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THE ORIGIN OF THE ROOSEVELT EXPEDITION. 
An Egyptian expedition under Sir Samuel Baker, in 1870, led 
to the conquest of the equatorial regions on the Nile farther south 
than the Sudan proper, of which General Gordon was appointed 
governor general in 1874. 
On the fall of Ismail Pasha of Egypt, Gordon was recalled, 
and hordes of Turks, Circassians and Bashi-Mazouks were let loose 
to plunder the Soudanese. 
Egyptian misrule then became intolerable, and in this crisis 
appeared Mohammed Ahmed of Dongola,, who gave himself out * 
to be the Mahdi, the long-expected redeemer of Islam. Gordon 
about this time returned to the Sudan, but was shortly after slain 
at Khartoum. Before his death, he appointed Emin Pasha (Eduard 
Schnitzer) governor of the equatorial province on the Upper Nile, 
north of the Albert Nyanza, in 1878. 
Emin Pasha continued to hold his ground, although continually 
harassed by the enemy, till 1889, when he was relieved by Henry M. 
Sanzibar and conveyed with his followers to Zanzibar, Great 
Britain, aiding Egypt, steadily pursued the plan of rescuing the 
provinces occupied by the Mahdi’s forces, which was ultimately 
accomplished in the death of the Khalifa and destruction of his 
force in 1899, together with the capture of the Osman Digna in 
1900. 
ROOSEVELT AND THE MISSIONARIES. 
Our former President has always evinced great interest in the 
Missionaries. While in Africa he made something of a study of 
their work, not only along religious lines, but in their medical and 
educational etforts as well as blazers out of the paths for civilization 
and for commerce. 
Africa’s day has long been delayed, but it has come at last. 
The missionary was the explorer of Africa. The real work of the 
missionaries in the Dark Continent began, however, after prac- ^ 
tically all other parts of the world had been made missionary fields. 
The silent and mysterious Sphynx of Egypt is no longer the symbol 
of Africa. For long millenniums the whole continent, except a little 
part along the Mediterranean, some fringes along the coast and in 
