Philip was not sure whether he was a lucky dog or not. His uncle’s proposal was liberal and generous beyond all expectation; but there was something—he did not know what—about it that was perplexing. Probably, it was the fact that for the first time he was brought face to face with the necessity of deciding promptly in what course his whole future was to be directed. Hitherto there had been no hurry; and at the time when thoughts of Madge had brought him to serious consideration of how he could most rapidly win a position for her, the invitation from his uncle had arrived. The final decision was again postponed, as it was his duty to obey that call for his mother’s sake.
Now his future had been decided for him; and the prospect was in every way a tempting one. There would have been no hesitation on his part, but for the strange position which his father and Mr Shield occupied towards each other. The question Philip had first to settle with himself was, how he should act in order to bring about a reconciliation between them. He knew that if he could accomplish this, he would fulfil his mother’s dearest wish—an object nearer his heart than even the possession of a fortune.
As for business, although he had no special inclination for it, he did not dislike it. He had heard and read of millionaires—their struggles and victories, as desperate and as glorious as any recorded in the history of battlefields. Life and honour were as much at stake in doing the daily work of the world as in shooting down the foes of the nation or the foes of the nation’s policy. Our merchants, our inventors, our educators, our labourers, were the true soldiers, and their victories were the enduring ones. There was the great enemy of mankind, Poverty, with his attendant demons Ignorance and Laziness, still to conquer; and there were legions of starving people crying out to be led against him. Vast territories lay untilled, vast resources of earth, air, and water still unused, to be called forth to content and enrich the hungry and poor. What noble work there was for men to do who had sufficient capital at command!
He had never before speculated upon such a career. Now that it was presented to him, his imagination was stirred by thoughts of the great deeds that were yet to be done to bless humanity and ennoble life.
(To be continued.)
SUAKIM.
The intense interest with which all eyes have been turned upon the Soudan—that is, Country of the Blacks, or Negroland—gives a special value now to any information about that region, particularly if it refer to such towns as Khartoum, or that named at the head of this paper. The former place has been pretty fully described of late in the newspapers, while little has been told us of the latter beyond actual war-news. This is the greater pity, as Suakim possesses a good deal of historical interest, and Khartoum does not.
Suakim—the word is spelt in a variety of ways—is not only one of the most important towns of Nubia, but the chief port of the Soudan and of the whole western coast of the Red Sea. It came into the possession of Egypt in 1865 by cession or purchase from Turkey—along with Massowah and one or two other towns and the districts around them—and now appears to be regarded by the British government and every one else as an integral part of the Egyptian dominions. Similar subjection of Suakim to Egypt, as we shall presently see, existed in very remote times. The town proper lies on a small island about eight miles and three-quarters in diameter—almost as long as the little bay in which it is placed, a mere tongue of water separating it from the mainland.
Crossing the inlet southwards to the mainland, we step into the large suburb called El Gêf, with a much larger population than the insular town, very irregular streets, and the houses mere native (Bishareen) huts. There is also a very lively bazaar, and, in the north-west of the place, the barracks, one section of which, a few years ago, was armed with three pieces of cannon. In the outskirts are the wells—surrounded by gardens and date plantations—which supply the people with drinking-water, although, from the nearness of the wells to the sea, this is brackish, and would scarcely be considered palatable by foreign troops. El Gêf is really an oasis; all round it, save seawards, extend many miles of salt and arid wilderness. Indeed, the whole distance from Suakim to Berber—two hundred and eighty miles inland—is for the most part desert, the route garnished here and there with wells of water and encampments of the wandering Bishareen, who, with the Haddendowa, a similar set of people, possess the whole wilderness from east of the first cataract of the Nile up to Kassala and the boundaries of Abyssinia. These tribes, though sometimes called Bedouin, whom in many respects they resemble, are really a very different people. Bedouin proper are Arabs of the Semitic, while the Bishareen are of the Hamitic family.
The chief articles of export are cotton, gum-arabic, cattle, hides, butter, tamarinds, senna leaves, and ivory. The imports consist of cotton goods, iron, wood, carpets, weapons, steel, and fancy wares. Berber in the east, and Kassala in the south, are the great centres for all the caravan traffic of Suakim, which is also the port on the one side for the whole Soudan—an inland country as large as India—and on the other side, for Arabia. Hence it is much visited by Mohammedan pilgrims to Mecca, their port of Jeddah occupying a corresponding position on the Arabian to that which Suakim does on the African coast. Twenty years ago, from three to four thousand slaves per annum were shipped from here to Jeddah, and though this monstrous traffic has been much crippled of late years by the Egyptian government, out of regard for English feeling, it is to be feared that it is not yet extinct. Oddly enough, Hassan Mousa Akad, one of the ringleaders in Arabi’s recent rebellion, and the greatest slave-merchant in Egypt, was exiled to this very slave-port of Suakim, hence his complicity in the Soudan disturbances is not unnaturally suspected. The total population of the town and suburb is estimated by Schweinfurth—one of our greatest authorities—at from eleven to thirteen thousand. The port is now in regular communication with Suez by steamer—four days’ journey—and with Europe by telegraph. The Egyptian governor (Mudeer) and vice-governor (Wakeel) live at Suakim, and the budget for the district in 1882 was—income, £25,945; expenditure, £20,492—thus being one of the few districts of the Soudan which yielded a surplus.