CHAPTER XXV.
EMIN PASHA, GOVERNOR OF THE SOUDANESE PROVINCES.
Sketch of his Early Life — His Real Name — A Silesian by Birth — Student at the University of Breslau — Becomes a Physician — Goes to Turkey and thence to Antivari and Scutari — Attached to the Court of Valis Ismael Pasha Haggi — Returns home in 1873 — In 1875 goes to Egypt — Enters the Egyptian Service as “Dr. Emin Effendi” — Meets with Gordon — Receives the post of Commander of Lado, together with the Government of the Equatorial Provinces — Death of General Gordon and Retreat of Lord Wolseley’s Army — Becomes Dependent upon his own Resources, after all Communication with the Egyptian Government is Cut Off — Encompassed by Hostile Tribes, is Lost to the Rest of the World — A Resume of what he Effected in his Administration of Public Affairs — His Diary — Extracts sent to Friends — Insurrection, and Invasion of the Province by the Mahdi’s Forces — His Position very Critical — Excites the Sympathy of the Whole World.
Mr. Stanley’s return to America at the close of the Congo expedition, in 1886, was his first in thirteen years. But he was not to enjoy the rest which he had promised himself. His services were even then being called for, by the course events were shaping themselves in the Egyptian Soudan. Through the infamous action of the British Ministry, in abandoning Gordon and his followers to their fate in Central Africa, public opinion became thoroughly aroused to the necessity of sending an expedition to their relief. And to Stanley the eyes of the world at once turned as the man to lead it. To understand fully, however, the situation, it will be necessary to recount some of the history of Emin and his career in the Egyptian Soudan.
For a sketch of the early life of Emin Pasha we are indebted to Dr. Schweinfurth. He tells us that Emin’s right name is Edward Schnitzer, and that he was born in 1840 at Oppeln, in Silesia. His father, a merchant, died in 1845, and three years before that date the family removed to Neisse, where Emin’s mother and sister are still living. When Edward Schnitzer had passed through the gymnasium at Neisse he devoted himself to the study of medicine at the University of Breslau. During the years 1863 and 1864 he pursued his studies at the Berlin Academy. The desire for adventure and an exceptional taste for natural science induced the young medical student to seek a field for his calling abroad. He therefore, at the end of 1864, left Berlin with the intention of obtaining the post of physician in Turkey. Chance carried him to Antivari and then to Scutari. Here he soon managed to attract the attention of Valis Ismael Pasha Haggi, and was received into the following of that dignitary, who, in his official position, had to travel through the various provinces of the empire. When, in this way, Dr. Schnitzer had learned to know Armenians, Syrians, and Arabians, he finally reached Constantinople, where the Pasha died in 1873. In the summer of 1875 Dr. Schnitzer returned to his relations in Neisse; but after a few months the old passion for travel again came over him, and he betook himself to Egypt, where favorable prospects were opened out to him. With the beginning of the year 1876 he appears as “Dr. Emin Effendi,” enters the Egyptian service, and places himself at the disposal of the Governor-General of the Soudan. In the post there given him Dr. Emin met with Gordon, who two years before (1874) had been intrusted with the administration of the newly-created Equatorial province. Gordon was just the man to respect an Emin, and correctly estimate his gifts and capabilities. He sent him on tours of inspection through the territory and on repeated missions to King Mtesa at Uganda. When Gordon Pasha, two years later, became administrator of all territory lying outside the narrower limits of Egypt, Dr. Emin Effendi received the post of commander at Lado, together with the government of the Equatorial province. With how much fidelity and self-denial he devoted himself to his task is well known.
During the first three years of his term he drove out the slave-traders from a populous region of six million inhabitants. He converted a deficiency of revenues into a surplus. He conducted the government on the lines marked out by General Gordon, and was equally modest, disinterested, and conscientious. When the Mahdi’s rebellion broke out a governor-general of another stamp was at Khartoum. Emin’s warning from the remote south passed unheeded. Hick’s army, recruited from Arabi’s demoralized regiments, was massacred; the Egyptian garrisons throughout the Soudan were abandoned to their fate, atrocious campaigns of unnecessary bloodshed were fought on the seaboard, and General Gordon was sent to Khartoum to perish miserably while waiting for a relief expedition that crawled by slow stages up the Nile, and was too late to be of practical service. During all these years of stupid misgovernment and wasted blood Emin remained at his post. When the death of General Gordon and the retreat of Lord Wolseley’s army wiped out the last vestige of Egyptian rule in the regions of the upper Nile, the Equatorial provinces were cut off, neglected, and forgotten.
It then became impossible for Emin to communicate with the Egyptian Government, and he was practically lost to the rest of the world. He was dependent upon his own resources in a region encompassed by hostile tribes. He might easily have cut his way out to safety, by the way of the Congo or Zanzibar, with the best of his troops, leaving the women and children behind to their fate. But this he scorned to do. He stood at his post, and bravely upheld the standard of civilization in Africa. He had with him about four thousand troops at the outset. He organized auxiliary forces of native soldiers; he was constantly engaged in warfare with surrounding tribes; he garrisoned a dozen river stations lying long distances apart; his ammunition ran low, and he lacked the money needed for paying his small army. But, in the face of manifold difficulties and dangers, he maintained his position, governed the country well, and taught the natives how to raise cotton, rice, indigo, and coffee, and also how to weave cloth, and make shoes, candles, soap, and many articles of commerce. He vaccinated the natives by the thousand in order to stamp out small-pox; he opened the first hospital known in that quarter; he established a regular post-route with forty offices; he made important geographical discoveries in the basin of the Albert Lake; and in many ways demonstrated his capacity for governing barbarous races by the methods and standards of European civilization. The last European who visited him was Dr. Junker, the German traveller, who parted from him at Wadelai on January 1st, 1886. His position was then more favorable, but he had been reduced at one time to extremities, his soldiers having escaped by a desperate sortie, cutting their way through the enemy after they had been many days without food, and “when the last torn leather of the last boot had been eaten.” Letters written by him in October, 1886, at Wadelai, describing his geographical discoveries, were received in England in 1887, with a contributed article for a Scotch scientific journal. The provisions and ammunition sent to him by Dr. Junker had had a very encouraging effect upon his troops. He wrote: “I am still holding out here, and will not forsake my people.”
Emin kept a diary of his life and work, and, whenever opportunity offered, sent extracts from it in the form of letters to friends in Europe. From these a graphic idea may be formed of his unique career. In August, 1883, he wrote:
“It seems to me that when disturbances arise among a newly-subdued people it is chiefly to be attributed to wrong methods of action on the part of our people, who make exaggerated demands, forgetting that a newly-captured bird must first become accustomed to its cage. Intercourse with negroes and their treatment are not so difficult as often appears to inexperienced travellers, who know their mendacity, and, where they have the power, their extortion. It only requires inexhaustible patience and unruffled composure—virtues which are certainly not often acquired from the brandy-bottle. A sojourn of nearly eight years here has taught me that, with a little kind treatment, negroes are tolerably easy to govern. I have also certainly learnt that for Equatorial Africa temperance is a good habit....