At Length In A Fortunate Hour Marchand Returned, Reproved His Subordinate,
And Expressed His Regrets To Colonel Jackson.
Then it became known that the
French Government had ordered the evacuation of Fashoda.
Some weeks were
spent in making preparations for the journey, but at length the day of
departure arrived. At 8.20 on the morning of the 11th of December the
French lowered their flag with salute and flourish of bugle. The British
officers, who remained in their own camp and did not obtrude themselves,
were distant but interested spectators. On the flag ceasing to fly,
a sous-officier rushed up to the flagstaff and hurled it to the ground,
shaking his fists and tearing his hair in a bitterness and vexation from
which it is impossible to withhold sympathy, in view of what these men had
suffered uselessly and what they had done. The French then embarked,
and at 9.30 steamed southward, the Faidherbe towing one oblong steel barge
and one old steel boat, the other three boats sailing, all full of men.
As the little flotilla passed the Egyptian camp a guard of honour of the
XIth Soudanese saluted them and the band struck up their national anthem.
The French acknowledged the compliment by dipping their flag, and in return
the British and Egyptian flags were also lowered. The boats then continued
their journey until they had rounded the bend of the river, when they came
to land, and, honour being duly satisfied, Marchand and his officers
returned to breakfast with Colonel Jackson. The meeting was very friendly.
Jackson and Germain exchanged most elaborate compliments, and the
commandant, in the name of the XIth Soudanese, presented the expedition
with the banner of the Emir who had attacked them, which had been captured
at Reng. Marchand shook hands all round, and the British officers bade
their gallant opponents a final farewell.
Once again the eight Frenchmen, who had come so far and accomplished
so much, set out upon their travels, to make a safe though tedious journey
through Abyssinia to the coast, and thence home to the country they had
served faithfully and well, and which was not unmindful of their services.
Let us settle the international aspect of the reconquest of the Soudan
while we are in the way with it. The disputes between France and England
about the valley of the Upper Nile were terminated, as far as material
cause was concerned, by an Agreement, signed in London on the 21st of March,
1899, by Lord Salisbury and M. Cambon. The Declaration limiting the
respective spheres of influence of the two Powers took the form of an
addition to the IVth Article of the Niger Convention, concluded in the
previous year. Its practical effect is to reserve the whole drainage system
of the Nile to England and Egypt, and to engage that France shall have a
free hand, so far as those Powers are concerned, in the rest of Northern
Africa west of the Nile Valley not yet occupied by Europeans.
This stupendous partition of half a continent by two European Powers could
scarcely be expected to excite the enthusiasm of the rest.
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