tangara’s daughters, being crowned with Monbuttu hats. If only you could have seen the transports of delight which Schweinfurth’s perfectly accurate drawings excited in this circle, and the interest with which they looked at my zoological sketches! The Monbuttu are a very highly-gifted people, and this would be a fertile field for happy and useful work. If anything is to be made of this richly-endowed country, here or nowhere is the place for a capable European official, who must, to be sure, possess some self-denial. If the Government would give the country over to me, independent of the Equatorial provinces proper, I should be quite willing to undertake the work at once. The distance from Lado could be diminished by the opening of new routes....

“I have been twice in Uganda, and believed I should meet with many persons like those in Monbuttu; but my expectations were not fulfilled. Monbuttu is very different from all that one is accustomed to see in Africa, and so different that a comparison can hardly be thought of. I was always meeting with indescribable splendor and luxuriance of vegetation--giant trees waving their tops together like a dome, more sublime and majestic than all the cathedrals in the world. Whoever wishes to attain a due sense of God’s majesty and power should go into these forests, and, silent and wondering, confess how miserable and contemptible are men’s works beside the works of Him who created this enchanting beauty and splendor.”

Troublous times came upon him, and in August, 1884, he was practically cut off from the rest of the world, and was in daily expectation of being assailed by the overwhelming hosts of the Mahdi. Under such circumstances he wrote:

“It will probably appear to you somewhat comical that, notwithstanding the non-arrival of a steamer, I should again take up my correspondence with you. It certainly seems as if we were totally deserted and forgotten by all the world. But I think that the good God, who has up to the present time protected us from all harm, will in the future also have us under His protection, and so, perchance, my letter may some day arrive at its destination. Whilst suffering from the very sorrowful impression which the surrender of Lupton Bey to the Mahdi’s troops had made upon me, I concluded my last letter to you in great haste. Dr. Junker wished to try to get to Zanzibar by the south route, _via_ Uganda, and was so good as to take with him all my correspondence. Since he left here nearly two months have passed, and as since then all kinds of curious rumors have reached me, he has decided to wait awhile in Dufilé and watch the course of events. Up to the present, thank God, the much-feared invasion of our province by the Mahdi’s troops has not taken place, and I have been able, by giving up nearly all of my outlying stations, to concentrate my few soldiers.... I must, however, tell you that I heard from Lupton that he had been compelled to surrender both himself and his province into the Mahdi’s hands, and that he thought the best thing I could do was to follow his example.”

“Well may our friends,” he wrote on New Year’s Day, 1885, “have long since given up all hope for us. Our own Government has certainly deserted us. Yet we have managed to hold our own, and to defend our flag. How long we shall still be able to do so is a mere question of time, for as soon as the little remaining ammunition which we possess is expended, it will be all up with us.... We are without news as to the course of events in Khartoum; in fact, the whole of the outer world seems to have vanished completely from our ken. We have now begun to manufacture for ourselves the most indispensable articles--very passable shoe-work, soap, and more recently still, cotton cloth for clothes. Candles made of wax prove very useful, and instead of sugar we use honey. We have not, however, yet succeeded in our endeavor to make vinegar, but I am not without hope that we shall have success in that direction. Temperance is naturally compulsory, for the drinks of native manufacture can only be consumed by children of the soil. Coffee, which we have long missed, we have at last replaced by roasting the seeds of a species of hibiscus, and brewing from it a fairly passable drink. Tea naturally does not exist. I thank God for His protection hitherto, and hope and have faith enough to believe that He will still protect us, and at last enable my few poor people to return to their homes in peace.

“_10th January._--Our fate it seems is soon to be decided. We hear that four hundred armed men from Bahr-el-Ghazal have joined the rebels and that one thousand five hundred more are on the way. Only a miracle can save us. I send at once as many as possible of my people to the south, for the route to Mtesa is still in existence. If I escape I will follow with my soldiers. But I can hardly expect to escape. It is shameful of our Government to have abandoned us.

“_12th January._--Dr. Junker goes in the meantime to Anfinas. He takes with him all my letters. If I see him again, as I hope I may, for I have some belief in my good star, I will write more. May God preserve you.”

There Emin remained with his body of Egyptian troops throughout all the disturbance in that region--the appearance of El Mahdi and his success in wresting some of the adjoining Soudanese provinces from the Egyptians; Arabi Pasha’s insurrection in Egypt and the subsequent Mahdist manœuvers. Emin and his small force were surrounded by hostile tribes. He was heard from but seldom, and at last all communication ceased. The position in which Emin found himself after Gordon’s death excited the sympathy of the whole world. He was the Governor of a province which he had blessed with many of the arts of civilization, but was without sufficient force to resist the encroachments of the enemy. He fought the slave trade and the slave dealers with something like the passion of fanaticism. He was hemmed in by hordes of cut-throats, and every effort to save himself from the impending fate seemed futile. It was feared he had fallen, like Gordon.

In reviewing the career of this remarkable man, who has been so skillfully extricated by Stanley and his expedition, the New York _Tribune_ has recently said, editorially:

“At his remote post of duty, this modest scientist has done more for the abolition of African slavery than any other man now living, if we except only his gallant deliverer. He gave civilization to an empire and the blessings of freedom to teeming millions. Throughout a territory larger than all our New England States he destroyed the slave trade, established government, and founded schools, posts and industries of varied kinds. His administration was more than self-supporting, and even after the betrayal of Khartoum and his isolation from the rest of the world, he was prepared to hold his own, if only he could have some trifling aid from Europe. That aid he did not get. There seemed to be neither money nor votes in helping him, so the statesmen of Europe went by on the other side. He conquered savagery, defied pestilence, and triumphed over every foe the wilderness could send against him. The one enemy he could not subdue was the selfish poltroonery of Europe. To that he has at last yielded. He has marched out in safety with honor upon his banners. He has left behind him the dismalest wreck in modern history to be a reproach to the Powers that betrayed him. That the desert was made to blossom like the rose, is Emin’s glory; that it now relapses into a worse desert than before, is Europe’s disgrace.”