The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, September 18, 1898, Page 20

20 THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1898. Race to Srab a Conitinent Practically all of the African continent has been seized and divided by the European powers within the last twenty years, but there are a few million square miles left, and just now Great Britaia and France are in a very determined race to acquire it. The fortunate victor will ac- quire domination over the richest trade territory of the continent. General Kitchener’s recent defeat of the rebels at Omdurman on the Upper Nile gave the English a tremendous advantage, but the French have in a measure forestalled this by stealing a march to Fashoda, where they are said to be in direct communication with Xing Menelek of Abyssinia, who strongly favors their occupation of the territory. Many statesmen believe that this rivalry between Erglana and France to seize the unclaimed territory will lead to war between the two countries. lain has declared that if England’s claim is disputed it must be fought out on the English Channel. T the bosinning of the present | out of the question. With the English | day’s march of Khartoum, withdrew century ‘a few small colonies | for neighbors on the east and south-| héassl'osges a.ndfleftdv.he hi:hd;i::nrm“ and trading posts along the | west, she has been badly beaten in the | Possession as far down. the river as coast represented the foothold | grab game. The “Schurtz briefs” of | };:‘}{Y ?Em Elqd eas‘tl tot fi&ysanfi&rtfl 5 o in Afri The close | the young “war lord” of Berlin, so effec- ted Sea. From tha e to of HuRcRHnia i tual when directed against weak and & few months ago'no Buropeans have eees the energetic and progressive Na- | jonorant black princes who attempted | 5et foot in the country except as pris- tions of the north in full possession, or | to dispute his spread of territory, | ODers. holding under so-called protectorates | availed nothing against the greedy land | - Two years ago Great Britain deter- three-fourths of the whole of the vast | grabbers of Bri n. By the free usel mined upon the Teconquest of the continent of 11,514,000 square miles and | ©f the red paint pot in London and | country with an Anglo-Egyptian army, 3 'v to seize the remainder, | duestionable claims of ancient treaties | with the evident but unavowed purpose more than'reddy. o selse s * | with interior chieftains, and the ag-| of permanent occupancy on her own Two nations, the British and French, | gregsive “push on” of her explorers and | account in eonsummation of her long hold each some three and a half million square miles, nearly three-fifths of the traders, supported always by the ready | cherished plans. Sir Herbert Kitch- presence of her colonial troops, Eng-' ener with his army advanced from Indeed_, Joseph Chamber- at a moment’s notice or dragging about their writhing bodies from which hand and foot had been severed; I have known of women tortured, of unborn babes speared with the lance, of nurs- lings starving on dead breasts, of gaunt, naked mothers begging for alms; nay, I have seen people living on carrion, fighting for a drink of warm blood or a decayed bone; worse still, slaughtering their own children for food. And, remembering these things, I have many a time asked myself: How long, O Lord, how long shall the na- tions of Europe watch unmoved? ' How long shall Great Britain stay her hand Capturing the Soudan: A Corner of Mahmud’s Zareba. A slave found shot, with his “shebba’” round his neck and the chain attached toit. , while Germ and Portugal | land has managed to hold the “hinter- | Wady Halfa to Ed Damer during the | and 841,000 | 1and” expansion of her Teutonic cousin | last season, perfecting his lines of ST ’ ser bounds, while she | transport by rail and boat as he went. within very m 210,000 on the north- ibly = gerrymandered the map of| As soon as practicable this year he 00, including 3 and East Africa until she | again began to move, and some day: med the greater and the choicest | sincé*routed the Mahdi's army and oc- art of ‘the whole country. cupied his capital. To the north, however, the conditions| While he was thus occupied the | and the r s were different. Instead | French from both sides of the continent of the i Portuguese and the slow | were making a quiet play, the ‘“de- non-colonizing Germans, she has had | nouement” of which is now near at | et and settle the “hinterland” |hand. It is to be seen whether it was coast, @ , but not her late pean control, 2,000 square miles, while the Boer republics in the south, State the Transvaal and the Orange hav 110,193 and m with the French, of no mean |a grand “coup d'etat” or will prove | Tripoli, a tributary of Turke: rience in colonial enterprises. | an_ignominious faflure at bluffing. | 000, and pt proper 400,000 square These, with no great blare of trum- | Last spring a year ago Captain Mar- | ive States, Morocco | Dets, and parade of troops and ships, | chand, with a well