Ismailia, Sir Samuel White Baker [most inspirational books TXT] 📗

we covered the seeds with light earth, we concluded the sowing with the usual ejaculation-'Biamillah!' (in the name of God).

"I walked up to the old mission station. Not one brick remains upon another--all is totally destroyed. The few fruit-trees planted by the pious hands of the Austrian Missionaries remain in a tangled wilderness by the river's bank. The beautiful avenue of large lemon trees has been defaced by the destruction of many boughs, while the ground beneath is literally covered by many thousands of withered lemons that have fallen neglected from the branches without a hand to gather them. The natives will not eat them, thus the delicious fruit has been wasted; perhaps sixty or eighty bushels have rotted on the earth. I trust that the seeds I have already sown will have a more useful result than the lost labour of the unfortunate missionaries. It would be heartbreaking to them could they see the miserable termination of all their good works.

April 16. --The mileage from the junction of the Bahr Giraffe I have calculated at 364 to this point (Gondokoro); but I deduct 10 per cent., as we took several wrong turns of the river. The distance may be about 330 miles.

From Bahr Giraffe, junction to Gondokoro
330 miles Upper Nile junction to Dubba on Bahr Giraffe
48 miles Dubba to Lower Nile junction
300 miles Lower Nile junction to Sobat
38 miles Sobat to Khartoum
693 miles
1,409 miles to Gondokoro."

The chief Allorron arrived with a number of his people, and asked for "araki and cognac!" He is a big and savage-looking naked brute of the lowest description, his natural vices having been increased by constant associations with the slave-hunters. This man declared that his people could not prepare materials for the camp, as the neighbouring tribes were hostile; and he could not venture to collect bamboos.

I told him that if my orders were not obeyed, the troops would be obliged to be sheltered in his villages upon arrival, as I could not allow them to be exposed to the rains.

Both Allorron and his people looked extremely sullen, and although I always knew the Baris to be the worst tribe in the Nile basin, I was not prepared for such a morose welcome. I explained to him the object of the expedition. He seemed quite incredulous, and made some remark to his followers in his own language with a contemptuous smile. He rather approved of the idea that slave-taking would be suppressed in his own tribe, but he could not sympathize with the general principle, and he asked "What will the slave-traders do?" Colonel Abd-el-Kader replied to the question by explaining to him my exact position, and the relative position of the traders. At this he burst out laughing in the rudest manner. He had seen me and my wife on our former voyage, and he well remembered that in those days we had been not only helpless in Gondokoro, but that the traders had spoken of all Europeans with contempt. He had already hoard from Abou [*] Saood's people of my expected arrival, by whom he had been incited against the expedition. It had been explained to him, that if baffled, we should soon become disgusted, and return to Khartoum. He also remembered that many Europeans had visited Gondokoro like myself, but none had remained. It was therefore natural that a brutal savage, whose people were allied with the slave-traders, to attack and pillage outlying countries, should not regard with favour a new government that would establish law and order. For many years Allorron's tribe had been associated with the slavers, and now that the entire country had been leased to one man, Abou Saood, he had become the vakeel, or representative of this individual, by whom he had been thoroughly prepared for our arrival. We had been expected long ago, but, as already described, the delays attending the opening of the Suez canal had prevented us from starting.


[*Footnote: The agent of the great company of Agad & Co., who farmed the district from the government.]


I quickly perceived the real state of affairs. A great number of Allorron's people were absent in the interior, employed by Abou Saood's companies as mercenary soldiers. The Baris are a most warlike tribe, and would make excellent troops; thus they were valuable allies of the slave-hunters, as the geographical position of Gondokoro rendered it the only spot that was adapted for an important station. The traders now possessed of the monopoly of the ivory trade, found no necessity for a permanent station at Gondokoro, as their interests were watched during their absence in the interior by their ally Allorron; they accordingly only visited Gondokoro when they returned periodically from the interior with their ivory and slaves to meet the vessels from Khartoum.

Allorron was in the habit of despatching messengers to their various camps (seven or eight days' march for a running negro) to give the vakeels notice of the arrival of the expected vessels. Many hundreds of his people had been armed with guns by the traders, therefore his tribe and the companies of Abou Saood were thoroughly incorporated, brigands allied with brigands, and Gondokoro had become the nucleus to which the spoil was concentrated.

These were people by whom the blessings of a good government were hardly to be understood.

