PART III

THE SOUDAN

1882-1907

The difficulties of the case have passed entirely beyond the limits of such political and military difficulties as I have known in the course of an experience of half a century.

Mr. GLADSTONE, Speech in the House of Commons on Soudan affairs, February 23, 1885.

CHAPTER XIX

THE HICKS EXPEDITION

JANUARY-NOVEMBER 1883

Extent of Egyptian territory-Misgovernment in the Soudan-Slavehunting Said Pasha's views-Colonel Stewart's Report-The Mahdi-Military and financial situation-Interference from Cairo -Attitude of the British Government - Destruction of General Hicks's army.

THE affairs of the Soudan exercised a very important influence on the course of events in Egypt, more especially during the years which immediately followed the British occupation of the country. They will, therefore, be treated separately.

At the time when this narrative commences, the nominal authority of the Khedive extended over an area stretching from Wadi Halfa on the north to the Equator on the south, a distance of about 1300 miles, and from Massowah on the east to the western limit of the Darfour province on the west, a distance of about 1300 miles-that is to say, he ruled, or attempted to rule, over a territory twice as big as France and Germany together.

The worst forms of misgovernment existed over this vast tract of country. Sir Samuel Baker, on the occasion of his second visit to the Soudan in 1870, wrote: "I observed with dismay a frightful change in the features of the country between Berber and the capital since my former visit. The rich soil on the banks of the river, which had a few years since been highly cultivated, was abandoned.

There was not a dog to howl for a lost master. Industry had vanished; oppression had driven the inhabitants from the soil."1 The taxes, which were excessive in amount, were collected by BashiBozouks. These agents were described by Colonel Stewart, who was sent to the Soudan in the winter of 1882-83 to report on the state of the country, as "swaggering bullies, robbing, plundering, and illtreating the people with impunity." In addition, moreover, to the evils attendant on a thoroughly bad and oppressive system of government, the Soudan suffered from a scourge peculiar to itself. It was the happy hunting-ground of the Arab slave-dealer. "The entire country," Sir Samuel Baker wrote, "was leased out to piratical slavehunters, under the name of traders, by the Khartoum Government.

Even assuming that Ismail Pasha was sincere in his desire to suppress slavery and to govern the Soudan well, nothing is more certain than that he was powerless to do so. Qui trop embrasse, mal étreint. In extending his dominions to the centre of Africa, the Khedive had undertaken a task which was far beyond the military and financial resources, as well as the administrative capacity of the Egyptian Government. His predecessor, Said Pasha, saw this, although during his time the area, over which the Khedive of Egypt was supposed to exercise authority, was far smaller than in 1883. In 1856, Said Pasha visited Khartoum. "After due consideration he had almost decided to abandon the country, and was only restrained from doing so by the Sheikhs and Notables pointing out the inevitable anarchy that would result from such a measure.' Twenty-seven years later, Colonel Stewart saw that the only hope of improvement lay in abandon1 Ismailia, p. 11.

ing some of the outlying provinces of the Soudan, and thus bringing the ambitious task, which the Egyptian Government had set itself to perform, within comparatively manageable limits. "It is generally acknowledged," he wrote, "that the Soudan is, and has for many years been, a source of loss to the Egyptian Government. Putting, however, the financial view of the question aside, I am firmly convinced that the Egyptians are quite unfit in every way to undertake such a trust as the government of so vast a country with a view to its welfare, and that both for their own sake and that of the people they try to rule, it would be advisable to abandon large portions of it. The fact of their incompetence to rule is so generally acknowledged that it is unnecessary to discuss the question."

There is a tradition in the Mohammedan world that, at some future time, a Mahdi1 will appear on earth, upon whose coming the world will be converted to the Mohammedan religion. A variety of unauthorised rumours are current amongst the lower orders of Mohammedans as to the appearance and qualities of the true Mahdi, such as, for instance, that he will have very long hands; but these are discarded by the more learned classes. A work written at Mecca in 1883 by a Sherif of that place, and entitled The Conquests of Islam, contains what may be considered as an authorised version of the conditions which the true Mahdi must fulfil. "The greatest of the signs," it is said, "shall be that he shall be of the line of Fatma (i.e. a Sherif, or descendant of the Prophet); that he shall be proclaimed Mahdi against his will, not seeking such proclamation for himself, and not causing strife amongst the Faithful to obtain it, nor even yielding to it till threatened with death by them.

1 The literal meaning of the word "Mahdi" is one who is " ducted in the right path.”

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