250 



EMIN PASHA. 



and they can be cut to all sorts of re-entrant 

 and irregular angles and curves by any me- 

 chanic with a diamond tool. So easy is it, 

 indeed, for the workman to shape the wheel 

 according to his needs, that by far the greater 

 proportion of wheels are made with a plain, 

 square face like an ordinary grindstone. 



EMIN PASHA. The expedition of Henry M. 

 Stanley for the relief of Emin Pasha, under- 

 taken in the spring of 1887 awakened general 

 public interest. The fact that an able and 

 active explorer, well known to all the geo- 

 graphical societies of Europe, was, so to speak, 

 cast away in Central Africa and unable to re- 

 turn to civilization, was most romantic. Lit- 

 tle had been publicly known of the personality 

 of the explorer prior to the general discussion 

 awakened by the organization of this expedi- 

 tion, and even now but few persons are thor- 

 oughly informed regarding his career. Emin 

 Pasha is an Austrian, his real name being 

 Schnitzer, and was born in 1840, at Oppeln. 

 After studying medicine for a time at Breslau, 

 Berlin, and Konigsberg, he was appointed in 

 1868 a surgeon in the Turkish army. It has 

 been said that upon receiving this appointment 

 he embraced Mohammedanism, but there is no 

 positive evidence of it. He was sent to Egypt 

 and was appointed by Gen. Gordon surgeon- 

 general of his array. In 1878 he was made 

 Governor General of the Equatorial Provinces, 

 with the title of Bey (being afterward pro- 

 moted to Pasha), and immediately set out for 

 the provinces over which he was to rule. Here 

 his remarkable energy and quick grasp of the 

 situation became evident at once. These prov- 

 inces were at the time of his assumption of au- 

 thority in a terrible condition. A vast terri- 

 tory, containing six million inhabitants, had 

 been for years overrun by the slave-traders, 

 who did an enormous business in kidnapping 

 or buying the natives and taking them to the 

 nearest slave - market. Within three years 

 Emin had driven the slave-traders out of his 

 dominions, while the provinces, which up to 

 his acquisition of power had cost for their gov- 

 ernment nearly $200,000 annually, were able 

 to send in 1882 and thereafter a yearly surplus 

 of $40,000 to the Cairo Government after pay- 

 ing all expenses, besides the cost of large public 

 works which had been completed. This change 

 in the financial condition of the territory was 

 brought about, not by increased taxation, but 

 by the exercise of economy and the suppression 

 of abuses, by training the natives to become 

 industrious producers, and by the general exer- 

 cise of good government. The new Bey de- 

 voted himself to the study of the language and 

 customs of the races over whom he ruled, 

 while with wise judgment and a kindly nature 

 he taught the natives to have full confidence in 

 him. Training-stations were established all 

 over his provinces, agriculture was developed, 

 and murder, war, and slavery became things 

 of the past, so that at last, as is said, " the 

 whole country was made so safe that but for 



the wild beasts in the thickets a man could 

 have gone from one end to the other armed 

 with no more than a walking-stick." Emin's 

 idea of government was to civilize the negroes 

 in as short a time as possible and by the exer- 

 cise of methods of kindness and consideration. 

 To this end he appointed the most efficient 

 men he could get as officers, and these en- 

 forced a strict discipline, treating the natives 

 as children, but yet gently. Hospitals were 

 built, roads were constructed through the 

 country, the natives were taught how to make 

 wagons, and cotton, coffee, rice, indigo, and 

 wheat were cultivated with success. 



In the mean time the country surrounding 

 the territory of Emin remained in its original 

 condition of barbarity, and there the Arab 

 slave-traders carried on their infamous traffic 

 unmolested. These slave-traders had been the 

 bitter enemies of Gordon and were now the 

 most active supporters of the Mahdi, and it 

 was these that created for Emin his greatest 

 difficulties. On first reaching Wadelai he suc- 

 ceeded in forming friendly relations with the 

 kings of Uganda and Unjoro, and the latter 

 continued faithful to him up to the last that 

 was heard of him ; but in Uganda a new king 

 came on the throne who was under the influ- 

 ence of the Arab slave-traders and hostile to 

 the missionaries, and he was able, with the as- 

 sistance of native tribes in various directions, 

 to imprison Emin in his own territory, so that 

 from 1882 he was entirely cut off from com- 

 munication with the outside world. To the 

 north of him the Egyptian rule had been de- 

 stroyed, while the hostile King of Uganda pre- 

 vented assistance reaching him from the south. 

 It was not until October, 1886, that such news 

 came from him in letters which he succeeded 

 in getting through in the hands of negro run- 

 ners as to set forth clearly the nature of his 

 situation. At that time he had ten fortified 

 stations along the Nile, while his command 

 consisted of 1,500 soldiers, 10 Egyptian and 15 

 negro officers, and 20 Coptic officials. He ex- 

 pected that his ammunition would last until 

 the end of 1886, and that lie would be able to 

 maintain himself still longer if not attacked by 

 the wild tribes; but this latter event he feared 

 as well as that he would be assaulted by the 

 tribes of the Mahdi as soon as it was discovered 

 that he had no more ammunition. Meanwhile, 

 Emin could have escaped on his own account 

 by taking picked men and cutting his way 

 through had he been willing to leave the 

 women and children to their fate and the na- 

 tives to the mercy of the slave-traders; but 

 this idea seems never to have occurred to him, 

 and in the last letters received from him he 

 made no appeal for assistance, but simply said 

 that if a relief force should be sent to him it 

 would save his life and prevent his provinces 

 from lapsing into barbarism. He kept his men 

 busy in the cultivation of cotton, taught them 

 how to make boots, and established a soap- 

 factory and tobacco plantations, placing his 



