Ismailia

by Sir Samuel White Baker

This forfeiture of this child was a warning that had an excellent effect in favour of the slaves, but was very unpopular among the force.

Although I regretted the ill feeling which existed on all sides, I considered the position with patience; and I could not help admitting that this was a natural and inevitable consequence of a sudden reform which threatened so many interests.

At the same time, I was determined to carry out my mission without shrinking from any consequences. I was ordered to suppress the slave trade; therefore that slave trade should be suppressed; and I trusted that time would eventually give me so improved a control over the feelings of my people, that I might succeed in a reform and yet banish all ill-will.

In the midst of anxieties, there was one lasting satisfaction in my position. I had the power to execute absolute justice, and I wished for no other reputation among my people, whether slaves or freemen, than the confidence of pure equity to be obtained without delay. At all hours I was accessible, and even the complaints of little children were attended to with the same attention that was bestowed upon more important appeals. I hoped by this line of conduct to be able at length to incorporate myself with the expedition, and to gain the affection of my people; without which, success would be impossible.

The terrible absence of discipline among the troops was a great difficulty, but I had already improved them greatly. Since the mutiny of the black division at Taka, in the year 1865, when they murdered their officers, and committed many atrocities, the Egyptian officers had always distrusted them.

I was told by the colonel, Raouf Bey, that if a black soldier were punished, his comrades would probably mutiny, should he be a general favourite. The extreme laxity of discipline was the result of a want of vigour on the part of the officers.

At the commencement of the Bari war, the conduct of the troops, both back and white, was disgraceful. I have seen them, in the presence of the enemy, rush into a village and commence indiscriminate pillage: the officers mingled with their men in a race for plunder. Several soldiers had been killed by the natives upon such occasions, when separated from the rest in search of spoil. The colonel had assured me that it was impossible to prevent this sacking of villages, as it was the reward the troops expected after a victory.

Fortunately my model corps, the "Forty Thieves," were always with me, which enabled me to act decidedly. My lieutenant-colonel, Abd-el-Kader, and the faithful Monsoor, were ready to carry out my orders on the spot.

When I caught the troops in disorderly pillage, I had the principal actors seized and laid down on the instant in the centre of the men, and administered fifty apiece with a stout bamboo.

The Soudani soldiers quickly perceived that the reins were tighter than formerly; and I followed up the principle of stern punishment until I obtained an absolute control, without the slightest attempt at resistance to my authority.