334 



EGYPT. 



having returned at the end of that time, the 

 Egyptian envoy had no alternative but to fol- 

 low him to Amhara. After his arrival at Debra 

 Tabor in Amhara, Gordon Pasha had two 

 audiences with the King, which led to no re- 

 sult, as the latter argued that without the high 

 dignitaries of the kingdom he could take no 

 important resolution. A fortnight afterward 

 the King returned with Gordon Pasha to 

 Adowah. A grand council was then assem- 

 bled, but after several sittings they declared 

 that the question of peace or war concerned 

 the King alone, as he knew best what was good 

 for his people. Thereupon the King put for- 

 ward the following conditions of peace: 1. 

 Restitution to Abyssinia of the coast territory 

 that had been ceded; 2. Departure from those 

 districts of the Mussulman colonists ; 3. Resti- 

 tution of the taxes collected there during the 

 Egyptian occupation, amounting to 50,000,000 

 francs ; 4. Restitution of the Bogos territory ; 

 5. An extensive rectification of frontier in the 

 direction of the Nile ; 6. Recognition of King 

 John as Emperor of Abyssinia; 7. The obliga- 

 tion for Egypt not to supply the Mussulmans 

 living south of Abyssinia with arms and am- 

 munition; 8. Suspension of customs dues be- 

 tween the Egyptian town of Zeilah and Abys- 

 sinia. These demands Egypt could not grant, 

 and in consequence Gordon Pasha returned to 

 Egypt, arriving in Massowah on December 10th. 

 Military preparations had been going on since 

 the first arrival of the news of the unfavorable 

 reception of the Egyptian envoy by King John, 

 and the latter also prepared himself for war. 

 On December llth the Abyssinian chiefs of the 

 army of King John, which had assembled on 

 the Egyptian frontier, made their way into the 

 Khedive's territory, and succeeded in levying 

 tribute from his subjects. In an interview 

 with the Khedive, Gordon Pasha said that the 

 King of Abyssinia hated and was hated by all 

 who came in contact with him. Abyssinia, he 

 said, was surrounded on all sides by discon- 

 tented tribes and rulers. To the eastward, 

 King Menelek of Shoa was sullenly opposing 

 King John, but was afraid to show open hos- 

 tility ; to the south, Rasadall was in almost 

 open rebellion; and in other quarters six or 

 more chiefs were in actual revolt. Placed in 

 this position. Abyssinia could not attack Egypt. 

 If. the Khedive would supply the malcontent 

 tribes with arms, the second son of King 

 Theodore would soon be placed on his father's 

 throne. 



Upper Egypt was visited during 1879 by a 

 severe famine. A Famine Commissioner, Mr. 

 Baird, was appointed to visit the afflicted lo- 

 calities, to relieve the distress, and report on 

 the causes of the famine. He presented his 

 report in May, representing the condition of 

 the peasants as heart-rending. The peasants, 

 Mr. Baird says, are without capital, steeped 

 in poverty, and wholly dependent on the Nile 

 both for their daily sustenance and the unfail- 

 ing demands of the tax-collector. The Nile in 



1877 was so low that much arable land was 

 left unwatered, and consequently was not cul- 

 tivated. This disaster was followed by an 

 excessive Nile, which drowned the maize, the 

 local food-crop, and the peasants were left to 

 beg, steal, or starve. The reason of the com- 

 plete collapse before this temporary calamity 

 is thus explained : 



Even in ordinary circumstances the Egyptian peas- 

 ant leads a life which has little that is attractive to 

 European eyes. His food consists of coarse maize- 

 bread, with beans, lentils, onions, and various weeds. 

 He wears scanty clothing of cotton or rough homespun 

 woolen cloth, and sleeps in a mud hut or in the open 

 air. . . . The worst i'eature in his life is his chronic 

 state of indebtedness, either to the Government for 

 arrears of taxation or to the merchant who supplies 

 him on credit with seed-corn and corn for his house- 

 hold, to be repaid with exorbitant interest when his 

 crops are ripe. The merchants for the most part are 

 Europeans, and are always ready to make advances to 

 the needy peasant, provided the interest is high enough. 

 The fellah, called upon to pay his taxes at a moment 

 when his crops are still unripe, is compelled to bor- 

 row, and is not in a position to wrangle about the in- 

 terest. For instance, last year, when great pressure 

 was put upon the Egyptian Government to pay tho 

 coupon due in May, tue peasants were forced to sell 

 their growing crops, and in some cases, perfectly au-. 

 thenticated, corn was sold to the merchants for 50 pias- 

 ters per ardeb, which was delivered in one month's 

 time and then fetched 120 piasters. These are no ex- 

 ceptional cases ; the same thing was going on over tho 

 whole of Upper Eg_ypt. ... At one place, where the 

 market price of maize was 80 piasters, I found the peas- 

 ants purchasing what they required for their households 

 at 170 piasters on credit. 



The famine was clearly caused by the com- 

 plete absence of any reserve fund on which the 

 peasants could fall back. The usurer and the 

 tax-collector had brought the fellah to a com- 

 pletely hand-to-mouth life. There was plenty 

 of corn in the country, so much that Mr. Baird 

 was able to buy it under market price; and 

 yet, during the months of September, October, 

 November, and December, 1878, some 700,000 

 people were starving and 10,000 actually died 

 from starvation. Mr. Baird drew the follow- 

 ing conclusion from his inquiry : 



The famine was a money famine ; nobody who had 

 money need starve. The agricultural population are 

 extremely poor and overtaxed. Those who suffered 

 most were women, children, old men, and professional 

 beggars. The relief was sent some months too late. 

 Owing to the good crops this year the famine is almost 

 at an end. Unless something is done to release the 

 people from their constant state of debt, another fail- 

 ure of the crops would produce equally deplorable re- 

 sults. 



The condition of the fellahs, however, was 

 greatly improved by the good crops of 1879, 

 and the policy of moderation adopted by the 

 new Government in the collection of the taxes. 

 Unlike former years, when taxes were generally 

 collected a year or two in advance, the tax-col- 

 lectors this year confined themselves to collect- 

 ing the taxes remaining unpaid from the pre- 

 vious year, and they received strict orders from 

 the Khedive not to use harsh means in collect- 

 ing the taxes from the fellahs. 



The agricultural condition of Egypt during 

 1879 was a decided improvement on that of 



