St. Paul daily globe., 1888-08-05
Natives Interested in the
Slave Trade Spread Tales
Of Disaster.
Strategic Importance Of the
Russian Central Asian
Railway.
The Invasion Of India by the
Forces Of the Gar Not
Improbable.
Special Cable to the Globe.

Special Cable to the Globe.
LONDON, Aug. 4.-Lieut. Wissmann,
the African explorer, in an interview
to-day at Brussels regarding the report
via Zanzibar to the effect that Emih
Bey was advancing by the left bank of
the Nile on the Mahdi, leaving the in
ference that the white paSha in the
province of Bahr-El-GhaZel was Emln
and not Stanley, said: "These native sto-
rieS from Zanzibar must be taken with
great deal of salt The Arabs have
been spreading eXtravagant reports re-
specting the fate of the Stanley expedi-
ton ever since it started, fearing that
its success would put stop to their
slave trade, which, am sorry to say, is
at present
IN FLOURISHING CONDITION.
"For all the region of the upper Congo,
its tributaries and the great lakes, Zan-
Zibar is the center of the slave trade.
The sultan of Zanzibar, who was furi-
Gus at the division of part of his terri
tory between Germany and England in
1856, has since been doing all in his
power to make the country too hot for
its nominal pOSSeSSOrS or protectors. He
has sent large quantities of arms and
ammunition into the interior, and is at
all the untold misery following in its
train, which has never gone on so
briSkly and audaclouSly. Well informed
observers declare that in the last three
years the slave trade has at least
doubled.
THE REGIONS DEVASTATED
since the year 1888 extend over an area
of 1000 miles in length by 400 in
breadth, and the destruction of human
life and the misery caused are almost
beyond Imagination. Stanley, who has
had great opportunities of watching the
proceedings of the slaves, tells us that
for every Serviceable slave captured
fifty men, women or children are in one
way or another done to death, and even
of this miserable remainder only a frac-
tiOn survive.
THE JOURNEY TO THE COAST.
''The bones of these victims are un-
doubtedly the ones that the alleged de-
serters stated strew the route Stanley
took. 1t is for the purpose of still keep
ing up this slave trade, so black and ap-
palling in its wanton cruelty, that the
natives spread these stories of disaster
to Stanley. DR.. Emin Pasha, in his last
letter, said that he did not intend to un-
dertake any warlike enterprise, and,
strange as it may seem, mentions the
circumstances of the fighting between
the tribes in his vicinity, which are
identical with those connected with
fighting reported in the Zanzibar dis
patch of August. Further, he said. If
Stanley arrived the mere fact that he
Emin-had received supplies would soon
bring to an end the Quarreis
AMONG HIS CHILDISH NEIGHB ORS.
''Stanley undoubtedly, as Emin then
wrote, found in marching from Congo
to Wadelai almost impossible swamps,
numerous rivers with floating vegeta-
tiOn and other almost inSurmOuntable
difficulties, and diverted his course in
the direction of KhartOum. These facts
are in substance my reason for inform
ing King Leopold on Thursday that
good news of Stanley might be expected
at an early date"
The British cabinet has at length
awakened to the fact that the construc-
tion of the Central Asian railway is in
large part political enterprise and that
it is recognized as such by Russians.
The strategical importance of the new
railway
1t will enable the Russian staff to con-
centrate, should it be desired, a consid-
cradle force on the border of Afghan
Turkestan and to collect large supplies
for its maintenance. The main army
would, of course, be brought from the
Caspian, but large contingents could
be raised in the region between
the Oxus and the Jaxartes.
The Syr Daria has long been navi-
gated by fleet of steamers, and
since the railway was opened the steam
navigation of the Anu Daria, both
above and below Tchardjui, has been
inaugurated. The chief military value
of the railway is that it makes these
two rivers available
AS LINES OF TRANSPORT
in the direction of Afghan-Turkestan
If the railway at present does not bring
Afghanistan open to far more ready and
formidable attack. and looking to the
supersensitiveness of powerful sec
ton of English opinion on the subject
of Afghanistan, this is not small mat
ter.
In certain diplomatic circles the opin-
ion prevails that both Emperor William
and Prince Bismarck are quietly direct
ing RusSia's attention towards India.
In support of this belief they point to
the articles appearing from day to day
in semi-official German newspapers, de-
riding
THE ENGLISH ARMY AND NAVY.
1t is certain that since Emperor Will
iam's visit to st. Petersburg, Gen. An
nenkoff, the constructor of the Trans
Caspian railway line, is rapidly moving
his famous construction train of railway
wagons, in which he carries about a
movable village of 1,500 persons, in the
direction of Herat This train consists
of forty carriages, of which the greater
part are for the housing at night of
Russian soldiers and native workmen.
Gen. AnnenkOff has by the successful
construction of the line
SOLVED THREE IMPORTANT PROBLEMS,
He has found means of EMPLOYING
naphtha fuel in county where neither
coal nor wood could be had, a way of
supplying with sufficiency of water a
vast extent of country where natural
sources do not exist, and has carried a
line of railway over such deserts of sand
as are traversed by no other railroad in
the world. In doing all this, Gen. An
nenkoff has opened the eyes of English
military officials to the fact that the in-
vasion of India by Russia is not such a
vast and hopeless task as has been sup
posed.