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who presented themselves to Dr. Emin, were described to him as voluntarily set free. Altogether there were at this station at least 1,500 slaves; some of these slaves were, by a curious custom, them selves the masters of other slaves, who, located in the negro villages and armed with Government weapons, obliged the inhabitants to pay them an impost of produce, a portion of which they remitted to their masters. Other armed slaves went about the country hunting up slaves for their masters, and even did a little kidnapping on their own account. Mula Effendi, the chief of the Rohl district, was himself involved in this traffic, having at Ayak a branch house of his chief establishment at Rumbek, and he naturally manifested no disposition to proceed against his accomplices. In an ticipation of Dr. Emin's visit, and while he was detained at Ayak, the slave-dealers took advantage of the opportunity to clear their property out of the way; still, some 600 or 700 were found there, and it was reported that altogether there had been 3,000 in the place. The station was a frightful place, surrounded with all the horrors of slave-dealing-drunkenness, disease, and filth of every description. Fortunately, in consequence of Emin Pasha's order that henceforth every man should pay regular taxes and register his slaves, the Khartoum rabble'' had no desire to remain there, and took advantage of the permission to return home, or to retreat to the hunting grounds on the Bahr-el-Ghazal. The morning after the Governor's arrival, 165 Monbuttu slaves of both sexesamong them a number of children five or six years old, recently imported, and not knowing a single word of Arabic came to him, asking to be sent back to their country. Forty-five of these belonged to Mula Effendi, the Egyptian officer in the Rohl district.

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At the divan at Rumbek, Emin Pasha mentions that he sat on carpets and cushions which had formerly belonged to Zebehr Pasha, and had been captured from his son Sulieman during his flight. The Dar Fur slave-girls who handed round the coffee were also taken as booty from Sulieman. Since 1877 no accounts had been furnished to the Government from this district, nor had any been kept. Though the chiefs had reNEW SERIES.-VOL. XLV., No. 5

ceived money for the payment of wages no one had been paid anything for years. All, on the contrary, were owing money to the chief of the station for merchandise he had bought with Government funds, and had sold to them at triple its value. Slaves figured in these accounts as oxen, asses, etc. Forging seals, and fabricating receipts by the use of them, completed the catalogue of crimes which they called affairs of Government;"' and with it all the place was full of fakis (priests) and houses for prayer.

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If we turn to the province more immediately under Emin's own direction, we find a very different state of things. By the end of 1880 most of the stations had been rebuilt, and the whole of the province had been reduced to peace and order; while all the stations, then numbering about forty, were connected by a weekly post. Through his efforts slavery was entirely abolished, and the district was cleared of the slave-dealers who had carried on an underhand but extensive traffic up to the time of Emin Bey's appointment. With the exception of Gordon and Gessi Pashas no one has done such good service in the cause of freedom and civilization in Central Africa as Dr. Emin Bey. Writing in 1882, he reported that perfect quiet reigned in his province; his stores were full of ivory, rubber, ostrich feathers from the eastern part of the province, tamarinds, and oil, and his relations with the big native chiefs grew more friendly from day to day. In another letter he wrote: "Everything is flourishing in Lado, and my gardens are all in the best condition. I am now taken up completely with Latooka and Jadebek. What an immense country this is ! What a tremendous field of work is open. here!... Slatin Bey is, as you know,. the Governor of the whole of Darfour now, but he appears to have a miserable time of it on account of the abominable religious fanaticism of his people. I am certainly better off among my natives." In 1878 the Equatorial Province was only maintained at a deficit of £38,000 per annum. Three or four years later the province yielded a net revenue of £8,000, after paying the em ployés and all expenses, and this was obtained, not by oppressive taxation, but by the practice of rigid economy and

