CHAPTER V.

PRISONERS IN THE SOUDAN.

Native rising in the Bahr-el-Ghazal--Fall of Rumbek, Gaba-Shambe, and Bor--Lupton Bey a prisoner--The Emir Karam-Allah--Siege of Amadi--Heroic conduct of negro troops--Transfer of seat of government from Lado to Dufilé--Letter from the Mahdi--Battle of Rimo--Emin Bey at Wadelai--Dr. Junker amongst the Lango--Emin Bey’s army, fortifications, and boats--Dr. Junker prepares to start for the coast.

It was in Lupton Bey’s province of the Gazelle that the insurrectionary movement first broke out. The Denka betook themselves to arms, and for eighteen months waged a determined and sanguinary war against the Government troops; and in spite of Lupton making a levy of all the force at his disposal, he was unequal to the task of suppressing the revolt.

The Nuer, the Agar, and various other tribes of the Rol River, were not long in following the lead of the Denka, and the Egyptian station at Rumbek was captured and destroyed.

[Illustration: BARI WARRIORS.

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

With reference to this trying period, speaking on the 20th of May 1887 at a meeting of the Geographical Society of Paris, Dr. Junker said--“Throughout the critical circumstances of that time Lupton Bey’s conduct was most admirable. His letters, dated from every quarter of the province, attest that he was ubiquitous in pursuit of his fugitive adversaries. The details of that arduous struggle are not well known in Europe, and consequently the general public has never duly appreciated Lupton’s merits. That war of the Denka for eighteen months against the Government troops, was more desperate and murderous than the subsequent encounters with the Mahdists in the province of Emin Bey.”

Within a year Lupton was engaged in more than twenty battles. To aggravate his difficulty, the Arabs, who favoured the rebellion, sent reinforcements to maintain the conflict, and in spite of the most heroic efforts to suppress it, the insurrection kept on spreading until it reached the western tribes of the Equator province. At the end of 1883 the Bari began to make a movement, and at the beginning of the following year the station of Gaba-Shambe, with its entire garrison, fell into the hands of the rebels, a loss which was quickly followed by that of Bor.

Henceforth, Emin’s province lay open to the encroachments of the insurgents.

It was just at this time that Gordon arrived at Khartoum, and the blockade of that town was commencing. Communication with the north was already cut off, as Fashoda, situated on both sides of the Nile at the confluence of the Sobat and the Bahr-el-Ghazal, was in the hands of the Mahdi’s followers, who kept continually advancing to the south.

Deserted by a portion of his troops, Lupton was unable to hold out. In May he was reduced to extremities and compelled to surrender himself a prisoner. He was taken to Kordofan. No long time elapsed before there was not a soldier who remained faithful to the Khedive, and every station, with its ammunition and provisions, passed into the hands of the Arabs.

[Illustration: BARI WOMEN.

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

At Lado, on the 27th of May, the three Europeans received a letter from Lupton, making them aware of his misfortune. At the same time came a message from a certain Emir Karam-Allah, a _soidisant_ lieutenant of the Mahdi’s, calling on Emin, as Governour of the province, to appear personally before him and make submission. Emin was in perplexity, but was anxious above all things to gain time. He sent word to the Emir that, being desirous to avoid useless bloodshed, he would not refuse to appear before him, but that the hostility of the natives against him was so great that he could not venture to leave his quarters; he represented that his departure would be the signal for a general mutiny, and added that, while he was thus careful to protect the lives of his soldiers, he was nevertheless willing to hold the province as being under the Mahdi’s authority; finally declaring that he could not think of quitting his post until a successor had been appointed, and that he should accordingly wait for further instructions.

Without loss of time, however, he concentrated all his force. Abandoning all outlying stations, he gathered his troops into one body, and proceeded to make preparation for an attack which he foresaw was imminent.

At the close of the year 1884 things had indeed become serious, and a report was spread that a large force, commanded by the Emir Karam-Allah in person, was marching upon the station of Amadi, just five days’ journey from Lado.

The rumour was only too true. Amadi had to sustain a siege, and for nineteen days its gallant little garrison, composed entirely of negro soldiers under Soudanese officers, maintained a resistance. At last, coming to the end of their resources, they made a desperate dash, and breaking through the line of the besiegers, succeeded in effecting a retreat into the Makraka country.

