258 



EGYPT. 



The net profits in 1894 were 40,367,324 francs. The 

 gross receipts were 73,776,827 francs. The share 

 and loan capital on Jan. 1, 1895, amounted to 

 458,127,682 francs. During 1895 there passed 

 through the canal 3,434 vessels, of 11,833.637 gross 

 tons, paying in transit dues 78,103,717 francs. Of 

 the net tonnage in the latter year 71'8 per cent, was 

 British, 8'2 per cent. German, 8 per cent. French, 

 4-3 per cent. Dutch, 2 per cent. Austrian, 1'7 per 

 cent. Italian, 1-3 per cent. Norwegian, 1-2 per cent. 

 Spanish, and M per cent. Russian. Of the vessels, 

 2.5:52. of 6,104,989 net tons, were merchant ships ; 

 684. of 1,952,588 tons, mail steamers ; and 106, of 

 128,081 tons, war ships and military transports. 

 The mean duration of the passage in 1895 was 

 eighteen hours forty-four minutes for vessels 

 navigating both by night and by day, and nineteen 

 hours eighteen minutes for all vessels, including 

 168 that navigated by daylight only and took the 

 average time of thirty hours twelve minutes to pass 

 through. The number of passengers on the vessels 

 in 1895 was 216,936, of whom 118,635 were military, 

 74,876 civilians, and 23,423 pilgrims, emigrants, and 

 convicts. The special traffic due to the Chinese 

 war and the Madagascar and Abyssinian campaigns 

 swelled the passenger receipts and more than made 

 good the falling off in tonnage receipts. 



Antislayery Laws. In accordance with a new 

 convention for the suppression of slavery and the 

 slave trade that was made with Great Britain on 

 Nov. 23, 1895, the Egyptian Government, in 1896, 

 enacted stricter laws regarding the traffic in slaves 

 and the manumission of slaves. The jurisdiction in 

 the matter of crimes and offenses connected with 

 slavery was transferred from courts martial to the 

 judges of the native courts. The importation into 

 any part of Egypt and the transit across its territo- 

 ries of any white, negro, or Abyssinian slave des- 

 tined for sale is prohibited absolutely. No slaves 

 can be exported from Egypt unless they are pro- 

 vided with letters of enfranchisement stating that 

 they are free to dispose of their persons without re- 

 striction or reserve. Traffic in slaves was already 

 forbidden, but purchasers are now made equally 

 liable with the slave merchants, a point that was 

 left obscure in the convention of 1877. Every slave 

 on Egyptian soil is entitled to his complete freedom, 

 and may demand letters of enfranchisement when- 

 ever he desires to do so. In the convention the 

 Egyptian Government promised to use all the influ- 

 ence that it possesses among the tribes of Central 

 Africa with the view of preventing the wars that 

 they are in the habit of making upon one another 

 in order to procure and to sell slaves. British cruis- 

 ers may search and detain any Egyptian vessel in 

 the Indian Ocean that is suspected of carrying 

 slaves. The Egyptian department for the suppres- 

 sion of the slav.e trade will have a special force 

 to keep watch over roads leading from the desert, 

 as well as the shores of the Red Sea and all places 

 through which slaves enter Egyptian territory. 



The Soudan. The Soudan 'of the dervishes, ex- 

 tending about 1,000 miles from the Egyptian fron- 

 tier on the lower Nile along both branches of the 

 upper Nile and an equal distance from east to west, 

 and inhabited by several millions of people, has 

 changed greatly since the Mahdi proclaimed & jehad, 

 or holy war, and established his fanatical rule after 

 wiping out the Egyptian army of 10,000 men under 

 Kicks Pasha in 1S83. Whole tribes have been ob- 

 liicrated by war, famine, and pestilence, and other 

 tribes have changed the habitations of their fathers, 

 their migrations being inspired by religious motives. 

