INTRODUCTION. xl

“ How quickly and thoroughly he was able to adapt himself toa foreign mode of life, may be seen from a letter which the

Doctor wrote from Trebizond in January 1871 to his sister,

an extract of which has been sent to us by Lieutenant George Schweitzer, his cousin:—‘ Here in Trebizond, too, my good

fortune has not forsaken me, and I have quickly gained a reputation as a doctor. This is due to the fact that I know Turkish and Arabic as few Europeans know them, and that I have so completely adopted the habits and customs of the people that no one believes that an honest German is dis-

guised behind the Turkish name. Don’t be afraid; I have only adopted the name, I have not become a Turk.’ | “On no account must any one imagine that our countryman

is a renegade, or that he has given up the faith of his fathers. Emin does not belong to those half-hearted Christians who talk

about the advantages of the Mohammedan religion as a civi-

lising agent in Africa. On the contrary, it may be seen from many of his letters that he has the heartiest sympathy with

the efforts of Christian missionaries.* A crushing fact for the

future of Islam in Central Africa is mentioned by him on

page 414, where he says that, after more than twenty years’ dominion, they can hardly point to ten proselytes.”

In order to form, to some extent at least, a just estimate of what Emin Pasha has accomplished during the past few years,

it 1s very necessary to consider briefly his work as a Governor.

When Gordon Pasha left the Equatorial Province of Egypt

to become, a few months later, the Governor-General of the whole Sudan, he left it well organised and peaceful. Its

financial position was not so satisfactory, for the province

laboured under an excessive debt, caused in part by the

initial expenses of its occupation, and also by sums not

* Emin Pasha was very anxious for the Church Missionary Society to establish | mission stations in his province, and offered to support a missionary party there for three years at his own expense. In 1878-79 he rendered considerable assist- ance to an expedition sent by the C. M. 8., vid the Nile, to Ugdnda.