INTRODUCTION. xxv 



knew well that their district was safe, both from the slave- 

 trade and from the raids which the Egyptian troops so fre- 

 quently made into the outlying districts. 



I must touch upon one other point. Emin Pasha refers in 

 many places to the trouble he suffered from limited authority. 

 Baker and Gordon were absolutely independent of any central 

 authority at Khartum ; they had the power of life and death, 

 and were responsible to the Khedive alone for their actions. 

 Not so Emin. He was obliged to report almost every detail of 

 administration for the approval of the Governor-General of the 

 Sudan, and when one considers that months, sometimes years, 

 elapsed before he received an answer to his communications, it 

 will be readily understood how greatly his hands were tied, 

 and how difficult it was for him both to maintain order and 

 to introduce improvements into his province. With regard 

 to the commercial administration of the province, it was the 

 old story over again — the Egyptian Government requiring 

 the bricks to be made and refusing to provide the straw. 

 Emin could not obtain supplies from Khartum, and even the 

 seeds which he required for cultivation experiments had either 

 to be purchased with his own money or to be begged from his 

 numerous friends. What wonder that the Equatorial Province 

 did not prove a gold-mine ! The wonder is that, left to his 

 own resources, he was able in so few short years to trans- 

 form the finances of the country, and, instead of holding his 

 province at a yearly deficit at some ^32,000, to make a nett 

 profit of from eight to twelve thousand pounds per annum, as 

 he did from 1882 to 1884. 



The difficulties and dangers which disturbed the Equatorial 

 Province in consequence of the evacuation of the Sudan are 

 described in Emin's letters. He was himself unaware of the 

 events which were taking place north of his territory, but it 

 was only too evident that the prosperity of his province was 

 threatened, and he had a desperate struggle for its very 

 existence. At length the Mahdi's hordes began to retire, and 