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the suppression of abuses which had previously existed. "Crime is unknown,' Dr. Felkin tells us, slavery does not exist; the people live at peace with each other, and, were it not for the wild animals, one could walk over the entire province with a walking-stick." Good roads were constructed, wagons made, and oxen trained to the yoke; camels also were introduced from the newlysettled region to the east of Lado as a means of transport, and a steamboat navigated the upper river and the Albert Nyanza. A complete postal arrangement was organized throughout the province; the native chiefs forwarded from one to another letters and packages as conscientiously as the Italian employés of the Khedival post office in Cairo. perfect was this system, that letters from the most southerly provinces of Egypt were delivered with marvellous rapidity, taking only a month and a half (fortysix days) from Lado to Cairo. spatches which Emin Bey sent to Monbuttu for Dr. Junker reached there after the latter's departure, but they followed him through the country of the NiamNiam without interruption. Dr. Junker replied by the direct road to Lado, and the Niam-Niam not only transmitted his letters, but likewise packages addressed to the Governor at Lado containing samples of the produce of the country. The people were taught to work for the sake of work and not from compulsion; they were instructed in weaving and in the cultivation of cotton, coffee, rice, and indigo, and wheat was introduced. In addition to the cares of government, Emin Pasha found time to relieve the physical sufferings of the people. At sunrise every morning, when at Lado, he was to be seen in his hospital, either prescribing for or operating upon his numerous patients; and at night, when government duties were over, instead of seeking well-earned repose, he would be found writing-by the light of candles made by himself-those reports on various scientific subjects which have enriched the pages of so many learned periodicals.

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1882), Dr. Felkin says: "Dr. Emin is a perfect gentleman, and does all in his power to help a stranger, being one of the most unselfish men I ever met. All his comforts he shared with us, and took much pains to give all the information his wide experience of these countries could afford, and I have to thank him for many notes on the manners and customs of the people. His great object in life is to make the people over whom he has control happy and contented, and to do as much as possible to raise and educate them. How much he has done will never be known, but to this I can bear testimony: Slavery and ill-treatment of natives have ceased in all his provinces, the natives are on friendly terms with the soldiers, and all live together in peace and prosperity. Without supplies from Khartoum for nearly two years, he still managed to satisfy his people, and though many of his soldiers were clad in simply a loin cloth, I never heard a murmur of discontent from them. He works very hard, and, in addition to his official duties, finds time to collect most valuable geographical and meteorological notes. When in Lado he superintends the hospital for the whole province, the institution possessing only one assistant, who knows very little of medical practice beyond dispensing."

All this work was accomplished without any assistance or encouragement from Egypt. Indeed, the central Government behaved, as Dr. Schweinfurth expressed it, like a hard-hearted mother toward these southern provinces. It sent a steamer perhaps once or twice a year to Lado; it left the employés unpaid, or, when they were paid, it was in merchandise at twice its real value. For a short time only had Emin any European coadjutor. In 1879 Mr. Frank Lupton (Lupton Bey), an Englishman whose love of travel had taken him to the Soudan, was appointed by Gordon Pasha to the post of Deputy-Governor of the Equatorial Provinces, and, during the short time that he remained with Emin Pasha, he materially assisted him in his journeys and in the work of government; but, on Gessi Pasha's death in 1881, he left him to assume the government of the Bahr-el-Ghazal province. Although I have a person sent to help

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me in Mr. Lupton's place," Emin pathetically writes, "I still feel very lonely; there is no one to help me in the head-work.' Again, writing just after his visit to the Rohl country, he exclaims : Oh, that I had men to help me, for the work is almost too great for me. What fearful places I have visited in this last journey! But I hope the knowledge I have gained will enable me, with God's help, to put an end to much misery; but what can a single man do? Oh, that I had a circle of true, hard-working men around me !"'

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Thus, in spite of discouragements and difficulties, Emin Bey was accomplish ing the civilization of the Equatorial Provinces, when the curtain fell on his work in consequence of the revolt of the Mahdi in the Soudan, only to be lifted again after an interval of nearly three years. Till Dr. Junker brought away his letters of December 31, 1885, the last authentic news from him was dated April 1883; during this interval he was cut off from all communication with the world, and only vague rumors from time to time leaked through. The rising of the fanatic of Dongola, Mahomed Ahmed, the Mahdi, took place in August 1881, four months after the death of Gessi Pasha; and rallying round him the slave-traders and other disaffected people, his revolt against Egyptian rule soon assumed alarming proportions. Emin foresaw the serious condition into which the Soudan would fall; and in the early part of 1882, before the road to the Equatorial Provinces was closed by the Mahdi's troops, he made a journey down to Khartoum to warn the Government, and to receive instructions as to his own action and the future of his province. He was ordered to return to his province, and told that he overestimated the gravity of the situation, while his offers to treat personally with the Mahdi were rejected. It is to this incident he alluded in his letter of December 31, 1885: When the troubles first began in the Soudan, I called attention to the extreme danger that existed, and people said I exaggerated matters; it is quite possible they will say the same now. In a letter written during his visit to Khartoum he said: "You will have heard of the so-called Mahdi and the disturbances he has caused.

