CHAPTER XVIII.

ABANDONMENT OF THE SOUDAN.

The camp at Kavalli--Letter from Stanley to Jephson--Arrival of Jephson--Emin’s letter to Stanley--Meeting of Stanley and Emin--Determination to evacuate--Concentration at Kavalli--Council of war--Emin’s hesitation and Casati’s scruples--Egyptian attack upon the camp--Preparations for departure.

When, for the second time, Stanley reached the Lake, on January 16th, 1889, he placed his camp, not as before at Nsabé on the shore, but upon a plateau overlooking the plain, near Kavalli’s village. With his usual tact he at once succeeded in gaining the goodwill of the natives, who are numerous in that district, so that friendly relations and active trade were soon established between them and the members of the expedition. The second day after his arrival Stanley wrote to Mr. Jephson:--

“KAVALLI, _January 18th, 1889_.

“MY DEAR JEPHSON,--I now send thirty rifles and three of Kavalli’s men down to the Lake with my letters, with urgent instructions that a canoe should set off, and the bearers be rewarded....

“Be wise, be quick, and waste no hour of time, and bring Buiza and your own Soudanese with you....

“If the Pasha can come, send a courier on your arrival at our old camp on the Lake below here to announce the fact, and I will send a strong detachment to escort him up to the plateau, even to carry him, if he needs it. I feel too exhausted after my 1300 miles of travel since I parted from you last. May to go down to the Lake again. The Pasha must have some pity for me.

“Don’t be alarmed or uneasy on our account; nothing hostile can approach us within twelve miles without my knowing it. I am in the thickest of a friendly population, and if I sound the war-note, within four hours I can have 2000 warriors to assist to repel any force disposed to violence. And if it is to be a war of wits, why then I am ready for the cunningest Arab alive.

“I have read your letters half a dozen times, and my opinion of you varies with each reading. Sometimes I fancy you are half Mahdist or Arabist, and then Eminist. I shall be wiser when I see you.

“Now don’t you be perverse, but obey, and let my order to you be as a frontlet between the eyes, and all, with God’s gracious help, will end well.

“I want to help the Pasha somehow, but he must also help me, and credit me. If he wishes to get out of this trouble, I am his most devoted servant and friend; but if he hesitates again I shall be plunged in wonder and perplexity. I could save a dozen Pashas if they were willing to be saved. I would go on my knees to implore the Pasha to be sensible in his own case. He is wise enough in all things else, even his own interest.

“The Committee said, ‘Relieve Emin Pasha with this ammunition. If he wishes to come out, the ammunition will enable him to do so; if he elects to stay, it will be of service to him.’ The Khedive said the same thing, and added, ‘But if the Pasha and his officers wish to stay, they do so on their own responsibility.’ Sir Evelyn Baring said the same thing in clear and decided words, and here I am, after 4100 miles of travel, with the last instalment of relief. Let him who is authorised to take it, take it. Come; I am ready to lend him all my strength and wit to assist him.

But this time there must be no hesitation, but positive yea or nay, and home we go.--Yours very sincerely,

“HENRY M. STANLEY.”

Jephson arrived at Kavalli on February 6th. Stanley wrote to Emin on the following day, and a week later a messenger from Nsabé brought a letter from the Pasha, the contents of which quite electrified the camp.

“NSABÉ, _February 13th, 1889_.

“_To_ HENRY M. STANLEY, Esq., _Commanding the Relief Expedition_.

“SIR,--In answer to your letter of the 7th inst., for which I beg to tender my best thanks, I have the honour to inform you that yesterday, at 3 P.M., I arrived here with my two steamers, carrying a first lot of people desirous to leave this country under your escort. As soon as I have arranged for cover of my people, the steamships have to start for Mswa station, to bring on another lot of people awaiting transport.

“With me there are some twelve officers anxious to see you, and only forty soldiers. They have come under my orders to request you to give them some time to bring their brothers--at least, such as are willing to leave--from Wadelai, and I promised them to do my best to assist them. Things having to some extent now changed, you will be able to make them undergo whatever conditions you see fit to impose upon them. To arrange these I shall start from here with the officers for your camp, after having provided for the camp, and if you send carriers, I could avail me of some of them.

“I hope sincerely that the great difficulties you have had to undergo, and the great sacrifices made by your expedition in its way to assist us, may be rewarded by a full success in bringing out my people. The wave of insanity which overran the country has subsided, and of such as are now coming with me we may be sure.

“Signor Casati requests me to give his best thanks for your kind remembrance of him.

“Permit me to express to you once more my cordial thanks for whatever you have done for us until now, and believe me to be, yours very faithfully,

“DR. EMIN.”

