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'. He tests the accuracy of the weights and scales; fines and
imprisons the impostors, and institutes a complete reform, concluding
his sanitary and philanthropic arrangements by the imposition of some
local taxes.
The town is comparatively sweet; the bread is of fair weight and size,
and the new governor, like a new broom, has swept all clean. A few weeks
glide away, and the nose again recalls the savory old times when streets
were never swept, and filth once more reigns paramount. The town
relapses into its former state, again the false weights usurp the place
of honest measures, and the only permanent and visible sign of the new
administration is the local tax.
From the highest to the lowest official, dishonesty and deceit are the
rule - and each robs in proportion to his grade in the Government
employ - the onus of extortion falling upon the natives; thus, exorbitant
taxes are levied upon the agriculturists, and the industry of the
inhabitants is disheartened by oppression. The taxes are collected by
the soldiery, who naturally extort by violence an excess of the actual
impost; accordingly the Arabs limit their cultivation to their bare
necessities, fearing that a productive farm would entail an extortionate
demand. The heaviest and most unjust tax is that upon the "sageer," or
water wheel, by which the farmer irrigates his otherwise barren soil.
The erection of the sageer is the first step necessary to cultivation.
On the borders of the river there is much land available for
agriculture; but from an almost total want of rain the ground must be
constantly irrigated by artificial means. No sooner does an enterprising
fellow erect a water wheel, than he is taxed, not only for his wheel,
but he brings upon himself a perfect curse, as the soldiers employed for
the collection of taxes fasten upon his garden, and insist upon a
variety of extras in the shape of butter, corn, vegetables, sheep, &c.
for themselves, which almost ruin the proprietor. Any government but
that of Egypt and Turkey would offer a bonus for the erection of
irrigating machinery that would give a stimulus to cultivation, and
multiply the produce of the country; but the only rule without an
exception is that of Turkish extortion. I have never met with any
Turkish official who would take the slightest interest in plans for the
improvement of the country, unless he discovered a means of filling his
private purse. Thus in a country where Nature has been hard in her
measure dealt to the inhabitants, they are still more reduced by
oppression. The Arabs fly from their villages on the approach of the
brutal tax-gatherers, driving their flocks and herds with them to
distant countries, and leaving their standing crops to the mercy of the
soldiery. No one can conceive the suffering of the country.
The general aspect of the Soudan is that of misery; nor is there a
single feature of attraction to recompense a European for the drawbacks
of pestilential climate and brutal associations. To a stranger it
appears a superlative folly that the Egyptian Government should have
retained a possession, the occupation of which is wholly unprofitable;
the receipts being far below the expenditure, "malgre" the increased
taxation. At so great a distance from the seacoast and hemmed in by
immense deserts, there is a difficulty of transport that must nullify
all commercial transactions on an extended scale.
The great and most important article of commerce as an export from the
Soudan, is gum arabic: this is produced by several species of mimosa,
the finest quality being a product of Kordofan; the other natural
productions exported are senna, hides, and ivory. All merchandise both
to and from the Soudan must be transported upon camels, no other animals
being adapted to the deserts. The cataracts of the Nile between Assouan
and Khartoum rendering the navigation next to impossible, the camel is
the only medium of transport, and the uncertainty of procuring them
without great delay is the trader's greatest difficulty. The entire
country is subject to droughts that occasion a total desolation, and the
want of pasture entails starvation upon both cattle and camels,
rendering it at certain seasons impossible to transport the productions
of the country, and thus stagnating all enterprise.
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