Ismailia by Sir Samuel White Baker (affordable ebook reader .txt) 📕

ONLY LOST ONE MAN FROM SICKNESS, and he was at an out-station.

In moments of doubt and anxiety she was always a thoughtful and wise counsellor, and much of my success through nine long years passed in Africa is due to my devoted companion.

The foundation for a great future has been laid; a remote portion of the African race hitherto excluded from the world's history has been brought into direct communication with the superior and more civilized races; legitimate trade has been opened; therefore, accepting commerce as the great agent of civilization, the work is actually in progress.

Fortified posts extend to within two degrees of the equator. The alliance with M'tese, the king of Uganda, enabled me not only to communicate by letter (addressed to Livingstone) in the distant country of Unyanyembe, but a reply was sent by Lieutenant Cameron, together with large presents of ivory, to me at Gondokoro, [*] as I have been informed by a letter from Colonel Gordon.


[*Footnote: The letter and the ivory from M'tese were received by Colonel Gordon.]


The Khedive of Egypt, having appointed Colonel Gordon, R.E., has proved his determination to continue the work that was commenced under so many difficulties. The Nile has been opened to navigation; and if the troubles that I encountered and overcame shall have smoothed the path for my able and energetic successor, I shall have been well rewarded.

The first steps in establishing the authority of a new government in a tribe hitherto savage and intractable were of necessity accompanied by military operations. War is inseparable from annexation, and the law of force, resorted to in self-defence, was absolutely indispensable to prove the superiority of the power that was eventually to govern. The end justified the means.

At the commencement of the expedition I had felt that the object of the enterprise--"the suppression of the slave trade"--was one for which I could confidently ask a blessing.

A firm belief in Providential support has not been unrewarded. In the midst of sickness and malaria we had strength; from acts of treachery we were preserved unharmed; in personal encounters we remained unscathed. In the end, every opposition was overcome: hatred and insubordination yielded to discipline and order. A paternal government extended its protection through lands hitherto a field for anarchy and slavery. The territory within my rule was purged from the slave trade. The natives of the great Shooli tribe, relieved from their oppressors, clung to the protecting government. The White Nile, for a distance of 1,600 miles from Khartoum to Central Africa, was cleansed from the abomination of a traffic which had hitherto sullied its waters.

Every cloud had passed away, and the term of my office expired in peace and sunshine. In this result, I humbly traced God's blessing.


FINIS.

APPENDIX.

A few extracts from the valuable work of Dr. Schweinfurth will throw a light upon the spirit which animated the authorities, all of whom were incensed at my having presumed to understand the Khedive's orders literally respecting the suppression of the slave trade.

In page 485, vol. ii., he writes:--" The ill-feeling and smothered rage against Sir Samuel Baker's interference nurtured by the higher authorities, breaks out very strongly amongst the less reticent lower officials. In Fashoda, and even in Khartoum, I heard complaints that we (the Franks) were the prime cause of all the trouble, and if it had not been for our eternal agitation with the Viceroy, such measures would never have been enforced."

In page 477, vol. ii., he continues:--"Notwithstanding that Sir Samuel Baker was still on the upper waters of the river, the idea was quite prevalent in all the seribas, that as soon as the 'English Pacha' had turned his back upon Fashoda (the government station in the Shillook country), the mudir (governor) would relapse into his former habits, and levy a good round sum on the head of every slave, and then let the contraband stock pass without more ado. But for once the seriba people were reckoning without their host. The mudir had been so severely reprimanded by Baker for his former delinquencies, that he thought it his best policy, for this year at least, to be as energetic as he could in his exertions against the forbidden trade."

In page 470, vol. ii., Dr. Schweinfurth writes:--"I knew that Sir Samuel Baker was upon the Upper Nile, and did not doubt that his presence would have the effect of making the government take the most strenuous measures against any import of slaves."

Page 429, vol. ii.:--" Before Sir Samuel Baker's expedition put a stop to it altogether, the slave trade that was carried on down the river was quite insignificant compared to the overland traffic." "For years there has been a public prohibition against bringing slaves down the White Nile into Khartoum, and ever and again stronger repressive measures have been introduced, which, however, have only had the effect of raising the land traffic to a premium; but as a general rule, the Egyptian officials connive at the use of this comparatively unimportant channel of the trade, and pocket a quiet little revenue for themselves by demanding a sum varying from two to five dollars a head as hush-money."

In page 429, vol. ii.:--"The expedition of Sir Samuel Baker has stopped the source."

In page 410, vol. ii., Dr. Schweinfurth writes:--"Already had Sir Samuel Baker, with praiseworthy energy, commenced scouring the waters of the Upper Nile, and by capturing all slave-vessels and abolishing a large 'chasua' belonging to the mudir (governor) of Fashoda, had left no doubt as to the earnestness of his purpose," &c.

In page 83, vol. i.:--"Beyond the true eastern shore, the Dinka are said to be settled in extensive villages, and at that time still furnished an inexhaustible supply of slaves to the marauding expeditions of the garrison of Fashoda. In 1870 Baker succeeded in putting an end to this disorder, the knowledge of which penetrated to the most remote tribes."

