Position 100 - Governor's Palace And An Armored Steamer Leaving Khartûm For Fashoda And The Blue Nile

There is no point at the new Egyptian capital of the Sudan, where a better idea of the life and character of the place could be obtained than just where we are now standing. If you will look carefully at the little map (No. 20), you will see that we have taken our stand on the north side of the Blue Nile, near the Halfaya railway station, which is the terminus of the railroad from Wadi Haifa, 576 miles away.

We look a little south of westward across the Blue Nile, and the city of Khartûm, on the opposite side of the river. When the place fell and Gordon was slain, it was destroyed by the Mahdi, who built his capital at Omdurman, which we have already seen. From here Omdurman is out of range on our right. That long, low island, which is out in two by the smokestack of the further steamer, lies close to the upper end of the island of Tuti, opposite the lower end of which lies Omdurman, on the other side of the White Nile, where the two rivers join to form the united stream, the Nile which we have so long followed.

The last is now out of sight around a bend of the Blue Nile to the right; while the White Nile is flowing toward our right yonder behind the buildings and palms of Khartûm, and if we were high enough we could plainly see it, as it hurries to join the Blue Nile by the island of Tuti, of which you can almost see the upper end beyond the second steamer. If you will follow the topography on the map (No. 20) the whole situation will be quite clear. The present Khartûm which we see on the other shore is therefore a new town, the work of the British since the recovery of the place in 1898.

The first town was founded by Mohammed Ali in 1823, and soon became a flourishing trade centre for the products of the Sudan. Its name, Khartûm, meaning “elephant's trunk,” is derived from the curved point of land between the two Niles at their junction, which was thought to resemble an elephant's trunk. After the destruction by the followers of the Mahdi in 1885, the town lay in ruins for nearly fourteen years, and the present restoration by the British is a transformation, for which no praise is too high.

At the left of this first smokestack is the palace, in which the governor of the Sudan lives. It is built on the spot where, at the door of his house, Gordon fell. The smokestack hides a government building, in which are the administrative offices, while on the left of the palace are the government magazines and workshops. Quite out of range on the left is the Gordon Memorial College, where native youths are educated for official positions. There is an excellent hospital, with a laboratory for the investigation of the many diseases peculiar to the Sudan, a post-office, two banks, shops controlled by the government, cleanly and hygienic barracks for British and native troops, and a good hotel.

These are all close to the river here, and the native town is growing up behind them further south. From here are now going out the influences that must redeem the Sudan after the awful visitation of some twenty years of Mahdist misrule. The new town is connected with the railway terminus on this side by a steam ferry, and you see the winding wake trailing in a curve from the further steamer, which is one of the ferry boats just landing her passengers from the town.

This boat nearest us is taking on black troops for transport to Fashoda, 510 miles further up the White Nile. It will presently steam down this short stretch of the Blue Nile before us, and then turn southward into the White Nile below the islands. This service involves danger, and the steamer is armored for its work. Under the awning of the upper deck, disclosed by the flapping of this flag on the bow, you see a Maxim gun, peeping out from under its canvas cover.

The forward windows of the pilot house show iron shutters, which may be closed in time of danger, leaving only a slit through which not only to see, but also to thrust the deadly magazine rifle. Out in the stream on the extreme left are two more military transports, in tow by a government steamer; these have already left for the same destination. These boats, then, though prepared for war, are messengers of civilization, penetrating to the heart of Africa, and gradually bringing the vast resources of the dark continent into the world of modern commerce and industry.

Possibly the adventurous nobles of Elephantine, whose tombs we visited there, had already penetrated in their trading expeditions, to this junction of the two rivers, but the country above it has always lain in complete darkness. The remotest monuments of ancient Egypt are over 400 miles below us here, and the Pharaohs never dominated the country on either side of this Blue Nile.

And here we take final leave of this remarkable river and the valley which it wrought, as a cradle of early civilization. Civilization has always moved up river valleys, and we have together journeyed in the footprints of early man as he passed up this, the most interesting valley, in the orient, where any remains of early man are found. We have seen his traces gradually disappear, until at this point we stand on the verge of the great uncivilized heart of Africa, from which the river issues.

Equally primitive must once have been the life of the men of the lower Nile, and as we have moved up the river we have thus followed the stream of civilization from its later and more developed phases, to its modern primitive survivals in the Sudan. Not that the Sudan is the source of Egyptian civilization, but it is to-day in much the same material condition in which the trading nobles of Elephantine must have found it nearly 5,000 years ago.