chosen corps of offi- | 5 S s 5 { but quietly and surely from Algiers |cers and a numerous and well-equipped | byssinia with between | ;ng Senegal on the north and west, | escort of white and native troops and | square I of ter-| and the Kong country and Dahomey | carriers, set out from Brazzaville, on are at present recognized as| on the Guinea Coast, have completely | the lower Congo, and pushing his way shut within small compass the Brit- | up that river and its branches as far ish at Sierra Leone, Ashantee and the | Semio, near Lake Albert, crossed . | over the divide to the head waters of | the Bahr el Ghazil. On this stream he |set up a steamboat which he had | | brought with him in sections and em- barking thereon passed on down as far | as Fashoda, on the White Nile, where he arrived some time in November of | last year. | A little later in the same spring M. Bonchamps, who went with Embassa- | dor Lagarde to Abyssinia in '96 under | the favor and assistance of Negus | Menelik, set out from Djbouti, the prin- cipal port of the French colony of | Obock, on the Gulf of Adin, and made | his way via Harrar westward to the Nile, and joining Marchand at Fashoda | raised there the French standard and | proclaimed the sovereignty of France over the whole region traversed byl them from sea to sea. It now transpires that instead of a small party of explorers, with the usual | number of native carriers and guides, Bonchamps was accompanied by Ras| Makonnen, Menelik’s principal general and Governor of Harrar, th southeast | province of Abyssinia, which adjoins | | Obock, and a large body of Abyssinian | | soldiers, said to now number 10,000. | | Furthermore, Menelik has appointed | | Count Leontiff, a Frenchman, Governor | | of Southwest Abyssinia, which he | claims extends as far west as the| White Nile. Menelik has before measured swords | with the British and come off with | honor. In securing his alliance France | not only peaceably gets short access | | from the sea to the Upper Nile Valley but a ready and strong arm to help her enterprise as well, All this was done so quietly that none but the higher officials of the French Government were aware of what was going on. By winning Emperor Mene- | lik to thelr cause on the one side and | a weil-timed and well-conducted dash | from the other Merchand and Bon- champs have preoccupied the country | to gain which first and last Great | Britain has spent over £400,000,000. Will they be allowed to stay and reap the | fruit of their enterprise is now the question. ble tenures, and the little republic of Liberia, with an area of 14,000 square “‘Rescued.” 0 had been crawling about on d up ina starving condition uts and edible roots, and was Capturing the Soudan: w A wounded deserter from the dervishes, his hands and knees for six weeks, was pi by a gunboat. He had had no food but wild n too weak even to get water when rescued. mijes, has seen some eighty years of existence without any attempt at ab- sorption by her powerful neighbors on either side of her. yon desert lying to the south- pt is too poor and dry to tempt any effort at settlement, but with the vast region over a million square miles in area, fertile and popu- lous, lying in the eastern part of the Soudan and in the Upper Nile Valley it is another question. Great Britain and France have both planned for its possession for some years past and the matter seems now about to reach a settlement. Whether by diplomacy or by force of arms will doubtless soon be determined. Great Britain had her first foothold in Africa, from the Dutch, at Cape Col- ony in 1815, while France began the conquest of ‘Algiers in 1830. Until the last few years the former had distanced all her rivals in territorial acquisitions, though the latter was a close second as to the number of square miles. By the treaty of Berlin in 1884 all the coast line from Cape Blanco south around Cape Good Hope and up to Cape Guardafui was allotted in quite fair proportions to the participating nations, England, France, Germany, Italy and Portugal, leaving the questions of “hinterland” and “spheres of influence” Lagos country, and effectuated their title by occupation and governmental | administration over nearly the whole | of West Africa, including the fertile and populous Upper Niger region, be- sides the Central Soudan, north of So- koto. From the French Congo on the At- lantic as a base the active Gaul has developed the possibilities of the “hin- terland” expansion up the Congo and north and east toward Lake Tchad and the Upper Nile Valley even more ef- fectively in his own interest and given it a new meaning in the ears of the overconfident Ministers in ‘Downing street. They have at last waked up to the fact that France is now in actual possession of a foothold and a claim on the Upper Nile—whereas last year she halted on the verge of that rich and much coveted basin. Agreeing with Germany as to the eastern boundary of the Cameroon country, up to Lake Tchad, to the' northern shore of which she