The evidence of so trustworthy a traveller as Dr. Schweinfurth is exceedingly valuable, as he was in the Western Nile districts at the time that I was actively engaged; thus he had opportunities of witnessing the results of my interference, and the hostility exhibited by the authorities. He is simply in error concerning the importance of the slave trade of the river, which he much underrates, as will have already been seen by the fact of 700 slaves being stowed away upon only three vessels belonging to Abou Saood.

These vessels, that were captured by my orders at Fashoda, on their way towards Khartoum, were an example of the truth foretold by the traders with whom Dr. Schweinfurth was travelling in the west--"that as soon as the English Pacha had turned his back upon Fashoda, the governor would relapse into his former habits, and levy a good round sum on the head of every slave, and then let the contraband cargo pass without more ado."

There were always well-known slave routes through Kordofan, but these channels became of extreme importance when I rendered the slave traffic of the river impossible.

It is quite unnecessary to write more on the subject of the slave trade. The Khedive of Egypt was sincere when he gave me the orders to suppress this horrible traffic; and I trust, from the simple description of the expedition, the world will acknowledge that in this duty I exhibited the utmost leniency towards the ruffianly lessees of the Soudan government.

I am convinced that the Khedive is sincere at heart in wishing to suppress the slave trade, but he requires unusual moral courage to enter the lists single-handed against Egyptian public opinion.


MISSIONARY LABOUR.

My opinion has been frequently asked on this subject, and many have endeavoured to persuade me that a rapid change and improvement of the natives may be effected by such an agency. I cannot resist by argument such fervent hopes; but if good and capable men are determined to make the attempt, they may now be assured of peace and security at Gondokoro, where they will have the advantage of the good name left by the excellent but unfortunate members of the late Austrian mission.


GEOGRAPHY.

I have not changed my opinions that have already been expressed in "The Albert N'yanza," except that, from the native testimony, I presume there must be a channel which connects either a lake or series of lakes with the Albert N'yanza.

Without a guide, it would be a work of much time and difficulty to discover the true channel among the labyrinth-like inlets that characterize the vast beds of floating water-grass.

Many years ago, when at Magungo, on the Albert N'yanza, I could not at first believe that the raft-choked entrance of the Victoria Nile in apparently dead water was indeed the mouth of that important river. My subsequent experience in the marshy and lacustrine Bahr Giraffe has confirmed my impressions of the extreme difficulty of deciding upon the non-existence of a channel until after a lengthened investigation.

I cannot conceive that the Lualaba of Livingstone can be included within the Nile Basin. Livingstone decided the level of the Tanganyika lake to be within 72 feet of my level of the Albert N'yanza. With the same instruments he determined the altitude of the Lualaba to be lower than the Albert N'yanza, thus showing the impossibility of a connection between that river as an affluent with the lake.

I will not presume to assert that the Lualaba is a source of the Congo, as I have a strong objection to geographical theories or assertions unless proved by actual inspection, but if Livingstone's observations for altitude are correct, it is impossible that the Lualaba can be connected with the Nile. [*]


[*Footnote: Mr. Stanley's discoveries since this was written have confirmed my suppositions.]


Dr. Schweinfurth's discovery of the Welle river flowing towards the west, between the 3rd and 4th deg. N. lat., is a clear proof that no river can be running from the south to the north-east towards the Nile Basin, otherwise the Welle river would be intersected.

In page 186, vol. ii., Dr. Schweinfurth [*] writes:--"Its course [the Lualaba], indeed, was towards the north; but Livingstone was manifestly in error when he took it for a true source of the Nile, a supposition that might have some semblance of foundation originating in the inexplicable volume of the water of Lake M'wootan (Albert N'yanza), but which was negatived completely as soon as more ample investigation had been made as to the comparative level, direction, and connection of other rivers, especially of the Welle."


[*Footnote: "The Heart of Africa."]


Although Dr. Schweinfurth was unprovided with astronomical instruments, we may place thorough reliance in the integrity and ability of this traveller, who has taken the greatest pains to arrive at true conclusions. I am quite of his opinion, that the Welle is outside the Nile Basin, and drains the western watershed.

In a letter from Dr. Livingstone addressed to Sir Bartle Frere, dated Lake Bangweolo, 27th Nov. 1870, he writes:--" The Tanganyika, whose majestic flow I marked by miles and miles of confervae and other aquatic vegetation for three months during my illness at Ujiji, is, with the lower Tanganyika, discovered by Baker, a riverine lake from twenty to thirty miles broad."

It is thus clear that Livingstone considered that the Tanganyika and the Albert N'yanza were one water. On 30th May, 1869, dated Ujiji, he writes to Dr. Kirk:--"Tanganyika, N'zige Chowambe (Baker?) are one water, and the head of it is 300 miles south of this."

"The majestic flow" of confervae remarked by Livingstone on the Tanganyika is beyond my comprehension,