530 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IV., No. 97. 



THE SUDAN. 1 



The Sudan, in the broadest sense of the 

 word, is bounded on the north by the Sahara, 

 and on the south by the 5th degree of north 

 latitude, except in the Nile region, where its 

 southern limit ma} 7 be fixed somewhat farther 

 south. Between these boundaries, it stretches 

 from the Atlantic Ocean to the highlands of 

 Abyssinia and the Red Sea. The Sudan, as 

 the word is commonly used at the present day, 

 is the Egyptian Sudan properly so called, or 

 the provinces belonging to Egypt lying south 

 of the Nubian desert. These are, going from 

 west to east, Dongola, Berber, and Suakin on 

 the north ; Darfur, Kordofan, Khartum and 

 Senaar, Taka and Massawa, situated, roughly 

 speaking, between 10° and 15° north latitude ; 

 and the southern Nile provinces of Fashoda, 

 Bahr-el-Gazelle, and Equator. On many maps, 

 however, the word ' Nubia ' will be found as 

 including all the Nile provinces as far south as 

 Fashoda. 



There is very little known of the history 

 of this part of the world, but the following 

 ma} 7 be taken as approximately correct. The 

 aboriginal inhabitants of these countries were 

 undoubtedly negroes. It is not probable that 

 the Arabs arrived much before the advent of 

 Mohammed; but, in the eighth century of our 

 era, one or more Arab tribes crossed the Red 

 Sea, and settled in the Sudan as far west and 

 south as Senaar. They became more or less 

 amalgamated with the negro tribes, which they 

 conquered and converted, and whose names 

 the}- in many cases took. Thus it came about 

 that the eastern Egyptian Sudan possesses at 

 this day a reasonably homogeneous, impure 

 Arab population, composed of the Hadendoa, 

 Bishareen, and other tribes. 



Kordofan lies approximately between 12° 

 and 16° north latitude, and 29° and 32° east 

 longitude. It contains a population of not 

 over three hundred thousand. The Nouba 

 (Nuba) , a race of very black negroes, are not 

 unlikely the representatives of the aborigines. 

 They live by themselves in the mountains of 

 southern Kordofan, and speak a language of 

 their own. They are pure negroes. Between 

 them and the Arabs there are two mixed races, 

 the Ghodiat and Koungarra. It has been con- 

 jectured that the Ghodiat represent the ruling 

 race at the time of the conquest of the country 

 by the Fur, with whom the Koungarra seem 

 to be allied ; but this is largely conjecture. 



1 It was originally intended to give this article to the readers 

 of Science in No. 93, in which the map of the Sudan appeared, 

 but it could not be prepared in time. — Ed. 



These tribes live in villages, and cultivate the 

 soil. They are thus easily distinguished from 

 the purer Arab tribes, the most numerous of 

 which are the Kababish and the Bagarra, all 

 of whom are real nomads. With the exception 

 of the Nouba, the Kordofanese are Mussul- 

 mans, and very superstitious. 



Kordofan was conquered by the chief of 

 Senaar in the last quarter of the eighteenth 

 century, and almost immediately wrenched 

 from his grasp by the forces of the sultan or 

 chief of Darfur, who retained possession of the 

 country until the Egyptian invasion in 1821. 

 Perhaps the following from Major Prout's re- 

 port to Stone pasha will convey a good idea 

 of the mixture of races in Kordofan, where, 

 he says, to-day one may see " all the variety 

 of face, form, and color, which is to be found 

 from Italy to the land of the Niam-Niam." 



These and other disturbances in the Sudan 

 attracted the attention of Mohammed Ali in 

 1819, and he sent an army for its subjuga- 

 tion. This was easily accomplished, so far as 

 Nubia, Kordofan, and Senaar were concerned ; 

 but the Red Sea littoral, Suakin and Massawa, 

 was not incorporated until 1864. The cruel- 

 ties of Ismail, Mohammed Ali's son, were so 

 great that he and many of his officers were 

 treacherously burned alive at Shendy ; while 

 the defterclar, his son-in-law, so misgoverned 

 Kordofan that it is said that Mohammed Ali 

 had him poisoned. This was the beginning of 

 Egyptian rule in the Sudan, and its promise 

 has been borne out by succeeding events. 



In 1853 John Petherick, the English con- 

 sul at Khartum, opened up the ivory trade of 

 the White Nile. Other foreigners followed. 

 It was soon found that slave-hunting was still 

 more profitable, and their energies were ac- 

 cordingly turned in that direction. Seribas, 

 or stockaded villages, were built throughout 

 the Bahr-el-Gazelle country ; but ' ' about the 

 year 1860 the scandal became so great that 

 the Europeans had to get rid of their stations." 

 They sold them to the Arabs, who paid a 

 nominal rental to the government. The life 

 of the Nubians and other Arab peoples under 

 the oppression of the Turks, as they called 

 the Egyptians, was so miserable, that whole 

 communities betook themselves to slave-hunt- 

 ing. From Berber to Khartum "there was 

 not a dog to howl for his lost master. . . . 

 Thousands had forsaken their homes, and 

 commenced a life of brigandage on the White 

 Nile." Thus wrote Baker in 1869, and to 

 the same effect Schweinfurth a year earlier. 



It was to put a stop to this slave-hunting 

 that Baker, and after him Gordon, were ap- 