Unfortunately for Allorron, he had joined the slave-hunters of Abou Saood against neighbours that were unpleasantly close to Gondokoro. The Loquia, a most powerful tribe, only three days' march to the south-east, had lost slaves and cattle by these depredations; thus, when the slave-hunters' parties had quitted Gondokoro and returned to their station in the interior, Loquia had invaded the unprotected Allorron, and had utterly destroyed his district on the eastern mainland. For many miles the country now resembled a very lovely park. Every habitation had disappeared, and this formerly populous position was quite deserted by the surviving inhabitants, who had taken refuge in the islands, or on the west side of the river. At this season the entire country was covered with a tender herbage--that species of fine grass, called by the Arabs "negheel," which is the best pasturage for cattle. Allorron's people dared not bring their herds to pasture upon this beautiful land from whence they had been driven, as they were afraid that the news would soon reach Loquia, who would pounce unexpectedly upon them from the neighbouring forest.

I had therefore arrived in a country from which the original possessors had been banished by superior force: there was not a single representative of the tribe upon the mainland, neither could their cattle venture across the river to pasture upon the beautiful herbage, that was now entirely neglected except by a few herds of antelopes. At the same time, the pasturage on the islands, being insufficient for the large herds of cattle, was consumed, and the animals were dependent upon the rank grass, which they could only reach by wading into the water; thus many were taken by crocodiles.

It would have been natural to suppose that Allorron and his people would have welcomed the protection now offered by the new government. I invited them to return to their old country, from which they had been expelled, and to rebuild their villages on their old sites, where they could recommence their cultivation, and form a new settlement under the wing of our headquarters.

It was easy to perceive by the manner of the chief, Allorron, and his people that they had been incited by Abou Saood and his companies against the expedition. My delay in starting from Egypt had been of immense advantage to the slave-traders, as it had given them time to organize a resistance to the expedition. The negroes are easily misled; naturally vicious and treacherous, they are ready to believe any tales of evil: and as a young child may be frightened by a ghost story, they also may by a few words be rendered suspicious of their best friend. Their interests were the same as those of the slave-traders.

My "Forty Thieves" [*] were excellent fellows, and all the men who were constantly about me were very different from those who formed the bulk of the military force. I now commenced a small station and a large garden.


[*Footnote: The bodyguard of picked men, armed with snider rifles.]


I had chosen a pretty spot for my station, as I did not intend to reside at head-quarters, which would be the site originally occupied by the Austrian mission, and was well adapted for a large town.

My position was a rising knoll of about six acres upon which grew a few shady trees. This spot had been the station of a missionary known by the natives under the name of "Suleiman;" his was the only name remembered by the Baris, and his body had been buried here, but nothing marked the spot. He had passed away, like all the rest of these good and self-sacrificing people, without leaving one trace of good works among this barbarous tribe except the lemon-trees; theirs was the only seed that appeared to have fallen on good ground.

In a few days my men had made a large garden, in which I sowed onions, radishes, beans, spinach, four varieties of water melons, sweet melons, cucumbers, oranges, custard apples, Indian corn, garlic, barmian, tobacco, cabbages, tomatoes, chilis, long capsicums, carrots, parsley, celery. I arranged the daily labour so that the soldiers and sailors should work at the cultivation from 6 A.M. till 11; after which they might have the day to themselves, to construct their own huts.

At this season, 20th April 1871, the river was extremely low; I therefore fixed a pole with marked inches to register the rise of floods.

By the 23rd April all my men had arranged gardens parallel with the lines of their camp. I gave them various seeds, with a promise of prizes for the finest specimens of vegetables that might be produced. I had always endeavoured to create a taste for agriculture among my people, and they had now learnt that the commencement of a new settlement was the signal for cultivation. I believe that no employment engenders such a love of a particular locality as that of farming, provided always that the soil and climate are favourable. Thus, in an expedition to a distant land, it is necessary to induce the feelings of HOME among the people. The hut by itself is simply shelter, but the same hut surrounded by a neat and productive garden, the result of industry, becomes a settled residence. It is pleasant to watch the blossoms of home flowers and vegetables that you may have yourself introduced and planted. A good English cabbage or carrot may not be introduced in poetry so generally as the rose, but in a new settlement in a wild country, the success of a cabbage or carrot is of more importance to the expedition than bouquets of flowers.

Even the women and boys that were domestic servants, originally slaves that I had liberated from the traders, had learnt to take a great interest in cultivation. Each had a garden, and a day never passed without permission being asked for a few hours' recreation with the spade or hoe, the latter being the favourite implement, as the want of shoes rendered the management of the spade extremely difficult, except in very light soil.

I believe that a taste for gardening has a most civilizing influence among savages; and if I were a missionary, I should commence with such practical teaching, thus proving in your joint labour with the