Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/137

 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. 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easily live in this fertile region, in some parts of which the villages follow in close succession, and the jungle has been replaced by gardens.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 marauding 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 Hesh. 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 proclamations 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 covertly abetted by nearly all the Egyptian officials. The hope, however, of establishing a sejjarate 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 autonomous; 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 com, fruits, vegetables, butter, cotton, hides, metals, gums,