One of my talks with Sir Francis Reginald Wingate was of a more personal nature dealing with some of the events in which he was an historic figure. I had asked His Excellency if he would not some day write a new book on the Sudan. He wrote “Mahdism and the Egyptian Sudan” some years ago; and a few years later published a work entitled “Ten Years’ Captivity in the Mahdi’s Camp.” He also translated and edited Slatin Pasha’s “Fire and Sword in the Sudan” and for years his life has been a part of the history of the country and his experiences such that no man living can tell about it better than he. The Sirdar replied:
“I may write another book some day. I have kept notes of things which I have observed and which have occurred from time to time, and putting them together may give me occupation when I retire. At present my chief interest is in the development of the country, and I am too much occupied with that and with my duties here to find any time for literary work.”
Afterward our conversation turned to the conditions which prevailed here while the Mahdi was waging war against the English. Sir Reginald, then General Wingate, was one of the officers in command of the British troops and is full of vivid stories of those terrible times. As we talked we were standing on the portico jutting out from the second story of the government palace. We were looking down the Nile and in plain view of the little island of Tuti over the way. General Wingate went on to tell a story of General Gordon’s bravery and absolute lack of fear:
“It was on this site that Gordon had his headquarters during a siege of the Mahdi. He lived in a rough building with windows opening toward that island, upon which the enemy had an encampment. It was his custom of an evening to sit in his room facing the river and write in his diary. The Mahdists saw his light and shot at it again and again but, notwithstanding this, General Gordon did not change his place for writing. His friends remonstrated and the citizens of Khartum sent in a petition to him either to write in the back of the house or to hide his light behind a screen. This petition was brought in by a delegation from the town, which had assembled in front of the headquarters awaiting an answer. As they stood there, lights were put in every front window and they saw General Gordon go from window to window making himself, as they thought, a fair mark for the Dervishes on the island. At last he came out and standing in the full blaze of the light said:
“‘Gentlemen, there is an old story that when the Lord made mankind He did so with two great piles of material before Him. One of the piles was composed of the clay of which man is made and the other of the fear that often makes one less than a man. As the Lord worked, He took up a handful of clay, shaped it into a human form, and then sprinkled it over with a handful from the pile of fear. And so He went on making man after man until at last He took up the stuff of which He made me. There was plenty of clay for my body but when He looked about for fear with which to sprinkle it, He found that the pile of fear had all been used up, so the result is I do not know what fear is.’”
In the dry Upper Nile valley piled-up grain awaits unprotected the boats which will distribute it along the river. The provinces of Darfur and Kordofan alone can produce enough dura to feed the entire Sudan.
No matter how far up the Nile or how deep in the desert they live, “backsheesh” is the cry of the children of Egypt and the Sudan. Young and old alike have learned the trick of asking a fee for posing.
British experiments in cotton culture in the Sudan have been most successful and the quality of the product compares favourably with Egyptian varieties. Irrigation projects under construction will shortly add 100,000 acres to the cotton-growing area.
The chief public building in Khartum is the Sirdar’s palace, built by Kitchener on the site of Gordon’s murder. Over it float British and Egyptian flags and two sentries guard its door, one British, one Sudanese.
General Gordon’s bravery was far beyond that of other world heroes. He fought here until the last. When the Arabs finally overcame his troops and entered his palace, he sternly demanded of them where their master was. They replied by plunging their spears into his body. As he fell, they dragged him down the steps and cut off his head to be sent to the Mahdi. His body was left to the mercy of the fanatics, who rushed forward by thousands to dip their swords and spears in his blood. They fairly cut it to pieces, and the blood, which had stained the steps and walls of the palace, remained there until the Khalifa decided to make that place a dwelling for his harem and had it washed away.
The British have done all they could to carry out Gordon’s mission in the Sudan; that is, to break up slavery. This region was once one of the chief slave markets of the continent. The poor wretches were brought by the thousands from Central Africa to Khartum and Omdurman, and taken thence down to Egypt. Before the British rule there were military stations in different parts of the country, which became centres of the trade, and the White Nile was a famous slave route. Later on the Arabs raided the natives of Central Africa and sent up their captives to Khartum. The trade was somewhat checked while Gordon ruled, but it broke out again under the Mahdi. When the British took hold, Omdurman was one of the chief markets, slaves being brought in in droves from all parts of the country. Since then the buying and selling of the blacks has been stopped, as far as possible, but it is still carried on in some of the provinces, and it will be a long time before it can be absolutely eradicated. Sixty-seven slave dealers were captured and tried not so long ago. Fifty-eight were convicted, more than fifty receiving sentences of from one to seven years each.
While I was at Asyut, Dr. Alexander, president of the Training College there, told me how a poor Swiss boy broke up the slave trade of Upper Egypt. Said he: “This incident occurred just before the British occupation. The boy, whose name was Roth, got the idea that it was his mission to aid in abolishing slavery, and that his field lay in the Sudan. He had no money, but he worked his way to Alexandria and thence up the Nile to Asyut, landing here without a cent. He applied for work at the mission schools, telling us his plans, and we finally arranged for him to teach French. While doing so he studied Arabic and went out through the country to learn all he could about slavery. He spent his vacations living with the people, travelling about and visiting the villages. It was then contrary to law to sell slaves in Egypt, but Roth learned that the trade was going on, and that caravans were bringing them from the Sudan into Upper Egypt. They were sent from here to Tunis and Tripoli and thence to Constantinople. One day he came into the mission and said that a big slave caravan was encamped outside Asyut, and that the men hid their prisoners in caves during the day and sold them at night. He begged me to go with him to the governor and demand that they be punished. I did go, but was not able to do anything.
“After this,” continued Dr. Alexander, “Roth despaired somewhat, but said he intended to go to Cairo to get the English consul-general to help him. He did so and convinced the consul-general that his story was true. The two demanded of Riaz Pasha, then foreign minister, that the sale of slaves be stopped. Since Roth had the English Government behind him, the Egyptian government had to respect him. Giving him a company of two hundred soldiers, they told him to go back to Asyut and capture the caravan. It was probably their intention to notify the slave dealers in time, so they could get away. But Roth defeated this move. He stopped his special train outside the town, divided his company into two bands, surrounded the caravan and took the traders and the sixty-seven slaves they had with them. He brought the poor creatures here to the mission school saying he wanted me to hold them as the Egyptians would not dare to take them from under the American flag.
“Shortly after this there came a message from the governor of the province ordering that the slaves be given up. The messengers were backed by soldiers, but nevertheless I refused, declaring it was impossible on account of the absence of Dr. Hogg, the superintendent of the mission. The next day, when Dr. Hogg arrived, the governor sent for him and abused him for not giving up the slaves. Thereupon Dr. Hogg charged him with wanting to evade the law, and told him that if Asyut had any respect for the law or had a governor who was anything of a man, the caravan would have been arrested sooner and the owners punished. He demanded that this be done, and as a result the slave dealers and slaves were taken to Cairo to be tried there. The government of Egypt, not daring to whitewash the transaction, was forced to dismiss the governor and punish the slave dealers. Roth was afterward appointed an agent of the Egyptian government to keep down the slave trade. He came to the Sudan and carried on his work there in connection with Gordon and Slatin Pasha. Slatin speaks of him in his book entitled Fire and Sword in the Sudan. He died while fighting the trade there.”