had al- ready ‘brought her Algerine “hinter- land,” PFrance forestalled the British extension from Sokoto eastward, and rapidly but quietly extended her foot and flag over Wadal, Baghirmi and the Upper - Obangui country, adding some hundreds of thousands of square miles to_her dominion. —_—— THE ONLY CAPTIVE WHO ESACPED FROM THE DER- VISHES IN TEN YEARS. EN years of captivity, such as T | passed through, a captivity among ferocious savages, ex- posed continually to insult, ig- nominy, sickness, suffering and privation of all kind; cut off from | all contact with civilization, from the comforts of our holy religion, from hope of escape; yes, that is the kind of | experience that leaves an indelible mark on a man’s life, changing his standpoint and affecting lis views. For my escane, and for the faithful devotion which made that escape pos- sible, I can ne- 't be sufficiently thank- ful to Almighty God. But when I think of the happy, hopeful young priest who reached Delen in the end of 1881, who spent his leisure hours col- to be settled between the nations hav- ing contiguous interests. Ttaly’s Abyssinian colonization career was, as is well known, short and dis- astrous, though she still holds on to the Soumali coast, a property of very doubtful value to her. Portugal had by discovery and occupation more lit- oral than any of the others, but has made no extensions inland of much con- sequence. Germany has been so eir- cumstanced in the four quarters where she obtained sea frontage that any great widening of influence has been Now comes the final move. Between 1805 and 1884 Mehemet Ali, Khedive of Egypt, and his successors, had con- quered and held in some sort of sub- Jjection all the Nile basin down to Lake Albert and Lake Victoria, but with the rise of the Mahdi in 1882, the massacre of Hicks Pasha’s army at Bl Obeid in 1883 and the siege of Khartoum and the death of “Chinese Gordon” in 1884-5, Egypt retired down the Nile as far as Assuan, and Sir Garnet Wolseley, who had advanced with a British army from Suakin on the Red Sea to within a | seen them flogged to death, beheaded- lecting natural history specimens, I can scarcely realize that he is the man who, worn, prematurely aged, emaciated with disease and starvation, in fear of his life, fled across the desert at the end of 1891. The horrors of those ten years are ever before me; my own suf- ferings I could perhaps forget in time, as one forgets the agony of nightmare, but the memory of the sufferings I have witnessed under the terrible Mahdi rule will never jass from me. I have known men die in noisome prison of chains and starvation; have A AR R ERRY LY Kany N R e s e i\, AN \\\\\‘\\\\ BRVCCD \\} ) e T 33 & AN MM [ i French Officers Discussing Plaps for Advancing Into the Disputed Territory. Major Marchand, Who Has Just Seized Fashoda, Is Seated at the Left. faith. But never a threat was offered. Later we learned the value of this external urbanity; when emissaries constantly appeared to convert us to Mohammedanism, with death as the penalty of refusal; when we were ex- posed to the rage of the mob, ordered out for execution, imprisoned with rob- bers, covered with vermin, starved into the fever and dysentery which carried off two sisters and a lay brother; when other sisters who had joined us as fel- low-captives were wrenched from us and submitted to torture and indignity, then we understood what the smile and soft words of the Mahdi meant. Many of his followers realized it, too, y N e ) B .3y Ty &wwvfif when intoxicated by victory Moham- med Ahmed threw off the mask, ex- changed a life of asceticism for one of debauchery and allowed severity to de- generate into license. But his personal prestige over his infatuated disciples still remained. Only his death, due to | excesses and proving him human, could | shake their faith. On the day when | Khalifa Abdullah, of the powerful frame | and feeble brain. raised his black flag as the Mahdi’s successor Mahdism ex- pired. Then came perhaps the greatest trial | of my captivity, when my dear com- | panion, Father Bonomi, was enabled to make his escape and I was left alone, | | AR T Ny | following him. | in the balance and would probab'y have from avenging Khalifa and the destruction dan people? Yet, for the original Mahdi it was difficult not to entertain, at one time, genuine respect. If he deceived others he seemed at least to be a self-deceiver, living up to his own standard. Trained to self-denial and self-control, astute, self-reliant, handsome in face and fair in speech, he looked a worthy succes- sor of the Prophet on that memorabls day when we were first shown into his presence, a woe-begone little company of Christian prisoners, consisting of two priests, three sisters and two lay brothers, on whom every indignity had been heaped during our enforced jour- ney from Delen. We all expected a death sentence, instead of which we received courteous treatment from this handsome man, with the perpetual smile and winsome voice, who, wearing a patched and dirty jibbeh, and seated on a straw mat, offered us dried apri- cots: and water with a princely air. the outrages of the of the Sou- He indulged in a vision for our benefit and enlarged on the advantages of Mjs e k M- m]] BRITION § | (ST SscaLe D'*Mll.ll P - ; EYUROPERNTCOLONIES anD SPNERES OF. /NPL‘U'NC.