The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan

Numerous efforts were made to extend the authority of Egypt. In 1840 the fertile district of Taka, watered by the Atbara and Gash and near the Abyssinian frontier, was conquered and the town of Kassala founded. In 1837 the pasha himself had visited the Sudan, going as far as Fazokl, where he inspected the goldfields.

The successors of Mohammed Ali, in an endeavour to make the country more profitable, extended their conquests to the south, and in 1853 and subsequent years trading posts were established on the Upper Nile. The Government monopoly in trade had ceased in 1849 on the death of Mohammed Ali. The pioneer Euro pean merchant was John Petherick, British consular agent at Khartoum. Petherick sought for ivory only, but those who fol lowed him soon found that slave-raiding was more profitable than elephant hunting. The viceroy Said, who made a rapid tour through the Sudan in 1857, found it in a deplorable condition. The viceroy ordered many reforms to be executed and proclaimed the abolition of slavery. The reforms were mainly inoperative and slavery continued. The European merchants above Khartoum had sold their posts to Arab agents, who oppressed the natives in every conceivable fashion. Ismail Pasha, who became viceroy of Egypt in 1863, again gave orders for the suppression of the slave trade, and to check the operations of the Arab traders a military force was stationed at Fashoda (1865), this being the most southerly point then held by the Egyptians. Ismail, however, was ambitious to extend his dominions and to develop the Sudan on the lines he had conceived for the development of Egypt. He obtained (1865) from the sultan of Turkey a firman assigning to him the adminis tration of Suakin and Massawa , the lease which Mohammed Ali had of these ports having lapsed after the death of that pasha. Ismail subsequently (187o-75) extended his sway over the whole coast from Suez to Cape Guardafui but on the rise of the Mandi (see infra) Egyptian authority was withdrawn (1884) from the coast regions south of Suakin.

Baker and Gordon.

At the same time that Ismail annexed the seaboard he was extending his sway along the Nile valley to the equatorial lakes, and conceived the idea of annexing all the country between the Nile and the Indian ocean. An expedition was sent (1875) to the Juba river with that object, but it was withdrawn at the request of the British Government, as it infringed the rights of the sultan of Zanzibar. Meanwhile, on the main Nile, control of all territories south of Gondokoro had been given to Sir Samuel Baker, who, reaching Gondokoro on May 26, 187o, formally an nexed that station, which he named Ismailia, to the khedival domains. Baker remained as governor of the Equatorial Provinces until Aug. 1873, and in March 1874 Col. C. G. Gordon took up the

same post. Both Baker and Gordon made strenuous efforts towards crushing the slave trade, but their endeavours were largely thwarted by the inaction of the authorities at Khartoum. Under Gordon the Upper Nile region as far as the borders of Uganda came more or less effectively under Egyptian control. On the west the Bahr-el-Ghazal had been overrun by Arab or semi-Arab slave-dealers who reduced that region to a state of abject misery. The most powerful of the slave traders was Zobeir Pasha, who, having defeated a force sent from Khartoum to reduce him to obedience, invaded Darfur (1874). The khedive, fearing the power of Zobeir, also sent an expedition to Darfur, and that country, after a stout resistance, was conquered. Zobeir claimed to be made governor-general of the new province ; his request being refused, he went to Cairo to urge his claim. At Cairo he was detained by the Egyptian authorities.

Though spasmodic efforts were made to promote agriculture and open up communications the Sudan continued to be a constant drain on the Egyptian exchequer. A project to link Wadi Halfa to Khartoum by railway was abandoned (1877) after 5om. of rails had been laid in five or six years at a cost of £450,000. In Oct. 1876 Gordon left the Equatorial Provinces and gave up his appointment. In Feb. 1877, under pressure from the British and Egyptian Governments, he went to Cairo, where he was given the governorship of the whole of the Egyptian territories outside Egypt ; namely, the Sudan provinces proper, the Equatorial Prov inces, Darfur and the Red sea and Somali coasts. Gordon re mained in the Sudan until Aug. 1879. During his tenure of office he did much to give the Sudanese the benefit of a just and con siderate Government. He pacified Darfur and then received the submission of Suliman Zobeir (son of Zobeir Pasha), who was at the head of a gang of slave-traders in the Bahr-el-Ghazal. In 1878 there was further trouble in Darfur and also in Kordofan, and Gordon visited both these provinces, breaking up many com panies of slave-hunters. Meantime Suliman (acting on the in structions of his father, who was still at Cairo) had broken out into open revolt against the Egyptians in the Bahr-el-Ghazal. The crushing of Suliman was entrusted by Gordon to Romolo Gessi (1831-81), an Italian who had previously served under Gordon on the Upper Nile. Gessi, after a most arduous campaign (1878-79), defeated and captured Suliman, whom, with other ringleaders, he executed. The slave-raiders were completely broken up and over 1 o,000 captives released. A remnant of Zo beir's troops under a chief named Rabah succeeded in escaping (see RABAH ZOBEIR). Having conquered the province, Gessi was made governor of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, becoming pasha.