The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1885-05-08
NUMBER 46
KHARTOUM.
The Gateway or Central AfrIca--Th
Metropolis OF the Slave Dealers,

/
Khartoum may be called the gate of
Central Africa. European civilization
enters at one side OF the city and
African barbarisn comes In ut the
other Beyond Khartoum from the
north few tourists have ever made their
way. and beyond KhartOIm from the
south few savages have ever ventured.
From the south the Nubian sends his
stores OF ebony. ostrich feathers. ivory,
skins of animals and other products OF
the equatorial lake district, while from
the north the trader carries grain,
cotton, gum, Brummagin knicknacks
and beads TO feed and cIothe the
"savages pouting at the lima As the
entrepot OF the roGucts OF Central
Africa Khartoum Is a place Of soIue
commercial Importance. Amsng the
5000 people who make up its popula-
lion there are many Greeks and Ital.
ians, while two or three Americans
here find profitable Investments in fur
nisliing beads and other trnmpery to
the sayages Of 'Kordofan. III Obcid and
Darfour. The traders sell canned
fruits, meats and vegetables and make
tho Dongolowee howl through the
streets after taking some oi their raki
as refresher Arabs in their bour-
naises, Turks with their traditional fez.
Copts with their bashc. and Birhareen
Arabs with their knolted and combined
locks of hair, standing up like quilts of
the porcupine, wander through its
irregular. harrow and. badly-drained
streets. II is no wonder that Khar-
toum is unhealthy. When il rains,
great pools of stagnant water are
formed, and from these fevcrs are gem
Grated and the deadly miasma does its
work among the people.
The street that borders the river side
looks down upon the water from an
elevation along which stately palm
trees and large gardens OF citron and
orange trees stand. Many neatly
whitewashed buildings stand along the
river bank, and these are relieved by
the minarets and mosques, which give
the place the air OF city in Upper
Egypt, like Benisooef or Roda in large
way. There are, of course, the char
acteristic mud houses, the tropical foil
age, the broad palms and the weeping
domes, the dedcbahas hauled on the
beach for repairs, the bales of cotton
heaped on the shore, the sacks of gum,
the tusks of ivory and the steyedore
population who brave crocpdilcs for
their paltry paras.
The palace OF the Governor is an
ugly-looking building facils the river,
and the helmeted and ea,quad negroes
who form the guard al honor are dress
ed in white uniforms Turrr j. a good
deal OF complex sconnelrr,i1 II in the
city. 1t is a result II .,tJ- years of
slave trade. This has attracted the
worst class of the rogues who live on
the Levant. An ariiy IL men as large
as the army of tac United States is |
engaged in capturing the negroes of |
the Upper Nile, and it D. said that $780, |
600 slaves, worth about $50 head, |
L nS"ly pass through the gateway city. |
sees Gurk, with his MOs!nm religion, |
IS talno great harm in the traffic, for he |
OF CIV Ia eSsanny and the servitude |
the harem is regafuctt IL a sUtit'i iusuI- |
tuition, as the Koran is the inspired law |
of the majority. Even If the mountain |
passes of Abyssnia were sealed up, tho |
seaports of the Cape q. Good Hope |
blockaded and all the outlets of Central
Africa barricadcd, yet it is believed that |
the same silent caravans will be found
starting over the deserts, and the
same suspicious slavc-dcalers Sneaking
through Khartoum across the Red Sea
or the Persian Gulf. For 400 miles
south of Khartoum the White Nile is
covered with rich cotton fields, which
slope away from the banks of the river
from five to fifty miles into the interior.
The resources of the country are inn
mense, and Khartoum is destined to
play an important part in the develop
ment of the resources of Central Africa
-NeW York World