The _Khedive_ and the _Nyanza_ were now at anchor off Nsabé, and their crews were preparing a camp upon the shore. Emin landed next day, accompanied by Captain Casati, the physician Vitu Hassan, Selim Bey, the defender of Dufilé, and seven other officers, who were a deputation from the troops of the Equatorial province. The Pasha was in mufti, but the deputation were in uniform. They were attended by about sixty-five people, consisting of soldiers and servants. The whole party mounted the slope leading to the plateau, and reached the camp where Stanley was awaiting them.

It was an affecting meeting. No longer, as in the previous April, was it a question between maintaining a footing on the Upper Nile and making a retreat; now, by the avowal of the brave but unfortunate governor himself, the idea of evacuation was already to the fore; the first signal of retreat had already been given.

In order that his force should be concentrated in the event of any hostile attack, Stanley had sent a message to the rear-guard that he had left in Mazamboni’s country with Messrs. Stairs, Nelson, and Parke, ordering them to come on at once to Kavalli, and on the 18th they all arrived.

All the white men, eight in number, and the principal members of Emin’s faithful staff, were now summoned to a divan to be held next day, when the plans for the future should be discussed.

The evacuation of the province was definitely decided on, but it was arranged that a reasonable time should be allowed to enable the troops in the various stations to be informed of the decision, so that they might embark themselves and their families, and all who were willing to leave, on board the steamers, and muster at the Nsabé camp on the Lake shore.

On the 25th the two steamers returned from Mswa with a fresh detachment of refugees, and about the same time Emin received a despatch from Wadelai, stating that in the absence of Selim Bey the rebels had again broken out into revolt, Selim had been deposed from his command, and several of the rebel officers had been promoted to the rank of Bey.

These tidings completely nullified any hopes that the Pasha might have entertained of re-establishing his authority, and made him determine to leave his own camp and join Stanley on the plateau. It was decided that a month would be sufficiently long to allow the faithful troops to rally round their chief, so that the final departure might take place in six weeks’ time, that is to say, about the 10th of April. Selim Bey and the officers then left Kavalli in order to collect all the people who desired to leave for Egypt.

[Illustration: MADI VILLAGE ON THE NILE BELOW WADELAÏ.

(_From a Photograph by Herr Richard Buchta._)]

Thirty days after Selim Bey’s departure, a steamer appeared before the Nyanza camp, bringing a letter from that officer, and one from all the rebel officers at Wadelai, announcing themselves ready to make submission to the “Envoy of the great Government,” and requesting to be allowed to return to Egypt under Stanley’s escort. Emin was also informed that Selim had already despatched one steamer full of refugees to Tunguru, and that since that time he had been engaged in transporting people from Dufilé to Wadelai, which he was making his rallying point. The Pasha, when he imparted what he called this “encouraging” news to Stanley, expressed his opinion it would require three months more to complete the concentration of the people at Kavalli, and desired to know what Stanley had determined on under the new aspect of affairs.

It was evident that Emin did not know how to tear himself away from the land where he had resided for eleven years, and which seems to have a kind of fascination for Europeans. He hesitated, too, about leaving the soldiers, who, until some foolish fancy had warped their reason, had always served him faithfully and well. He had scruples about following Stanley; he seemed thereby to be breaking his promise to Gordon, his venerated chief, that he would shed the very last drop of his blood in the Soudan in the cause of civilisation and progress.

Stanley, however, was not so much enthralled by the fascinations of a country in which his experiences had been so rough, where he had run so many fatal risks, and where he had seen his companions die around him by the score. He was fully sensible of the import of the events that had transpired, and he represented, with much show of reason, that in the present state of anarchy, a handful of Europeans, however valiant they might be, could do nothing for the cause of civilisation at Wadelai, which by this time was probably in the power of encroaching Mahdists, mutinous soldiers, or hostile natives.

Moreover, his mission was to rescue Emin from danger, and he considered that it was the Pasha’s duty to take advantage of the deliverance that was offered him. As a practical man, he saw no good in a useless sacrifice. The difficulties that had to be overcome in persuading Emin and Casati to make their retreat, and the incidents attending them, may best be told in the explorer’s own words:--

“I summoned the officers of the expedition together--Lieutenant Stairs, R.E., Captain R. H. Nelson, Surgeon Parke, A.M.D., Mounteney Jephson, Esq., and Mr. William Bonny, and proposed to them in the Pasha’s presence that they should listen to a few explanations, and then give their decision, one by one, according as they should be asked.

“Gentlemen, Emin Bey has received a mail from Wadelai. Selim Bey, who left the post below here on the 26th February last, with a promise that he would hurry up such people as wished to go to Egypt, writes from Wadelai that the steamers are engaged in transporting some people from Dufilé to Wadelai; that the work of transport between Wadelai and Tunguru will be resumed upon the accomplishment of the other task. When he went away from here we were informed that he was deposed, and that Emin Pasha and he were sentenced to death by the rebel officers. We now learn that the rebel officers, ten in number, and all their faction, are desirous of proceeding to Egypt; we may suppose, therefore, that Selim Bey’s party is in the ascendant again.