In recounting this feat of arms, thus valorously accomplished by negroes, Emin Pasha wrote to his friend, Dr. Robert Felkin, in Edinburgh:--“Ever since the Arab occupation of the Bahr-el-Ghazal--I will not say its conquest, since everything that has been gained has been gained by treachery--we have been most vigorously attacked; and I feel that I cannot give you an idea of the admirable devotion of my black troops throughout this long war, in which for them at least there can be no advantage. Destitute of the barest necessaries of life, and with their pay long in arrears, they fought most resolutely, and when at last, after nineteen days of hardship and privation, weakened by hunger--the last shred of leather, the last boot having been devoured--they forced a gap in the enemy’s ranks and made good their escape.

“These brave fellows endured all this misery with perfect disinterestedness, without prospect of reward, simply because they were prompted by a sense of duty and were desirous of exhibiting their bravery to the foe. Whatever doubts I may ever have had of the negro, the history of the siege of Amadi has convinced me that in resolute courage the black race is inferior to none, and in the spirit of self-sacrifice is superior to many. Without any highly skilled officers to direct them or give them orders, they performed miracles, and it will be difficult for the Egyptian Government to give them any worthy proof of its gratitude.”

The emergency became more pressing, and another change of headquarters was soon imperative. In the north-west of the province the Mahdi’s force continued to advance, while the prospect of an attack by Karam-Allah upon Lado seemed more threatening. Accordingly Emin Bey resolved upon a fresh concentration of his men upon the Nile, and hastened to transfer the seat of his government from Lado to Dufilé, whither were conveyed all the Coptic and Egyptian officials, as well as all the Government papers and records.

Shortly after this a message was received from the victorious Emir announcing that he was on his way to Lado. It was accompanied by a transcript of a letter written by the Mahdi at Khartoum, dated the 28th of January, communicating the intelligence of the fall of that town and the death of Gordon.

“_Copy of a gracious order of our Lord the Mahdi--may he be blessed!--to his representative Karam-Allah, Emir of the Bahr-el-Ghazal and of the Equator_:--

“The devoted slave of God, Mohammed-el-Mahdi, son of Abdallah, to his dearly beloved representative, Karam-Allah, son of the Sheik Mohammed:--

“My son, receive my greeting! The blessing of the merciful God be upon thee!

“I bid thee know that according to the infallible predictions of God, and by His immutable goodness, the town of Khartoum, by the aid of the living and immortal, was taken on Monday the 26th of Jany. in the present year.

“Early in the morning, the troops of the faithful applied themselves to their task, and, confident in God, they made an assault. In less than half an hour the enemies of God were in their hands; they were annihilated to a man; so too their fortress.

“Strongly prepared for defence though they were, they yielded at the first onslaught, dispersed by the hand of the Lord. Then they sought safety in flight, crowded into the courtyards, and closed the gates. Our army pursued them, put them to the edge of the sword, attacked them with lances until their cries were heard aloud, their tears outpoured, and they were stricken with consternation. Not long were the faithful in getting the upper hand of the survivors who had closed the gates; they captured them and slew them, so that none but women and children remained to defend the place.

“Gordon, the enemy of God, so long a rebel and insurgent, so often warned by us and invited to place himself under the hand of God, refused to submit; wherefore he has found his fate; he has reaped in sorrow what he sowed in guilt; God hath sent him to hell, there for ever to abide.

“Thus has the might of the unbeliever been destroyed. Thanks be to God, the Lord of all the earth!

“On our side, ten died the death of the believer; not another was wounded nor even bruised in the encounter. Behold the Divine mercy! The victory is from God; before Him we prostrate ourselves in adoration. Do likewise; and accept my greeting.

“12 REBI ACHIR, 1302.”

This mournful intelligence, confirmed by the non-arrival of the ordinary Khartoum steamer, and coming so quickly after the tidings of the Emir’s successes in the south, thoroughly opened Emin Bey’s eyes to the gravity of the situation in which he was placed. The loss of Amadi, following upon Lupton’s retirement from his various stations, and the menaces which he now received from Karam-Allah, showed him only too plainly that he was in danger of being immediately attacked.

It soon transpired that the Emir was advancing with the design of attacking Rimo, a station near the Yei, north-west of Dufilé. Fearing lest the little garrison should share the fate of that of Amadi, Emin resolved to make a venture in its defence. Taking several battalions of his troops, he set out and arrived at the spot in April, in time to await the appearance of the Arabs; and on their approach, his troops, assisted by the Mombuttu, made a rush upon them, and inflicted such a sanguinary defeat, that they withdrew in all speed back again to the north. Thus for the time all danger was warded off the stations on the Nile.

