The River War | Page 4

spear and gun, no
less than twelve thousand hundredweight of ivory has been exported in

a single year [Ibid.] All other kinds of large beasts known to man
inhabit these obscure retreats. The fierce rhinoceros crashes through the
undergrowth. Among the reeds of melancholy swamps huge
hippopotami, crocodiles, and buffaloes prosper and increase. Antelope
of every known and many unclassified species; serpents of peculiar
venom; countless millions of birds, butterflies, and beetles are among
the offspring of prolific Nature. And the daring sportsman who should
survive his expedition would not fail to add to the achievements of
science and the extent of natural history as well as to his own
reputation.
The human inhabitants of the Soudan would not, but for their vices and
misfortunes, be disproportioned in numbers to the fauna or less happy.
War, slavery, and oppression have, however, afflicted them until the
total population of the whole country does not exceed at the most
liberal estimate three million souls. The huge area contains many
differences of climate and conditions, and these have produced peculiar
and diverse breeds of men. The Soudanese are of many tribes, but two
main races can be clearly distinguished: the aboriginal natives, and the
Arab settlers. The indigenous inhabitants of the country were negroes
as black as coal. Strong, virile, and simple-minded savages, they lived
as we may imagine prehistoric men--hunting, fighting, marrying, and
dying, with no ideas beyond the gratification of their physical desires,
and no fears save those engendered by ghosts, witchcraft, the worship
of ancestors, and other forms of superstition common among peoples of
low development. They displayed the virtues of barbarism. They were
brave and honest. The smallness of their intelligence excused the
degradation of their habits. Their ignorance secured their innocence.
Yet their eulogy must be short, for though their customs, language, and
appearance vary with the districts they inhabit and the subdivisions to
which they belong, the history of all is a confused legend of strife and
misery, their natures are uniformly cruel and thriftless, and their
condition is one of equal squalor and want.
Although the negroes are the more numerous, the Arabs exceed in
power. The bravery of the aboriginals is outweighed by the intelligence
of the invaders and their superior force of character. During the second
century of the Mohammedan era, when the inhabitants of Arabia went
forth to conquer the world, one adventurous army struck south. The

first pioneers were followed at intervals by continual immigrations of
Arabs not only from Arabia but also across the deserts from Egypt and
Marocco. The element thus introduced has spread and is spreading
throughout the Soudan, as water soaks into a dry sponge. The
aboriginals absorbed the invaders they could not repel. The stronger
race imposed its customs and language on the negroes. The vigour of
their blood sensibly altered the facial appearance of the Soudanese. For
more than a thousand years the influence of Mohammedanism, which
appears to possess a strange fascination for negroid races, has been
permeating the Soudan, and, although ignorance and natural obstacles
impede the progress of new ideas, the whole of the black race is
gradually adopting the new religion and developing Arab
characteristics. In the districts of the north, where the original invaders
settled, the evolution is complete, and the Arabs of the Soudan are a
race formed by the interbreeding of negro and Arab, and yet distinct
from both. In the more remote and inaccessible regions which lie to the
south and west the negro race remains as yet unchanged by the Arab
influence. And between these extremes every degree of mixture is to be
found. In some tribes pure Arabic is spoken, and prior to the rise of the
Mahdi the orthodox Moslem faith was practised. In others Arabic has
merely modified the ancient dialects, and the Mohammedan religion
has been adapted to the older superstitions; but although the gap
between the Arab-negro and the negro-pure is thus filled by every
intermediate blend, the two races were at an early date quite distinct.
The qualities of mongrels are rarely admirable, and the mixture of the
Arab and negro types has produced a debased and cruel breed, more
shocking because they are more intelligent than the primitive savages.
The stronger race soon began to prey upon the simple aboriginals;
some of the Arab tribes were camel-breeders; some were goat-herds;
some were Baggaras or cow-herds. But all, without exception, were
hunters of men. To the great slave-market at Jedda a continual stream
of negro captives has flowed for hundreds of years. The invention of
gunpowder and the adoption by the Arabs of firearms facilitated the
traffic by placing the ignorant negroes at a further disadvantage. Thus
the situation in the Soudan for several centuries may be summed up as
follows: The dominant