GORDON’S MISSION TO ABYSSINIA, 1879.
In August, Gordon arrived at Cairo and conferred with the new Khedive, Tewfik, on affairs in Abyssinia. Walad Mikael and Johannes’s general, Alula, were now plotting a joint attack on Bogos, and Gordon’s proposal that he should at once go and endeavour to settle matters with the King was eagerly accepted by the Khedive.
Gordon goes to Abyssinia, 1879.He landed at Massaua on 6th September, 1879, and finding that Bogos was practically in the hands of the Abyssinians, started on the 11th to meet Alula. The next day he heard that Alula, by the King’s orders, had made a prisoner of Walad el Mikael and all his officers, and that Mikael’s son had been killed. On the 16th Gordon reached Gura, the rendezvous, and, at an interview with Alula, requested him to state the complaints of Abyssinia against Egypt. Alula, on the 18th, replied that he had better see the King himself, and Gordon accordingly left the following day for Debra Tabor, near Gondar. He arrived there on the 27th October. On the 28th October, the King stated his claims as follows:—“You want peace; well, I want retrocession of Gallabat, Beni Shangul, and Bogos, cession of Zeila and Amfila (ports), an Abuna,[162] and a sum of money from one to two million pounds; or, if his Highness likes better than paying money, then I will take Bogos, Massaua, and the Abuna. I could claim Dongola, Berber, Nubia, and Sennar, but will not do so. Also I want certain territory near Harrar.” Gordon asked him to put these demands in writing, and give the Khedive six months for reply. But the King would give no satisfactory answer. On the 6th November there was another interview. The King had evidently been put up to his first demands by the Greek Consul at Suez, who was with him at the time, and now neither liked to withdraw his demands, nor to put them in writing. After some further delays, the King at length gave Gordon a letter and let him go, which he accordingly did, and started for Gallabat, intending to go to Khartoum. Before reaching Gallabat, however, the King had him arrested and brought back through Abyssinia. He reached Massaua, after much privation, on 8th December, and then ended his connection with the Sudan and Abyssinia.
Shortly before his departure he had given up the district Unyoro, and the stations of Mruli, Kodj, Foweira, Keroto, and Magunga were accordingly evacuated by Egyptian troops. Masindi and Kisima had been given up two years before. The Somerset Nile was now the boundary of the Khedive’s territory, and new stations were formed to defend it, whilst the province of Makaraka was also incorporated. Dr. Emin Bey had been made Governor of the Equatorial provinces, with his headquarters at Lado, and under him were the three Mudirs of Makaraka, Kiri, and Magunga. Many improvements had been made in these provinces, and Lado was greatly increased in size and importance.
Rauf Pasha was Gordon’s successor at Khartoum, while a second pasha was given the government of Massaua and the adjacent coast, and a third was appointed to Berbera, Zeila, and the Harrar district. As Gordon pointed out to the Khedive, King Johannes was too much occupied with internal affairs to be able to give further trouble on the border for the present; but in the summer of 1880 the Somalis revolted, and Egyptian troops had to be sent to aid the Governor of Harrar.
Gessi, as Governor of the Bahr El Ghazal, was most successful; he had completely stamped out the slave trade, done much to encourage agriculture, and revived to a great extent the ivory trade.
On the departure of Gordon, however, and in the absence of a strong central government, the slave dealers again showed themselves in other parts, and before long slave caravans were once more on their road to Lower Egypt and the ports of the Red Sea.
Railway scheme again entertained, 1880.Early in 1880 the railway scheme again seems to have occupied the attention of the Khedive, who then visited the Sudan, and expressed himself strongly in favour of a line from Berber to Suakin.
In September, 1880, Gessi, finding his position intolerable under Rauf Pasha, Governor-General of the Sudan, resigned his post, and, after having suffered great hardships on the way, on account of the steamers being stopped by the sudd, he at last reached Khartoum; meeting with a cold reception there, he managed to get to Suez, where he soon after Gessi’s death, 30th April, 1881.died, 30th April, 1881, from the effects of the suffering he had endured. Lupton Bey, an Englishman,[163] succeeded him in the governorship of the Bahr El Ghazal.
In April, 1882, the Sudan was reorganised on paper, and was to be again under one Governor-General with four subordinate governors for the West Sudan, Central Sudan, East Sudan, and province of Harrar. Schools and seats of justice were to be established, and special arrangements to be made for the suppression of the slave trade.