Stanley's Emin Pasha Expedition
Alphonse Jules Wauters
9781613102589
213 pages
Library of Alexandria
Overview
In February 1883 Dr. Junker had penetrated so far into the heart of Africa that he found himself at the zeriba Ali Kobo, on the banks of the Welle Makowa, in a region hitherto traversed by no other European. For three years this indefatigable traveller had been exploring north and south, east and west, the districts watered by the Welle, in the hope of finding a definite solution to the important geographical problem propounded by his friend Dr. Schweinfurth, thirteen years previously, as to whether the Welle was connected with the Shary and thence with Lake Tchad, or whether it flowed into the Congo. It needed only a few more weeks of perseverance and progress towards the west, and the explorer would have attained his end and reaped the reward of his labours. He was within a few days’ march of the Congo and was about to push onwards, when letters from Lupton Bey brought news of startling import and put an end to further investigations. Dr. Junker had for a considerable time been quite aware how the country around Khartoum was harassed by the revolutionary action of an agitator who professed himself to be the “Mahdi,” that is, a deliverer invested with a supernatural mission. He had been apprised that the powerful tribe of the Dinka had taken arms, and was threatening the military settlements and zeribas on the Bahr-el-Ghazal; and had further learnt from Lupton Bey, who was the representative of the Egyptian government in that province, that the route between the Niam-niam country and the landing-place of Rek on the Bahr-el-Ghazal was completely blockaded, while the Mahdists were at the same time making an alarming progress. Lupton Bey’s advice to him was that he should endeavour forthwith to return to Egypt; and letters received at Semmio, his station in the Niam-niam country, as well as those which came to hand some weeks later, so far from representing the outlook in a more reassuring light, pictured it as dark and overclouded. The Dinka round Meshra-er-Rek, and the Mahdi’s forces about Khartoum, were steadily gaining ground, so that the northern route was ever becoming more and more impracticable. The conviction, therefore, could not fail to take hold on his mind that he would be obliged to remain in the south for the repression of the two revolts before he could carry out his design of returning to Europe by way of Egypt and the Nile. A certain presentiment of the hard times which he would have to face had already occurred to him. In his journal of August 1, 1883, he made the entry:—“All hope of seeing my country this year is fading away. Thanks to frequent communications from Lupton Bey, I have been kept informed of the events on the Bahr-el-Ghazal. Our gaze is fastened on the north, whence with the utmost anxiety we are looking for relief. The Khartoum steamer is expected. The last news from Lupton is urgent; Hassan Mussa has been killed; sixty more guns have fallen into the hands of the rebels: the road to Meshra-er-Rek is again closed, and 900 soldiers are about to make an effort to reopen it. My fears for the population of the Rohl and for the station of Rumbek are verified, for Lupton writes, ‘Rumbek is destroyed, only six soldiers managing to escape,’ while he further announces the desertion of about thirty Dongolese, drawn over by some fakirs to the Mahdi. If the disasters that I forebode should come to pass, and the Arabs, driven down from the north, should invade the Bahr-el-Ghazal, I foresee that there will be no alternative for us but to retreat by the south. O that help may arrive from Khartoum!”
