A
More Miserable, Filthy, And Unhealthy Spot Can Hardly Be Imagined.
Far
as the eye can reach, upon all sides, is a sandy desert.
The town,
chiefly composed of huts of unburnt brick, extends over a flat hardly
above the level of the river at high water, and is occasionally flooded.
Although containing about 30,000 inhabitants, and densely crowded, there
are neither drains nor cesspools: the streets are redolent with
inconceivable nuisances; should animals die, they remain where they
fall, to create pestilence and disgust. There are, nevertheless, a few
respectable houses, occupied by the traders of the country, a small
proportion of whom are Italians, French, and Germans, the European
population numbering about thirty. Greeks, Syrians, Copts, Armenians,
Turks, Arabs, and Egyptians, form the motley inhabitants of Khartoum.
There are consuls for France, Austria, and America, and with much
pleasure I acknowledge many kind attentions, and assistance received
from the two former, M. Thibaut and Herr Hansall.
Khartoum is the seat of government, the Soudan provinces being under the
control of a Governor-general, with despotic power. In 1861, there were
about six thousand troops quartered in the town; a portion of these were
Egyptians; other regiments were composed of blacks from Kordofan, and
from the White and Blue Niles, with one regiment of Arnouts, and a
battery of artillery. These troops are the curse of the country: as in
the case of most Turkish and Egyptian officials, the receipt of pay is
most irregular, and accordingly the soldiers are under loose discipline.
Foraging and plunder is the business of the Egyptian soldier, and the
miserable natives must submit to insult and ill-treatment at the will of
the brutes who pillage them ad libitum.
In 1862, Moosa Pasha was the Governor-general of the Soudan. This man
was a rather exaggerated specimen of Turkish authorities in general,
combining the worst of Oriental failings with the brutality of a wild
animal. During his administration the Soudan became utterly ruined;
governed by military force, the revenue was unequal to the expenditure,
and fresh taxes were levied upon the inhabitants to an extent that
paralyzed the entire country. The Turk never improves. There is an Arab
proverb that "the grass never grows in the footprint of a Turk," and
nothing can be more aptly expressive of the character of the nation than
this simple adage. Misgovernment, monopoly, extortion, and oppression,
are the certain accompaniments of Turkish administration. At a great
distance from all civilization, and separated from Lower Egypt by the
Nubian deserts, Khartoum affords a wide field for the development of
Egyptian official character. Every official plunders; the
Governor-general extorts from all sides; he fills his private pockets by
throwing every conceivable obstacle in the way of progress, and
embarrasses every commercial movement in order to extort bribes from
individuals. Following the general rule of his predecessors, a new
governor upon arrival exhibits a spasmodic energy. Attended by cavasses
and soldiers, he rides through every street of Khartoum, abusing the
underlings for past neglect, ordering the streets to be swept, and the
town to be thoroughly cleansed; he visits the marketplace, examines the
quality of the bread at the bakers' stalls, and the meat at the
butchers'.
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