THE STORY OF EMIN BEY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1505, 12 March 1887, Page 4

THE STORY OF EMIN BEY.

(St. James G«Z9tte.)

Beyond the fact that he is labouring m the cause of civilisation somewhere m the Soudan, very little is known of Emln B^y. Yet be is a truly remarkable man. It Is now eight years since General Gordon appointed him Governor-General of the Egyptian Equatorial Provinces, a district so large that Great Britain would lie m a corner of it. Emln Bey, who was an Austrian doctor, started upon his work without any flourish of trumpets. His task looked like an impossible one ; but Gordon was always doing " impossible" things himself, and expected as much of his lieutenants. Wnen Enain Bey reached the provinces he waß to rue over, if he could reduce them to order, ha found things about as bad as they could be. That was In 1878 In three yeais he had swept the slave traders out of that enormous tract of land, with its six million inhabitants ; and these gentry bave never dared to Bhow their faoea tinoe. The provinces had so far been governed at a den'olt of £3P,000 per annum ; by the end of 1881 there was a surplus of ;£BCOO. Then came the Soudan war, and beiug hopelessly beyond relief, Emm Bey was first neglected, and then forgotten. It is three years since he had instructions of Bny kind from the Egyptian Government, though In 1886 he managed once or twice to communicate with them. As a rule, what messages he bad sent to Egypt or elsewhere have been intercepted. All that is known of his life daring these yearn is derived from a few private letters to a friend.

Em n Bey has more than held his own these three years. There has been fighting ; but he has driven the enemy back, sometimes after terrible struggles. He haß w|th him some 4000 troops ; and this m how he writes of them, referring to one of these confllots when hfs men were attacked from the north :—

"Deprived of the most necesoary thinga, for a loDg time without any pay my men fought valiantly ; and when at laßt hunger weakened them, when after nineteen dayß of incredible privations and BufferiDgß, their strength was exhausted, and when the last torn leather of tho last boot had been eaten— -then they cut a way through the midst of their enemies, aad sucoeoded m saving themselves." Now, Emm Bey, is not a General Cordon, but he is a man of Gordon's stamp. Had Benin Boy oared to leave the women and children to their fate, and tho nativee to the slave traders, he could have cut his way with the pick of his men to the Congo. But Emm Bey never thought of deserting hio post beoauee the Government had deserted him. Without ammunition he Is at the mgrcy'of the first hostile potentate, auoli as the King of Uganda- who makes up his mind to annex the provinces. The brave Austrian makes no demand on the Britis'i Government for help ; but he sees ar.d svps ih»t if a relief force could be sent to him, it would save his life and save the provlno; s. Erain Bey has tnu :ht the natives of the Egyptian Equat rial Provinces the cultivation of cotton, rice, indigo, <&o. He has mede weavers of come of them, and bootmakerß of others. The map he uaes Jb of his own manufacture. In his vety last letter he t>ld ua of his attempts to vaccinate' tho people. The death rate m the province has been very high of Into, owing to an epidemic of smallpox. He has built a hospital, m whioh he spends the better part of his mornings. He is a schoolmaster. He has connected the different parts of the provir;o 3 s by week'y pouts, there beln# forty utatiouß. In short, he has done so much m co shirt a space of time that, with a little assistance, there mast be a great career of usefulness before him.

It may be, how ever, that before a relief foroe caT reaoh him Eoiin Bay will havo succumbed. In tho meantime he is of good cheer. Though his days are long, and his work laborious, and hU peril great, he is still, m hie leisure, the student he was m his earlier days. When if. gels dark he retires to the h< use and lights ihr candle which he makes himself Then he sits down to his (olentifio atudieß. A* theße times he might be a man of science m his laboratory m London. In bis lati* letter he wiijheß he had more books, and laments the eo»rolty of " fine shot, araenio, ioda, etc , to enable me to continue the preparations of Zoological s t eoimen," Surely a man like this ought not to be left to perish.