The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-02-12 00:00:00

SIR O. WILSON ON THE SOUDAN.

Sir Charles Wilson lectured at the Toynbee Hall, I
London, on Saturday evening, on "Our Friends and
Foes in the Soudan,' and after describing the aspect
of the country in the Nile Valley, said that the
pictorial newspapers had very often given people a
wrong idea of the kind of people against whom we
were fighting. The common belief in England was
that we were either fighting very repulsive-looking,
wild, and savage negroes, or else Arabs. We were
never fighting real negroes, but two entirely different
peoples—first, those who lived near Souakim, and
then those in the Valley of the Nile. The people at
Souakim were neither Arabs nor negroes, but repre-
sentatives of the old Ethiopians. Instead of being
savage-looking or ugly, they were a beautiful
race, of small build, and with very finely-
moulded limbs, their skin having a curious velvety
feeling to the touch. They were extremely active, and
the only ferocious part of their appearance was the
manner in which they dressed their coarse wiry black
hair. There were several tribes of these people, those
against whom we fought at Souakim being the Haden-
dowas. They ran as fast as a horse could go at an
easy gallop, and many were mounted on highly-trained
camels of great swiftness, PO that they could ride
round cavalry with ease. When they charged they
came on quite at the pace at which cavalry advanced,
and the hilly nature of the country made it easy for
them to conceal themselves in large numbers and
pounce upon us suddenly. This was principally the
reason why at some of the fights many of them came
up close to and even entered our squares in the face
of a heavy breechloader fire. They did not speak
Arabic, but a language supposed to be actually a rem-
nant of that which was found upon the old monu-
ments in the Soudan, which was written in Egyptian
hieroglyphics, hut was not Egyptian. Their rebellion
was at first in no sense a religious one, but simply
a strike against the Egyptian Government, which had
obtained an enormous number of camels from them
for General Hicks's expedition and had failed to pay
for them. Then Osman Digna came down to the
country of which his mother was a native, and, play-
ing on the feelings of the tribes, created a religious
rebellion, with the result that after the defeat of
Baker Pasha the whole country rose. Before General
Gordon left England he knew that the rebellion was
not a religious one, and his first intention was to go
amongst the Suakim tribes and pacify them before
starting for Khartoum, and the general opinion was
that if he had been able to do so he would have suc-
ceeded, and there would have been no battles at
Suakim, and no massacre of Baker's force. (Ap-
plause.) The Arabs of the Nile valleys were a beauti-
fully-featured race, with splendidly-formed limbs and
very small hands and feet, their whole make being
rather slight and delicate. But constant exercise and
life in the desert had made them so sinewy and strong
that they could travel enormous ciistances and go
through hardships almost beyond belief. The next
race were the Nubians, who lived on the river
between the First Cataract at Assouan and Dongolo.
They were the original people of that part of the
country, and followed agricultural pursuits. They had
a great capacity for education, and if education were
once introduced into the country he felt sure that
they would soon be restored to even a higher state of
civilisation than they enjoyed before the Arabs in-
vaded the country. Sir Charles said that he had
never seen the Mahal, but often saw one of his rela-
tives, who was said to closely resemble him in appear-
ance. This person was extremely imposing and
sedate-looking, with a broal pair of shoulders

and impressive mien. The last point he touched on
was the slave question, which, in the Soudan,
was a most curious and interesting one. The
slave-hunters were nearly all Arabs, and as these
could not make slaves of any who professed
the Mahometan faith they drew their supplies from
the pure negro races. General Gordon's idea to
the last was to arm the natives to enable them
to resist the Arabs, and Emin Bey had really done
with his few soldiers what Gordon was not allowed
to do with the Egyptian troops. The number of
slaves in the Soudan and Dongola province was
enormous, certainly more than half the population
of Dongola being slaves. As a rule they were very
well treated, the worst feature of slavery being the
capturing and transporting of slaves, since for every
one who came down into the Soudan 15 or 20 died on
the way. Their principal occupation was that of
household servants or tillers of the soil, or guiding
the oxen to turn the great irrigation wheels. Ile
believed that nothing that we could do would ever
put a atop to this trade in that portion of the Soudan.
It was very nearly exterminated in Egypt, though
every now and then slaves were passed over the
frontier as domestic servants. But the great safe-
guard for them in Egypt was that every slave knew
that he or she had only to walk a few yards to the
English Consulate to become free. (Applause.) •