EGYPT. 



235 



ber, fully 150,000 would be available for open- 

 market purchases for the redemption of the 

 debt. 



The publication of the budget on the 29th 

 of December showed a surplus of 111,000. 



The Khedive, in February, on the proposal 

 of the Council of Ministers, issued a decree 

 fixing dates for the payment of the land-tax, to 

 correspond with the ripening of the crops in 

 the different provinces. At the same time, 

 the Minister of Finance ordered the governors 

 of the provinces to acquaint the tax-payers 

 with the exact amount of the yearly taxation. 

 The British consul-general in July sent home 

 reports which had been made by his subordi- 

 nates concerning the condition of the country 

 and the effect of the administrative changes, 

 which were of a highly favorable character. 

 The agricultural population, released from 

 rniny odious and vexatious oppressions, ap- 

 peared more contented, and were working 

 more industriously than ever before. The 

 people were voluntarily offering their taxes, 

 to the astonishment of the tax-collectors. 

 Land was rising rapidly in the market, and in 

 some districts owners were asking one hun- 

 dred per cent, more than they had asked 

 twelve months before. The chief remaining 

 subject of complaint was the forced labor, a 

 certain amount of which was still exacted for 

 the public works, and which bore hard on the 

 poor, who were not able to commute. 



The sovereignty of Egypt was proclaimed, 

 in March, along the coast of the Red Sea to 

 Cape Guardafui. Ali Riaz Pasha was ap- 

 pointed Governor of the Red Sea coast. Af- 

 ter notice had been given to the powers of the 

 annexation, the Italian Government occupied 

 the Bay of Assab as a naval station. To pre- 

 vent any lapse of its own authority, the Egyp- 

 tian Government addressed a note to the Ital- 

 ian Government, expressing its willingness to 

 allow the Rubattino Steam Navigation Com- 

 pany to establish a naval station at the bay 

 on condition of its applying for authorization 

 and submitting to the laws of the country. 



Notwithstanding an announcement was made 

 from Khartoom, on the 3d of January, that the 

 slave-trade in the Soodan had entirely ceased, 

 the traffic still continued to such an extent 

 as to excite the remark of Europeans and at- 

 tract the attention of the Government. It ap- 

 peared, however, that although the trade had 

 not been wholly broken up, a check had been 

 given to the great slave-owners in the region 

 over which Colonel Gordon had ruled; and 

 the new Government professed to entertain 

 an earnest intention to put an end to the traf- 

 fic within the four years allowed for that pur- 

 pose by the Anglo-Egyptian Convention, for 

 which object full powers were given to Riaz 

 Pasha, the Premier, to deal with the evil. 

 During three weeks in April five convoys of 

 slaves arrived from Kordofan, Sennaar, and 

 Darfoor. On the 20th of April, a caravan 

 composed of five hundred and ninety-eight 



camels and more than nine hundred slaves 

 openly entered Siout. No notice appears to 

 have been taken of the arrival by the officers 

 whose duty it was to look after the matter, but 

 Mr. Roth, a Swiss and a teacher in the Amer- 

 ican Mission School, took upon himself to re- 

 port the fact to the authorities at Cairo. Two 

 officers were sent up by the Government, with 

 a company of infantry, to investigate the affair 

 and bring the guilty parties to punishment. 

 They arrested thirty-six of the dealers, but 

 most of the slaves had already been disposed 

 of. The Council of Ministers on its own ini- 

 tiative, with the assent of the Khedive, dis- 

 missed the governor of the province and 

 ordered him, his lieutenant, and the head of 

 the special department for the abolition of the 

 slave trade to be tried by court-martial for 

 having failed to seize the caravan. A special 

 European slave commission was appointed to 

 prevent the repetition of the traffic and insure 

 the ' execution of the slave convention ; the 

 Count della Sala, an ex-officer of the Austrian 

 army, was appointed Governor - General at 

 Siout, with whom the Governors of Upper 

 Egypt were ordered to cooperate, and a force 

 of six hundred troops was furnished to sup- 

 port the commission. At the beginning of 

 August a modification in the Anglo-Egyptian 

 Convention, to make it more stringent, was 

 agreed to by the Minister, and a circular was 

 issued, declaring that persons buying slaves 

 should be subject to the same punishment as 

 those selling them. Dr. G. Schweinfurth, the 

 African traveler, published a communication 

 in June, calling attention to a defect in the 

 convention, in that it recognized " the impos- 

 sibility of sending back slaves to their homes. 

 This is not impossible," he said ; " to liberate 

 slaves after the Egyptian manner means to con- 

 fiscate smuggled goods and distribute them 

 among friends." Colonel Gordon took a simi- 

 lar view when he wrote from the Red Sea, 

 September 29th, concerning the commission 

 at Siout: "Now, as Siout is three hundred 

 miles from Cairo, and the districts where the 

 slave-hunters are at work are three thousand 

 miles from Cairo, any captures made at Siout 

 mean simply the handing over of slaves from 

 individuals to the Egyptian authorities ; it 

 can have no effect on the capture of slaves ; 

 and in my opinion, when once sent away from 

 their homes, it would be better for the slaves 

 to remain with their original masters than that 

 they should be taken possession of by the 

 Egyptian authorities"; and he accused the 

 Egyptian Government of bad faith, saying 

 that the provisions of the slave convention 

 and the decree of 1877 had never been made 

 known to the people, but to satisfy Europe 

 they had been put in the European papers. 

 The evidence that the trade was continued ac- 

 cumulated. The Secretary of the British and 

 Foreign Antislavery Society caused to be pub- 

 lished, in August, a communication showing 

 that an increase in the slave-trade in the 