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Blind fanaticism, unnecessary acts of horrible violence, cowardly delay and fear and unmeasured self-conceit, senseless measures of repression and perfectly uncalled-for insolence, are the factors which have brought about the burning discontent that has caused the people to lose their balance. Under these circumstances, I have tried to utilize my whole influence, my linguistic powers, and my acquaintance with the persons, in order to bring about, if possible, a modus vivendi between the two contending parties. I am curious to know whether the new Governor-General will be able to understand the position of affairs, and to grasp our requirements and the difficulties of the situation." But his warnings and advice were unheeded. He left Khartoum on June 15, 1882, and from that date, with the exception of a steamer which arrived on March 16 in the following year, he has had no single communication from Khartoum or Egypt; nor have any supplies been sent him.

The revolt spread, the Egyptian garrisons were defeated, and by the end of the year 1883 the Mahdi had gained undoubted possession of the eastern Soudan by the annihilation of Hicks Pasha's ill-fated army. In common with the other provinces the Equatorial Province suffered heavily. The station in the Rohl district was totally destroyed, and of the 300 soldiers there, Lupton Bey wrote in November 1883, probably not ten men escaped. It was only by stratagem, it appears, that Emin Bey saved his province. He was attacked by a force of the insurgents in 1885, and sustained severe loss in men and arms; but he ultimately delivered such a heavy blow to the rebels at Rimo, in Makaraka, that they were compelled to leave him alone. His weakened forces necessitated the abandonment of the more distant stations, and the withdrawal of the soldiers and their families to the stations on the river. Despairing of help from Egypt Emin turned his face toward the south to see if any way of escape opened in that direction. Leaving Lado he journeyed to Wadelai, a stockaded fort higher up the Nile, and endeavored to send a post to Uganda, but it came to grief through the hostility of the people of Mruli.

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the other hand, Mwanga, the ill-tempered King of Uganda, had intercepted and detained letters forwarded to the Egyptian Governor by way of Zanzibar. From his old friend Kaba Rega, King of Unyoro, however, Emin Bey received very different treatment. For him, he says, he has nothing but hearty praise. At my request he has twice sent me men, and by his kindness I have been able to buy a small quantity of cloth for distribution among my army. In this case, also, the negro has shown himself a good and valuable ally. When, eight years ago, I visited Kaba Rega, I little imagined that I should one day have to rely upon his assistance and friendship. Nevertheless, I was driven to do this, and, what is more, the negro has held me in friendly remembrance, has hastened to help his former friend, and has offered his hospitality and his succor. The cloth received from Kaba Rega was peculiarly welcome to the beleaguered garrisons, who had been reduced to great straits in the matter of clothes. Emin's men had learned long before to weave coarse cloth from cotton they had grown themselves, but the production was so small that it scarcely supplied more than a hundredth part of the requirements. It was through the friendship of the King of Unyoro that, at last, Emin managed to send by the hands of Dr. Junker those letters which a few months ago revealed his desperate position to the world.

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He had, indeed, suffered severely. Ever since the month of May 1883, he writes,*" we have been cut off from all communication with the world. For gotten and abandoned by the Government, we have been compelled to make a virtue of necessity. Ever since the occupation of the Bahr-el-Ghazal-I will not say its conquest, for this province has been taken by treachery-we have been vigorously attacked, and I do not know how to describe to you the admirable devotion of my black troops throughout a long war, which, for them at least, had no advantage. Deprived of the most necessary things, for a long time without any pay, my men fought valiantly; and when at last hunger weakened them, when, after nineteen

* Anti-Slavery Reporter (1886), p. 106.

days of incredible privations and sufferings, their strength was exhausted, and when the last torn leather of the last boot had been eaten, then they cut a way through the midst of their enemies and succeeded in saving themselves. All this hardship was undergone without the least arrière pensée, without even the hope of any appreciable reward, prompted only by their duty, and the desire of showing a proper valor before their enemies. If ever I had had any doubts of the negro, the history of the siege of Amadi would have proved to me that the black race is, in valor and courage, inferior to no other, while in devotion and self-denial it is superior to many. Without any orders from capable officers, these men performed miracles, and it will be very difficult for the Egyptian Government worthily to show its gratitude to my soldiers and officers. erto we have worked for our bread, and the good God, who until now has protected us visibly, will take care of us also in the future.