“Shukri Aga, the chief of the Mswa station--the station nearest to us--paid us a visit there in the middle of March. He was informed on the 16th of March, the day that he departed, that our departure for Zanzibar would positively begin on the 10th of April. He took with him urgent letters for Selim Bey announcing that fact in unmistakable terms. Eight days later we hear that Shukri Aga is still at Mswa, having only sent a few women and children to the Nyanza camp, yet he and his people might have been here by this if they intended to accompany us.

“Thirty days ago Selim Bey left us with a promise of a reasonable time. The Pasha thought once that twenty days would be a reasonable time. However, we have extended it to forty-four days. Judging by the length of time Selim Bey has already taken, only reaching Tunguru with onesixteenth of the expected force, I personally am quite prepared to give the Pasha my decision. For you must know, gentlemen, that the Pasha having heard from Selim Bey ‘intelligence so encouraging,’ wishes to know my decision, but I have preferred to call you to answer for me.

“You are aware that our instructions were to carry relief to Emin Pasha, and to escort such as were willing to accompany us to Egypt. We arrived at the Nyanza, and met Emin Pasha in the latter part of April 1888, just twelve months ago. We handed him his letters from the Khedive and his Government, and also the first instalment of relief, and asked him whether we were to have the pleasure of his company to Zanzibar. He replied that his decision depended on that of his people.

“This was the first adverse news that we received. Instead of meeting with a number of people only too anxious to leave Africa, it was questionable whether there would be any except a few Egyptian clerks. With Major Barttelot so far distant in the rear, we could not wait at the Nyanza for this decision. As that might possibly require months, it would be more profitable to seek and assist the rear-column, and by the time we arrived here again, those willing to go to Egypt would probably be impatient to start. We, therefore, leaving Mr. Jephson to convey our message to the Pasha’s troops, returned to the forest region for the rear-column, and in nine months were back again on the Nyanza. But instead of discovering a camp of people anxious and ready to depart from Africa, we find no camp at all, but hear that both the Pasha and Mr. Jephson are prisoners, that the Pasha has been in imminent danger of his life from the rebels, and at another time is in danger of being bound on his bedstead and taken to the interior of Makkaraka country. It has been current talk in the province that we were only a party of conspirators and adventurers, that the letters of the Khedive and Nubar Pasha were forgeries concocted by the vile Christians, Stanley and Casati, assisted by Mohammed Emin Pasha. So elated have the rebels been by their bloodless victory over the Pasha and Mr. Jephson, that they have confidently boasted of their purpose to entrap me by cajoling words, and strip our expedition of everything belonging to it, and send us adrift into the wilds to perish.

“We need not dwell on the ingratitude of these men, or on their intense ignorance and evil natures, but you must bear in mind the facts to guide you to a clear decision.

“We believed when we volunteered for this work that we should be met with open arms. We were received with indifference, until we were led to doubt whether any people wished to depart. My representative was made a prisoner, menaced with rifles, threats were freely used. The Pasha was deposed, and for three months was a close prisoner. I am told this is the third revolt in the province. Well, in the face of all this, we have waited nearly twelve months to obtain the few hundreds of unarmed men, women, and children in this camp. As I promised Selim Bey and his officers that I would give a reasonable time, Selim Bey and his officers repeatedly promised to us there should be no delay. The Pasha has already fixed April 10th, which extended their time to forty-four days, sufficient for three round voyages for each steamer. The news brought to-day is not that Selim Bey is close here, but that he has not started from Wadelai yet.

“In addition to his own friends, who are said to be loyal and obedient to him, he brings the ten rebel officers, and some 600 or 700 soldiers, their faction.

“Remembering the three revolts which these same officers have inspired, their pronounced intentions against this expedition, their plots and counterplots, the life of conspiracy and smiling treachery they have led, we may well pause to consider what object principally animates them now--that from being ungovernably rebellious against all constituted authority, they have suddenly become obedient and loyal soldiers of the Khedive and his ‘great Government.’ You must be aware that, exclusive of the thirty-one boxes of ammunition delivered to the Pasha by us in May 1888, the rebels possess ammunition of the Provincial Government equal to twenty of our cases. We are bound to credit them with intelligence enough to perceive that such a small supply would be fired in an hour’s fighting among so many rifles, and that only a show of submission and apparent loyalty will ensure a further supply from us. Though the Pasha brightens up each time he obtains a plausible letter from these people, strangers like we are may also be forgiven for not readily trusting those men whom they have such good cause to mistrust. Can we be certain, however, that if we admit them into this camp as good friends and loyal soldiers of Egypt, they will not rise up some night and possess themselves of all the ammunition, and so deprive us of the power of returning to Zanzibar? With our minds filled with Mr. Jephson’s extraordinary revelations of what has been going on in the province since the closing of the Nile route, beholding the Pasha here before my very eyes--who was lately supposed to have several thousands of people under him, but now without any important following--and bearing in mind ‘the cajolings’ and ‘wiles’ by which we were to be entrapped, I ask you, would we be wise in extending the time of delay beyond the date fixed--that is, the 10th of April?”

