In July, 1878, Gordon heard of the revolt of Suleiman, Zubeir’s son, and despatched an expedition under Gessi to put it down. The history of Gessi’s campaign will be narrated later on.
The railway scheme at this time occupied the Governor-General’s attention. He considered that the natural outlet for the Sudan trade was from Berber to Suakin, and that the Nile railway idea was visionary. Under Ismail Pasha the work had been commenced, but had come to a standstill in 1877, after an expenditure of some £450,000, and the completion of about 50 miles of line from Wadi Halfa southward. Gordon’s proposal was to use the river where navigable, for small steamers, and to lay tramways in the intervening spaces. The Controllers, however, did not take up his scheme, and the other affairs of his Government prevented him from giving further attention to the subject.
At this time the operations for stopping the slave trade were in active progress, as shown by the fact that within two months 14 caravans had been taken.
1878.Towards the end of 1878, the Khedive determined to take the Harrar and Zeila districts out of Gordon’s control.
In December, Walad Mikael started to make his submission to King Johannes, and the latter entered into further negotiations with Gordon about the frontier.
One of the King’s demands was for an Abuna, or Archbishop. An Abuna was and is always obtained from the Coptic Church at Alexandria, and was the only person in Abyssinia who could ordain priests.
Gordon had some difficulty just then as to the disposal of 1,300 slave soldiers (“Bazingers”) who had remained faithful to the Government, and finally decided on sending them under Nur Bey Angara,[160] their chief, accompanied by two Europeans, to a zone of country between Wadai and Darfur. These soldiers had been originally kidnapped by Zubeir and trained to arms.
Though Gordon had pointed out that the destruction of Zubeir’s force was the turning point in the slave trade question, he could get no assistance from Cairo.
The Slave Convention of August 4th, 1877.On August 4th, 1877, a Convention had been concluded between Great Britain and Egypt, by which all public traffic in slaves was at once prohibited, while the private trade in Egypt was to be suppressed in 1884, and in the Sudan in 1889. It is curious to note that although it was well known that Zubeir was mainly responsible for the slave trade of the past 10 years, yet he was now at Cairo being treated as an honoured guest, and Nubar Pasha even offered to send him to assist Gordon. The latter, however, declined the offer, and occupied himself by appointing European Wakils to all the frontier posts.
Gordon starts for Kordofan, March, 1879.In March, 1879, Gordon set out for Kordofan. Not only was the revolt in full vigour in Bahr El Ghazal, but there were also risings in Darfur and Kordofan. In the former, Harûn had once more appeared on the scene, and in the latter, the insurgents were led by Subahi, formerly one of Zubeir’s chiefs, who had taken to slave dealing on his own account, had murdered the governor whom Gordon left at Edowa (Eddaiya?), and gone to the hills, where the Egyptian troops under Hassan Hilmi Pasha were making no efforts to attack him.