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All will echo this last prayer, and hope that he and his faithful black troops will be enabled to hold out until the relief that is now being taken out to them by Mr. H. M. Stanley, and which they have so long and so patiently been. awaiting, will reach them. When Dr. Junker left Wadelai at the commencement of last year, Emin Bey said he could hold out for eighteen months if not attacked, but his ammunition was getting very short. getting very short. It appears that Emin Bey has with him ten Egyptian and fifteen black officers, twenty Koptic clerks, who, with their wives and families, bring up the white population to a large number. His troops consist of some 1,500 Soudanese negroes, armed with Remington rifles and muzzle-loading guns. The native populations that would be affected by his relief are estimated by Dr. Felkin to number something like 6,000,000. The stations which these black troops are still believed to hold are Wadelai, Lado, Dufli, Regiaf, Bedden, Kerri, Fashoda, and Fatiko, of which all, except the lastnamed, are situated on the banks of the Nile.

In his last letter (published in the Times of December 9) Emin Bey writes: "I am glad to be able to tell you that

the province is in complete safety and order; it is true that the Bari gave us some little trouble, but I was soon able to reintroduce order in their district. Since I'last wrote you all the stations are busily employed in agricultural work, and at each one considerable cotton plantations are doing well; this is all the more important for us, as it enables us, to a certain extent, to cover our nakedness. I have also introduced the shoemaker's art, and you would be surprised to see the progress we have made. We now make our own soap, and we have at last enough meat and grain, so that we have enough to keep life going; such luxuries, however, as sugar, etc., of course we have not seen for many a long day. I forgot to say that we are growing the most splendid tobacco! Personally I am only in want of books and fine shot, arsenic, soda, etc., to enable me to continue the preparation of zoological specimens. Notwithstanding this, I am continuing to collect specimens whenever I am able, and in a few days I am sending collections for Professor Flower, Canon Tristram, and Dr. Günther, to Sir John Kirk at Zanzibar, and I trust he will have the goodness to forward them to England. They contain many new and interesting specimens, especially those collected in the Monbuttu and Niam-Niam districts."

Emin Pasha (for he has lately been raised to this distinction by the Khedive) is not the only European who is at the present time imprisoned in these troubled regions of Central Africa, and who stands in need of succor. He was joined before the outbreak of the war by Captain Casati, an Italian traveller, who is now in Unyoro with Kaba-Rega, awaiting an opportunity to get away. In the neighboring country of Uganda-now ruled over by the unfriendly son of Mtesathe English and French missionaries are in great jeopardy. Instigated by rumors of German aggression on the East Coast, and fearful whether his own kingdom, too, would be attacked, Mwanga wreaked his vengeance on the Christian converts of these missionaries. Last year, too, he made war on Kaba-Rega, and inflicted some severe losses on that king. Then, again, in the provinces of Bahr-el-Ghazal and Dar Fur, to the north of Emin Bey's province, the fate

of the European governors is still uncertain. In the former, Lupton Bey, Emin's former companion, who was doing good work in the cause of freedom and civilization, following up the work of Gessi, had been compelled to surrender to the emissaries of the Mahdi, and was by them carried to Khartoum. Slatin Bey also, who had charge of Dar Fur, surrendered nearly three years ago. It is much to be feared that the subsequent rumors of his death are true.

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Mr. Stanley hopes to reach Wadelai in June, and then will arise the question: What is to be the outcome of Emin's work in the Equatorial Provinces? Is he to be brought back to Europe with his companions, and the country abandoned to the horrors of the slave-trade? In the man who has been chosen as the leader of the relief expedition, and in the route which he proposes to take, lies a guarantee that it will not be so. The far-seeing founder of the Kongo Free State is not likely to undo the civilizing work which has already been accomplished, if means can found for still carrying it on. Emin Pasha himself will, of course, rest the decision as to whether he will remain at his post, or return to his native land to enjoy a well-earned repose. Here he will be right heartily welcomed, and our learned societies will look forward with great interest to the arrival of his scientific collections and the stores of information with which he will be able to enrich our knowledge of Equatorial Africa. If he returns, some means should certainly be found for continuing to hold the province, leaving some capable man in authority. This, Dr. Emin says, can be done with little or no cost, and, in fact, the natural resources of the country are amply sufficient to cover all expenses of government.

The products of the country are varied, and only need development to render them most valuable. Emin Pasha is believed to hold in his stores an immense quantity of ivory, waiting only for means of transport. The native tribes under his beneficent rule are industrious and friendly. The charming scenery around Fatiko in the Shuli country is, Dr. Junker tells us, diversified with large dhurra (millet) fields. At Dufli, the houses of the village are

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