Whether it was this fortunate exploit of the Egyptian troops that rescued the Equatorial provinces from further incursions by the bands of the Arabs, or whether the Emir was recalled by the Mahdi, who was concerned at the presence of an English expedition near Khartoum, there are now no means of judging; but certain it is that Lado, where the rebels had been daily expected to appear before the fences, was left undisturbed, and it was soon ascertained that the Emir had led his men by forced marches towards Kordofan.

Obviously it was still the duty of Emin Bey to be on his guard against any fresh surprise. He came to the conclusion that it was desirable that he should for the third time change the seat of his government, and issuing orders for the evacuation of his western stations in the Makraka country, he proceeded to draw off all his force and his last reserve of ammunition to Wadelai, his most southern station on the river.

Further than this, as all hope of succour from the north had been dispelled by the gloomy tidings that had reached him of the fate of Khartoum, he began to turn his eyes towards Zanzibar, whither it was agreed that Dr. Junker should be despatched with the object, if possible, of opening communication with the coast.

The Doctor started. Ascending the Nile from Dufilé to Meshra, he reached the residence of Anfina, the Lango chief, a faithful ally of Emin’s, whence he endeavoured to enter into negotiations with Uganda. His efforts were vain. The road to the south, like the road to the north, was closed not only to the white men themselves, but also to the transit of their messengers and despatches.

Thus was Emin Pasha isolated from the world, and thrown back upon himself and the fidelity of his followers.

For ten months, from January to November 1885, did Dr. Junker persevere in his wanderings amongst the Lango, between Anfina’s quarters and Foweira, once a station of the Egyptians; and then, finding all his proceedings futile, he made his way back to Wadelai.

At that period the situation may be thus described. The province, after having been for six months relieved of the presence of the Mahdi’s troops, was comparatively quiet. So far as regarded the natives everything was satisfactory; the Bari alone had shown any symptoms of rebellion, and these were promptly suppressed. At Emin’s disposal there were about 1500 regular troops armed with Remington rifles, the whole of these being negroes, except about forty Egyptians who were specially told off for the artillery; they were commanded by ten Egyptian officers and fifteen Soudanese, and all remained staunch in their allegiance.

“In spite of their utter destitution,” wrote Emin, “in spite of their being without pay and almost without clothes, these soldiers continue dutiful and obedient. This is far more than could be expected.”

[Illustration: DR. JUNKER.]

The 1500 soldiers, parcelled out into companies varying from one hundred to two hundred men, garrisoned ten stations; nine on the Nile, namely, Lado, Rigaf, Bedden, Kiri, Muggi, Laboré, Khor Aju, Dufilé, and Wadelai; the tenth, Fatiko, being in the Shuli country, on the road from Dufilé to Mrooli.[5]

Communication between the different stations was maintained by two steamers, the _Nyassa_ and the _Khedive_, which had been brought into service during the time when Gordon was Governour for the first time, and which could upon occasion be fitted out for defence. The officials (Egyptian and Coptic) numbered somewhere about two hundred; and if for each official, officer, and soldier there were reckoned an average of not less than three women, children, and slaves, the total would amount to a population of at least 10,000 souls, constituting what the English newspapers have designated “Emin Pasha’s people.”

Since 1885 the protection of Emin Pasha has by no means been the chief difficulty. In one of his letters he writes:--“Since the retreat of Karam-Allah and the dispersion of his troops by the natives on the Kordofan frontier, peace has been unbroken; and I may also add that the war has had the beneficial result of clearing the whole province of the Bahr-el-Ghazal of slave-hunters.” What has given the greatest cause for anxiety is the lack of stores and goods for barter, combined with the fear of running short of ammunition and the impossibility of holding communication with Europe.

In another letter Emin wrote:--“We have undergone terrible trials; happily, however, we have proved the truth of the proverb, ‘Necessity is the mother of invention,’ and we feel that we may well be proud of the way in which we have managed for ourselves since we have been deprived of all external aid. At all our stations agricultural work is progressing well. We have grown cotton; we have learned both to spin and to weave; as a specimen of what we can do I send you a pretty little handkerchief of our own manufacture. We have introduced the craft of shoemaking, and you would be surprised at what we have produced. We make our soap of fat and ashes, and our candles of wax. Hibiscus seed we find a fair substitute for coffee; we sweeten it with honey. I must not forget also to tell you that we have grown some splendid tobacco in our gardens. Except that I miss books, newspapers, and materials for my scientific work, personally I am in want of nothing.”

But it is remarkable how even in the times of his greatest anxiety, Emin never failed in his scientific interest; in all the letters sent by him, at various times, to Schweinfurth, Junker, Felkin, Hassenstein, Behm, Allen, and others, detailing the circumstances under which he was living, he speaks of his constant desire to make his long residence in Africa profitable for the advance of science.

