The River War | Page 9

SOUDAN, p.28.] The
league of the slave dealers was thus destroyed.
Towards the end of 1879 Gordon left the Soudan. With short intervals
he had spent five busy years in its provinces. His energy had stirred the

country. He had struck at the root of the slave trade, he had attacked the
system of slavery, and, as slavery was the greatest institution in the
land, he had undermined the whole social system. Indignation had
stimulated his activity to an extraordinary degree. In a climate usually
fatal to Europeans he discharged the work of five officers. Careless of
his methods, he bought slaves himself, drilled them, and with the
soldiers thus formed pounced on the caravans of the hunters.
Traversing the country on a fleet dromedary--on which in a single year
he is said to have covered 3,840 miles--he scattered justice and freedom
among the astonished natives. He fed the infirm, protected the weak,
executed the wicked. To some he gave actual help, to many freedom, to
all new hopes and aspirations. Nor were the tribes ungrateful. The
fiercest savages and cannibals respected the life of the strange white
man. The women blessed him. He could ride unarmed and alone where
a brigade of soldiers dared not venture. But he was, as he knew himself,
the herald of the storm. Oppressed yet ferocious races had learned that
they had rights; the misery of the Soudanese was lessened, but their
knowledge had increased. The whole population was unsettled, and the
wheels of change began slowly to revolve; nor did they stop until they
had accomplished an enormous revolution.
The part played by the second force is more obscure. Few facts are so
encouraging to the student of human development as the desire, which
most men and all communities manifest at all times, to associate with
their actions at least the appearance of moral right. However distorted
may be their conceptions of virtue, however feeble their efforts to attain
even to their own ideals, it is a pleasing feature and a hopeful augury
that they should wish to be justified. No community embarks on a great
enterprise without fortifying itself with the belief that from some points
of view its motives are lofty and disinterested. It is an involuntary
tribute, the humble tribute of imperfect beings, to the eternal temples of
Truth and Beauty. The sufferings of a people or a class may be
intolerable, but before they will take up arms and risk their lives some
unselfish and impersonal spirit must animate them. In countries where
there is education and mental activity or refinement, this high motive is
found in the pride of glorious traditions or in a keen sympathy with
surrounding misery. Ignorance deprives savage nations of such
incentives. Yet in the marvellous economy of nature this very

ignorance is a source of greater strength. It affords them the mighty
stimulus of fanaticism. The French Communists might plead that they
upheld the rights of man. The desert tribes proclaimed that they fought
for the glory of God. But although the force of fanatical passion is far
greater than that exerted by any philosophical belief, its sanction is just
the same. It gives men something which they think is sublime to fight
for, and this serves them as an excuse for wars which it is desirable to
begin for totally different reasons. Fanaticism is not a cause of war. It is
the means which helps savage peoples to fight. It is the spirit which
enables them to combine--the great common object before which all
personal or tribal disputes become insignificant. What the horn is to the
rhinoceros, what the sting is to the wasp, the Mohammedan faith was to
the Arabs of the Soudan--a faculty of offence or defence.
It was all this and no more. It was not the reason of the revolt. It
strengthened, it characterised, but it did not cause. ['I do not believe
that fanaticism exists as it used to do in the world, judging from what I
have seen in this so-called fanatic land. It is far more a question of
property, and is more like Communism under the flag of
religion.'--GENERAL GORDON'S JOURNALS AT KHARTOUM,
bk.i. p.13.] Those whose practice it is to regard their own nation as
possessing a monopoly of virtue and common-sense, are wont to
ascribe every military enterprise of savage peoples to fanaticism. They
calmly ignore obvious and legitimate motives. The most rational
conduct is considered mad. It has therefore been freely stated, and is to
some extent believed, that the revolt in the Soudan was entirely
religious. If the worst untruths are those that have some appearance of
veracity, this impression must be very false indeed. It is, perhaps, an
historical fact that the revolt of a large population has never been
caused