INHABITANTS. 97 



twelvemonth in the wooded districts skirting Dar-For and Kordofan on the south. 

 The destruction of these unacclimatised animals is attributed by Emin-Bey to the 

 spontaneous development of multitudes of entozoa, while the natives suffer much 

 from the " Medina worm " as far as the third parallel north of the equator. 



Inhabitants. 



Fifty million people might easily live in this fertile region, in some parts of 

 which the villages follow in close succession, and the jungle has been replaced by 

 gardens. But almost everywhere are visible the traces of murderous and maraud- 

 ing inroads, and many districts recently under cultivation are now completely 

 depopulated. Nowhere else in East Africa has so much ruin been caused by the 

 slave-dealers, including many Egyptian officials, who for many years openly carried 

 on the traffic in human flesh. Protected by their very position, these functionaries 

 were able quietly to promote their " civilising mission," as it was pompously 

 described in the official reports. Even still the routes followed by the convoys of 

 wretched captives regularly forwarded from the Arab stations to the Lower Nile 

 may be recognised by the bleached bones of the victims of this nefarious commerce. 

 And when it was at last officially interdicted, the ostentatious Government procla- 

 mations were easily evaded by the Mohammedan and Christian dealers alike. 

 They no longer engaged personally in the razzias, but they fomented the tribal 

 feuds, encouraging the slaughter of the men, the capture of the women and 

 children. Then humanity itself seemed to require their intervention, to rescue the 

 captives and reserve them for a less cruel bondage in the northern cities. Such 

 was the régime introduced by the " era of progress," under which not only was the 

 country wasted, but its surviving inhabitants debased by the hitherto unknown 

 vices of a "higher culture." 



When at last the European governor, Gordon Pasha, attempted in 1878 to put 

 an end to these horrors, the revolt broke out, and while the functionaries were 

 officially encouraged to act vigorously, the rebels were secretly supplied with 

 munitions of war. The slave- dealers were openly or covertl}^ abetted by nearly all 

 the Egyptian officials. The hope, however, of establishing a separate state under 

 the notorious slaver, Suleiman, was thwarted by Gordon's energetic action, aided 

 by the skill and zeal of his lieutenant, Gessi. And although both of these brave 

 men were soon recalled and sacrificed to court intrigue, the old régime of terrorism 

 seems never to have been restored. The Khedive's authority still survives, at least 

 in name, and the Kordofan rebels seem again circumvented in their attempts to 

 cross the Bahr-el-Ghazal by Gordon's return to Khartum in 1884. 



Meantime the communications with the north have been interrupted. By the 

 very force of circumstances this province has, at least for a time, become autono- 

 mous ; but the time seems still remote when the Sudan will be able to dispense 

 altogether with foreign intervention in its internal affairs. A bright prospect is 

 nevertheless in store for it, as soon as the slave-trade has yielded to legitimate 

 commerce, dealing in corn, fruits, vegetables, butter, cotton, hides, metals, gums, 



7 — AF. 



