Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 1.djvu/311

 Khartum command all the country on one side as far as the Zeriba region, and on the other as far as Berber and Abû-Hamed.

Recent events have proved the military importance of this position between the two Niles. From a commercial point of view, Khartum will not be so advantageously situated until a bridge is built over the Bahr-el-Azraq, so as to receive directly the caravans which come from Abyssinia, Kassala, and the shores of the Red Sea. Nevertheless, Khartum had become one of the great cities of the continent, and the busy population which till recently crowded its narrow streets was a mixture of Turks, Danaglas or people of Dongola, Arabs, and negroes of every shade of colour. Italian was becoming almost as much spoken as Arabic, and the exterior commerce was almost entirely in the hands of the French and Greeks, Khartum is the point where took place all the exchanges of Europe and Egypt

with the regions of the Upper Nile; it was also the place whence emanated all the expeditions and the movements of military bodies, and where all the religious missions and commercial or scientific expeditions were prepared.

A town of soldiers, merchants, and slaves, Khartum has no remarkable monuments, and it is surrounded on all sides by spaces which, if not absolute wastes, are, at least, uncultivated and treeless. At the period of the Beja rule, the banks of the two Niles were said to be shaded with an uninterrupted forest of palms festooned with vines. Khartum is not a healthy town, at least during the portion of the year when the moist winds blow, increasing the waters of the rivers.

Typhus has often more than decimated the population; but in winter the atmosphere is purified by the north winds and the public health is as good at Khartum as in any other African city. After a vigorous defence maintained for upwards of two years against overwhelming numbers, Khartum was betrayed to the Mahdi on