INTRODUCTION. XXV

knew well that their district was safe, both from the slave-

trade and from the raids which the Egyptian troops so fre- quently made into the outlying districts.

I must touch upon one other point. Emin Pasha refers in many places to the trouble he suffered from limited authority. Baker and Gordon were absolutely independent of any central

authority at Khartium; they had the power of life and death,

-- and were responsible to the Khedive alone for their actions.

Not so Emin. He was obliged to report almost every detail of administration for the approval of the Governor-General of the Sudan, and when one considers that months, sometimes years,

elapsed before he received an answer to his communications, it

will be readily understood how greatly his hands were tied,

and how difficult it was for him both to maintain order and

to introduce improvements into his province. With regard to the commercial administration of the province, it was the

old story over again—the Hegyptian Government requiring

the bricks to be made and refusing to provide the straw. Emin could not obtain supplies from Kharttm, and even the

seeds which he required for cultivation experiments had either

to be purchased with his own money or to be begged from his numerous friends. What wonder that the Equatorial Province

did not prove a gold-mine! ‘The wonder is that, left to his own resources, he was able in so few short years to trans-

form the finances of the country, and, instead of holding his province at a yearly deficit at some £32,000, to make a nett

profit of from eight to twelve thousand pounds per annum, as

he did from 1882 to 1884.

The difficulties and dangers which disturbed the Beraantal

Province in consequence of the evacuation of the Sudan are described in Emin’s letters. He was himself unaware of the

events which were taking place north of his territory, but it was only too evident that the prosperity of his province was

threatened, and he had a desperate struggle for its very

existence, At length the Mahdi’s hordes began to retire, and