The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-08-30
----------------------- fl DRAMATIC STORY.

I
 Full Text of SIatin Pasha's Recent Speech
 in London-Gordon was Beheaded-The | Soudan Now shut Out From Civilizlng 1 Influences Picture of its Con-
 dition Under the Tyrannous Rule of the Khalifa.
 | From the New York Mail and Express.l At the recent meeting of the Inter national Geographical Congress in London, by far the most interesting episode was the introduction of Colonel Slatin Pasha, whose escape from the Soudan after eleven years captivity created such stir in England, as he was the first to bring absolutely relia- ble news of the death of General Cor don.
 Slatin Pasha, when an officer of the Austrian and Egyptian armies, visited the Soudan in 1878, where he met Gene ral Gordon, and when in 1878 the latter offered him position in the Soudan he accepted it. lie was made governor | general of Dan Fur and when the Mah- di arose he fought twenty-seven battles with his forces. He was at last forced eto surrender.
 l The full text of his address before the Geographical Congress, which is now published for the first time in this coun- l try, will be found of exceptional inter- 1 est. He said:
 l After more than sixteen years in Af- rica, including eleven years of captivi- | ty, during which I was cut off from all communication with the civilized world, l have had the good fortune to return | to civilization. How Africa has l changed within this period Regions in whose explorations Livingstone, I Spoke, Grant Stanley, Cameron, Braz- ga, Matteucci Du Chaillu, Won der | Decken, Rohlfs, Wissman, Junker, I Schwefnfurth, Holub, Lenz, and hun l dreds of others risked their lives are now accessible to civilization Tn most of these, in which the explorer had for merly to encounter the greatest dam gers, there are now military posts and stations to afford security and facili- tate the trade which is constantly be- coming more active.
 From the East, Italy, England, Ger many; from the West, the Congo State, France and England, are daily enlarg- ing their sphere of influence, and are now on the point of joining hands in lCentral Africa. Wild tribes, who in their mode of life are nearer the beast than to man, are beginning to know new wants, beginning to understand that there are beings mentally superior to them and who through cooperation are unconquerable, even in foreign lands.
 The more northerly of the still inde- pendent Mohammedan kingdoms, Wa dai, Bornu and the Fellata Kingdoms, are regarding these advancing powers with a view to concluding alliances with some of them, perceiving that only in this way their hereditary rule can be secured. Tn the middle of Africa be- tween the lands just mentioned and the advancing powers, lies the former Egyptian Soudan, now under the rule of the Caliph Abdullah the despotic head of the Mahdists.
 No European can venture to cross the limits of this land, cut off from civiliza- tion, extending in the south along the Nile to Begjaf, and east to west from Kassala to near Wadai. Death or life long captivity would be his lot. Yet it is only within the short period of ten years that the land has been subjected to this miserable fate. For more than sixty years, since the time of Moham- med Ali, it remained under the rule of Egypt, and was open to civilization. Tn the chief towns were found Egyp- tian and European merchants; in Khar- |. toum itself the foreign powers had their representatives.
 Travellers of all nations could pass through the land unharmed. and found protection and help through those rep resentatives. Telegraphs and regular postal service facilitated intellectual in- tereourse with the most distant coun- tries. Mohammedan mosques, Chris tian churches and mission schools looked after the religious and moral ed ucation of the young. The land was ine habited by the most diverse tribes, many of which lived in hostility with one another but were compelled, by the severity of the government, to keep the peace. Discomfort, no doubt, prevailed in the land. Its cause was to be sought in the avarice of the officials, especial ly of the native Soudanese. who latterly had acquired high positions, and by their oppression and tyranny enriched themselves as quickly as possible, and also in the ignorance of the country on the part of the Europeans, issued or ders directly contrary to the traditions and views of the Soudanese, which could not but excite ill will.
 Mohammed Akmed knew and took advantage of the mood of the country. We'll knowing that only religious fac tor could unite the hostile tribes. he maintained that he was the Mahdi sent iby God, the deliverer of the country