“The officers one after the other replied in the negative.

“‘There, Pasha,’ I said, ‘you have your answer. We march on the 10th of April.’

“The Pasha then asked if we could ‘in our consciences acquit him of having abandoned his people,’ supposing they had not arrived on the 10th of April? We replied, ‘Most certainly.’

“Three or four days after this I was informed by the Pasha--who pays great deference to Captain Casati’s views--that Captain Casati was by no means certain that he was doing quite right in abandoning his people. According to the Pasha’s desire I went over to see Captain Casati, followed soon after by Emin Pasha.

“Questions of law, honour, duty, were brought forward by Casati, who expressed himself clearly that _moralemente_ Emin Pasha was bound to stay by his people.

“I had to refute these morbid ideas with the A B C of common sense. I had to illustrate the obligations of Emin Pasha to his soldiers by comparing them to a mutual contract between two parties. One party refused to abide by its stipulations, and would have no communication with the other, but proposed to itself to put the second party to death. Could that be called a contract? Emin Pasha was appointed governor of the province. He had remained faithful to his post and duties till his own people rejected him, and finally deposed him. He had been informed by his Government that if he and his officers and soldiers elected to quit the province they could avail themselves of the escort of the expedition which had been sent to their assistance, or stay in Africa on their own responsibility; that the Government had abandoned the province altogether. But when the Pasha informs his people of the Government’s wishes, the officers and soldiers declare the whole to be false, and for three months detain him a close prisoner. Where was the dishonour to the Pasha in yielding to what was inevitable and indisputable? As for duty, the Pasha had a dual duty to perform, that to the Khedive as his chief, and that to his soldiers. So long as neither duty clashed, affairs proceeded smoothly enough; but the instant it was hinted to the soldiers that they might retire now if they wished, they broke out into open violence and revolted, absolved the Pasha of all duty towards them, and denied that he had any duty to perform to them. Consequently the Pasha could not be morally bound to care in the least for people who would not listen to him.

“I do not think Casati was convinced, nor do I think the Pasha was convinced. But it is strange what strong hold this part of Africa has upon the affections of European officers, Egyptian officers, and Soudanese soldiers!...

“The day after I was informed that there had been an alarm in my camp the night before; the Zanzibari quarters had been entered by the Pasha’s people, and an attempt made to abstract the rifles. This it was that urged me to immediate action.

“I knew there had been conspiracies in the camp, that the malcontents were increasing, that we had many rebels at heart against us, that the people dreaded the march more than they feared the natives; but I scarcely believed that they would have dared to put into practice their disloyal ideas in my camp.

“I proceeded to the Pasha to consult with him, but the Pasha would consent to no proposition, not but what they appeared necessary and good, but he could not, owing to the want of time, &c. Yet the Pasha the evening before had received a post from Wadelai which brought him terrible tales of disorder, distress, and helplessness among Selim Bey and his faction, and the rebels and their adherents.

“I accordingly informed him that I proposed to act immediately, and would ascertain for myself what this hidden danger in the camp was, and, as a first step, I would be obliged if the Pasha would signal for general muster of the principal Egyptians in the square of his camp.

“The summons being sounded, and not attended to quickly enough to satisfy me, half a company of Zanzibaris were detailed to take sticks and rout every one from their huts. Dismayed by these energetic measures, they poured into the square, which was surrounded by rifles.

“On being questioned, they denied all knowledge of any plot to steal the rifles from us, or to fight, or to withstand in any manner any order. It was then proposed that those who desired to accompany us to Zanzibar should stand on one side. They all hastened to one side except two of the Pasha’s servants. The rest of the Pasha’s people, having paid no attention to the summons, were secured in their huts, and brought to the camp-square, where some were flogged, and others ironed and put under guard.

“‘Now, Pasha,’ I said, ‘will you be good enough to tell all these Arabs that these rebellious tricks of Wadelai and Dufilé must cease here, for at the first move made by them I shall be obliged to exterminate them utterly.’

“On the Pasha translating, the Arabs bowed, and vowed that they would obey their father religiously.”

From that time the evacuation was determined on, and preparations were made for an immediate start. Of Emin’s people there were 84 married women, 187 female domestics, 74 children above two years, 35 infants in arms; these with the men made up a total of about 600. The relief expedition numbered 550, and 350 native carriers had been enrolled from the district to assist in carrying the baggage, so that on the 10th of April the caravan set out from Kavalli in number about 1500.