In one of these letters, addressed to the late Dr. Behm of Gotha, after saying that he anticipated that the Nuer, the Agar, and the Denka were on the point of breaking out in an insurrection which it would be a long and difficult task to suppress, he thus continues:--“To myself, my residence in the Mombuttu country has been very satisfactory. I have worked hard and made many new and interesting notes; I have put together a vocabulary, and have tried generally to be as useful as possible. Your suggestion that I should make an ethnological chart is never out of my mind, and with reference to the work I have already begun to collect some examples of the dialects.”

At a later date he wrote to Dr. Schweinfurth:--“Thanks to the many newspapers and pamphlets which have reached me by way of Uganda, I have now an ample stock of paper, and shall be able to resume the preparation of the herbarium which I promised you.”

In another letter to Dr. Felkin, he writes:--“I have not forgotten Professor Flower; according to his desire I have collected several human skulls, also some skulls of chimpanzees, and some skeletons of animals and Akka;... I have likewise a collection of shells from Lake Albert.”

Such for three years, amidst incessant care and anxiety, was the life of the three Europeans who were fated thus to be brought together and blockaded on the Upper Nile.

When the attacks of the Arabs had ceased, and the revolts of the natives had been suppressed, they deliberately set themselves to meet their difficulties by developing the natural resources of the country, and, though without means, contrived to get food, clothing, and sustenance for the 10,000 men, women, and children over whom they presided as protectors.

It was now the end of 1885; they had had no communication with Europe since 1883, and they began to fear that they had been forgotten. Their eyes were still towards Zanzibar, and although Dr. Junker had failed in his first efforts to go there, it was deemed advisable that he should again leave Casati to assist Emin in maintaining friendly relations with the surrounding tribes, and once more endeavour to accomplish his purpose. This time he would set out by way of Unyoro. The experiment was full of hazard; yet all things considered, a white man accompanied only by a small escort would have a greater chance of success than any larger or armed expedition, which would assuredly rouse the alarm and suspicion of the natives.

As to an exodus _en masse_ of the 10,000 officials, soldiers, women, children, and slaves that made up the population of Wadelai, Lado, and the other stations, that was a scheme not for a moment to be entertained. Northwards, the way would be barred by the army of the Mahdi; southwards, were unknown tribes in the lands watered by the Welle and the Upper Congo, that had been reached indeed by the civilising mission of the King of the Belgians, but of this of course Emin had no intelligence, and was utterly ignorant; and lastly, on the east was Uganda, where the bloodthirsty tyrant who ruled would be certainly opposed to any passage of an armed expedition through his domain.

Circumstanced as Emin was, it would have been madness to make such a venture--unsupplied with either provisions or ammunition, to face hostile tribes in a desert and unexplored country was simply to court disaster; before his caravan had made much progress on its way, a large proportion of his people would have succumbed to fatigue and privation, even if they escaped being the victims of a bloody foe. Emin was not foolhardy enough to think of conducting another “retreat of the ten thousand.”

As to any thought for himself, of taking advantage of any opportunity for escape, it would never enter his mind. As a Governour placed by Gordon in command of the province of the Equator he could never for a moment contemplate either forsaking the men who had so faithfully adhered to him, or abandoning the country that had been committed to his charge “in the cause of progress and civilisation.” “I shall endeavour,” he writes to Dr. Felkin, “to bring to a good issue the work for which Gordon sacrificed his blood; if not with his energy and genius, I will at any rate labour in conformity with his instructions and ideas. When he, my lamented chief, confided to me the oversight of this province, he wrote ‘I nominate you in the cause of progress and civilisation.’ Hitherto I have done my best to merit that confidence which was reposed in me. The simple fact that I have been able to maintain myself here in the midst of thousands of natives, with only a handful of men of my own, is a proof that I have to a certain extent succeeded, inasmuch as I am thoroughly trusted by the indigenous population.

“I am now the sole surviving representative of Gordon’s Soudan staff. Consequently, I hold it my stern duty to follow the path which he pointed out. Moreover I am persuaded that there is a bright future for these countries; sooner or later they will be included within the ever-widening circle of the civilised world.”

It was therefore no way of personal escape for which Emin was looking; at the same time he longed most earnestly for the opening of an avenue of communication with Europe, by means of which his true situation might be known, and along which materials might be brought, so that he could continue his work on the scene where for so long he had maintained his independence.

This was the general aspect of affairs when Dr. Junker again undertook, at the peril of his life, to endeavour to reach Europe, there to plead the cause of Emin and the Equatorial Soudan.