\ Wl RMAN UNDRY OTNERS o t TIVE A SHALL EUROPERN : : = | *FPRENCH % morTUGHES D;uual‘l‘xm ¢ —COLANIES awp STATES.. Care Goon NOTE HOW AFRICA HAS BEEN DIVIDED AND SUBDIVIDED AMONG THE EUROPEAN NATIONS. At the beginning of the present century a few small colonies and trading posts along the coast represented the foot- hold of Europe in Africa. The close sees the energetic and progressive natlons of the north in full possession, or holding under so-called protectorates three-fourths of the whole of the vast continent of 11,514,000 square miles and more than ready to seize the remainder. Two mnations, the British and Freneh, hold each some three and a half million square miles, nearly three-fifths of the whole, while Germahy and Portugal have respectively §22,000 and 841, coast, and Italy 203,00, including Soumall, but not her late Abyssinian holdings. The Congo Free State, under Buropean control, has 802,000 square miles, while the B Transvaal and the Orange State—have respectively 110,193 and 41,484 Tripoli, proper 400,000 square miles. Two native States—Morocco with 314,000 and Abyssin miles of territory, are at presens recognized as stable tenures, and the little square miles, has seen some eighty years of existence either side of her. The Libyan desert, lying to the southwest of Egypt, the vast region over a million square miles in area, fertile Upper Nile Valley it is another question. Great Britain past and the matter seems now about to reach a settlement. ‘Whether by diplomacy or by force of Soon be determined. 000 square miles, Spain 210,00 on the northwest oer republics in the south—the a tributary of Turkey, has 398,000, and Bgypt ia. with between 250,000 and 300,00 square republic of Liberia, with an area of 14,000 without any attempt at absorption by her powerful neighbors on 5\ s too poor and dry to tempt any effort at settlement, but with and France have both planned for its possession for some years arms will doubtless dreaming of him on his way to tha promised land. No favor had been in- tended, but a report had reached Cairo of my escape to Omdurman and conse- quently Father Bonomi was supposed to be the only captive at El Obeid. Tha emissary, who was risking his head, refused to go beyond his instructions, and one of the bitterest moments of mv life was that on which I bid adieu to the good father with little hope of ever My own life trembled been forfeited save for the convulsicn caused by the Mahdi’s death. As it wes I merely became a prisoner in the zareba, herded at first with smallpox patients; after a time I was allowed a hut, round which I planted watermeloas | and watched the chameleons at play among the leaves. I welcomed the change to Omdurman when I was removed there in March, 1886; I could scarcely be worse off than at El Obeid, where I had suffered every privation, even to being held as slave and camel driver, eating out of the beasts’ nose bags and drinking of their water.” Yet Omdurman was but a sor- rowful place to go to; the horrors of the Khartoum massacre were still in the afr; I have known women Wha went blind from weeping over the memgories of that hour; I have myself wandered - mournfully among the Khartounr ruins, thinking of that blood-stained day . when fiends were let loose and the hope of the Christian captive died. And it was in Omdurman that I saw the most awful results of unlicensed swarfare, when famin: and cannibalism stalked the streets, or prisoners were publicly maimed and hanged by the score. Many a time, sore beset by famine, I expected to find a grave where Gordon's head had hung. I and two sisters of the mission who lived near me scarcely contrived to keep body and soul to- gether, they by occasional needlework, I by making small ribbons on a rough loom. But we were secretly negotiating an attempt to escape and hape huoyed us up, weak and unstrung though we were. Again and again we were de- celved. One sister died, others seemed bound to follow. But at length & de- liverer, sent by Archbishop Sogaro, ap- Peared, and, after incredible precau- tions, on Sunday evening, the 20th of November, 1891, the hour for which we had waited ten long years came to-us. Our sufferings and sorrows were then over. When we first caught sight of Murat fort, its red flag with the white crescent and star gleaming in the sun- set, I cried to qur guide: "“Ahmed, greet the flag of freedom!” And Ah- med, seizing his gun, made the hills and valleys resound with the news of our deliverance. The echoes of that moment beat within our hearts. long after we had reached the peace of European civ- ilization, but they have always blended with a very bitter anxiety as to the fate of our friends and fellow-captives left behind. :