 The Khalifa's capital is Omdurman, a new city that 

 has sprung up on the Nile opposite the ruined site 

 of Khartoum. The Khalifa Abdullah!, whom the 

 Mahdi chose from among his four generals and pro- 



claimed as his successor, has been accustomed to 

 summon to Omdurman, where they would be under 

 his immediate control, any of the tribes who chafed 

 under his exactions. The capital was consequently 

 thronged with the cultivators of the oases, and the 

 date groves and millet fields were neglected, which 

 cause, in conjunction with the devastation of re- 

 bellious districts, led to scarcity of food that rose at 

 times to the famine point. The population of the 

 Soudan is supposed to be less than half, perhaps 

 only a quarter, as great as it was under Egyptian 

 rule. At the same time it has become more con- 

 centrated and so organized as to furnish the Khalifa 

 great armies of valiant men, who are bound to him 

 not less by interest than by religious fervor, for he 

 has loaded with rewards the strong military clans 

 of the desert who have shown devotion to him, the 

 Baggaras and the western tribes, especially his own 

 tribe, the Taaishas, whom he brought to Omdurman 

 from the southwest of Darfur. After crushing a 

 rebellion of the Ashrais, in which two of the Mahal's 

 sons were implicated, the Khalifa became harsher 

 and his tribesmen more oppressive. Suspected 

 tribes were dispatched on distant and dangerous 

 expeditions, and suspected individuals were con- 

 demned to death on false evidence by the Khalifa 

 or his subservient judges. Tribes openly hostile 

 were put to the sword and their women divided 

 among the emirs, while he has crushed every tribe 

 and city where disaffection culminated in overt re- 

 volt. The misery of the country, contrasting with 

 its former state, is the cause of constant disaffection 

 and of a great decline in the power of the Khalifa, 

 who has talents as a military leader, but none of 

 the qualities necessary for a political ruler to have. 

 The complete embargo on external trade and inter- 

 course, which the Egyptian Government on its side 

 has kept up as strictly as the Khalifa on his, has 

 operated not less than military tyranny and misrule 

 to produce a widespread desire for a change of gov- 

 ernment that would lead to the revival of the cara- 

 van traffic with Assouan, Kassala, and the Red Sea, 

 and restore the prosperity of the Arab merchants, 

 the caravan men, the boatmen, the cultivators of 

 grain, the gatherers of gum arabic, and others de- 

 pendent on the commerce that was interrupted sud- 

 denly after flourishing for ages. Areas that once 

 were flourishing and thickly peopled have been con- 

 verted into deserted wastes. The great plains over 

 which the Arabs of the west wandered are solitudes 

 devoid of human life. The old locations of the 

 dwellers on the Nile have been overrun by nomadic 

 tribes, their rightful owners having been driven 

 away or compelled to cultivate the land for their 

 new masters and reduced to a condition differing 

 from slavery only in name. The power of the 

 Khalifa and the barbarous conquerors who uphold 

 him has been waning for some years, though the 

 most civilized of the communities of the Egyptian 

 Soudan are now the most downtrodden and least 

 able to throw off the yoke. The Mahdi's emirs 

 have been deposed and men of the western tribes 

 put in their place, with the single exception of 

 Osman Digna. In the neighborhood of Suakin and 

 Tokar Egyptian influence is again becoming pre- 

 dominant. The Italians in Kassala have compelled 

 the Mahdists to maintain a strong line of defense 

 on the Atbara river. The inhabitants of the moun- 

 tain lands of Fazogi and the tribes on the banks of 

 the Blue Nile have regained their independence, 

 and now refuse to pay tribute to the Khalifa. Eng- 

 lish and Belgian influence is making itself felt in 

 the far south. In the southwest the French ad- 

 vance is beginning to affect the political conditions 

 of the country. In the northwest the authority of 

 the Khalifa has been threatened by the potentates 

 of the central Soudan. Slatin Pasha gave the fol- 



