SIR SAMUEL BAKER.

Otago Witness, Volume 11, Issue 2159, 11 July 1895, Page 41

SIR SAMUEL BAKER.

His Work in the Soudan.

IE ever there was a man whoso work in life was pre-ordained for him by family tradition, by environment, and by natural tastes (which must have beßn fostered by the former two), that man was Samuel Whita Biker. His ancestors —to go no further back than the Elizabethan agewere gentlemen sea rovers. They were highminded, patriotic, gentlemanly pirates of the type of Hawkins and Frobisher. They made the most, both for themselves and their country, of one of the very few professions to which any self-respecting gentle- | man of the period could betake himself. In later times they performed their sea duties in what moralists call a more " legitimate " way; and in 1782 the merchants and insurers of Bristol presented Oaptaln Valentine Biker (Samuel's grandfather) with a silver vaee commemorating hia victory, in Jane of that year, over a French ship feiggar than his own. Though born in London (1821), youog B tker spent some of hU early years in West London scanes, and in sporting pursuits, such as were calculated to stir HIS NATURA.L IMPULSE FOR ADVENTURE. At school "geography was his delight." He liked botany too, but he was a reckless experimenter in the science, for " he planted one of his sisters up to her neck in the ground, in order to try if she would not £row faster by tbis natural prooeas." For such instruction as was imparted by the flogging blockheads of the day Samuel B tker bad no liking ; but he eagarly read Bjlzoni's travels and Madden'?, and he was rather fascinated by the story of Xonophon's retreat. His school days over, young Biker was put into his father's office in Fenchuroh street. Scarcely was ha installed before he shook the office duet off his feet. He was captivated by what he had read about Oeylon, and to Csylon he went, with his young wife. His "discovery" of Nawera Eiiya, his eight years work as a pioneer of planting, are part of the island's history. It is interesting to know that the connection of the Bakers with the village settlement of Newara Ellya is still maintained. John Baker, Samuel's brother, settled there, and died therein 1883., " Mis Biker still resides iv the old house, now much enlarged and improved. Bakes: himsalf some years ago gave up her share of the property ... to his two nephews, Julian aud Arthur. Oa the death of the Utter this share fell to the present head of the iß^ker- family, Ctptain Juliiu Baker, R.N. ... In the year 1893 the owners had the satisfaction of seeiog the pries of their teas quoted at the top of the market." Having thus done his share in founding the now prosperous tea trade in Oeylon, Samuel returned to Europe and looked about him for fresh adventures. He went to THE WARS IN TIIE CRIMEA. Hs next wandered about Ana Minor. He had formed no definite notion of a career — only, he could not rest at home. Bufc, in 1861, ho chanced to follow hia nose to Egypt, and there, as his biographers express it, " he stumbled upon his mission in life." It is hard to realise nowadays the popular curiosity arou3ed in the early sixties by Sp^ke and Grant's dboovery of the Nile's "first source," and Biker's discovery of the " second." Baker's expedition up the Nile, his heroic wife accompanying him, was a romantic exploit from beginning to end. khahtoum, as he found it in 1862 under the rule of the pasha 3, was 1 :< A ne3t of slave-traders and the chief resort of all the blacklegs iv the Soudan. Muaa Pasha, the Governor-General, did all he could to prevent Biker from proceeding up the White Nile; for he feared— and doubtless hia fears were shared at Cairo — that should an English explorer of Biker's stamp pas? through the slave preserves on tha Upper Nile, and witness the iniquities of their hateful traffic, ib might lead to disastrous revelations in Europe. Baker was therefore regarded as a possible spy, whoso every movement was to be watched ; and no means were left untried to prevent his getting together an expedition strong enough to force its way through the country." As the explorer hitn-:elf wrote from Khartoum to his brother at home : " This country is no paradisa, be assured ; it is exactly the other place, without one redeeming point. Both morally and in its natural features it is hell itself, in plain English. But as I approaoh the Equator, I hope to find an improvement, certainly in the natives, as they will be simply savages ; whereas here they are savages cursed with every European vice exaggerated, and not one virtue of their race." DESERTION, MUTINY, THREATS OF MUBDEQ, were the ordinary dangers with which Mr Baker and his wife had to contend among their escort and baggige carriers. More than once was death averted by. the wife's intervention. She eTen kept her temper when an extortionate Arab seized " the very cap— a muslin handkerchief," which she wore at the moment, " the last she possessed." Bat it must be confessed that Mrs Baker lost her temper when the same grasping African quietly proposed an exchange of wives with the British traveller. Mrs Baker Hired up, Mr Bakor drew his revolver — to the African's intense surprise. Said the African : "Djn't be angry. I had no intention of offending you by asking for your wife ; I will give you a wife, if you want one; and I thought you had no objection to give me yonrß ; it is my custom to give my visitors pretty wives, and I thought you might ex-

change. Don't make a f naa about it ; if you don't like it, there's an end of it ; I will never mention it again." In 1869 Ismail Pasha appointed Sir Samuel Baker QOVERNO S- G ENERAL, with absolute power, over all the countries belonging to the Nile Basin south of Gondokoro. It was the first high post held by an Englishman under the pashas of Egypt. Sir Samuel was authorised In Ismail's firman 11 to suppress the slave trade," "to introduce a regular system of commerce," "to open to navigation the great lakes of the Equator." These are the great Central African problems which confront civilisation at this hour. When Sir Samuel Baker, 24 years ago, attempted the solution of the first problem, he vastly underrated the difficulties in his path. In the first place, though Sir Samuel may not have suspected it then, Ismail was much more ambitious of extending his Egyptian empire than of suppressing the slave trade. But even if Ismail were sincere, bis governors at Khartoum and elsewhere in the Soudan were dead against interference with the slavers. Baker in his generous enthusiasm believed that in four years he could abolish THE SLAVE TRAFFIC, introduce new kinds of cultivation into the territories of tbe southern Nile, and coax Arabs and blacks into the paths of peace. Long before his four years' term of office expired, he discoved in himself another Sisyphu?, and in 1874 he returned to oivilißation a sadder and a wiser man. On his way up the Nile to his Governor-generalship he halted at Khartoum, the Pasha of which had been instructed to assist Baker's expedition. Instead of carrying out these instructions, the Pasha had organised a slave-hunting expedition into the very regions whioh were Baker's destination. 11 A squadron of 11 vessels were ready bo convey this expedition to the scene of its depredations when Baker arrived at Khartoum with a commission from the Khedive to suppress the slave trade. No stronger illustration could be afforded of the divergence of views that existed between the humanitarian policy of the Khedive himself and the slave-trading aya^e tv upon which tbe government of the Soudan wa3 based, with the concurrence and connivance of the Cairene authorities. The entire country wai, in fact, leased out to the leading slavetraders, who paid large sums to the Governorgeneral of the Soudan for the so-called monopoly of the ivory trade, or, in other words, for permission to carry fire and sword into couutries which did not then belong to Egypt, but which Baker had been commissioned by the Khedive to annex, for the purposes of suppressing the slave trade, and of introducing legitimate commerce."

As Gordon, in a letter written some years after, expressed if, " IT 18 HEART BREAKING WORK CIVILISING

TUB CIVILISUBd." The character of Baker's four-years' toil in the Equatorial Soudan is exactly stated in these words. The pashas and other Egyptian officials who should have assisted bim were themselves making money in or by the slave trade.

Baker's rule was by some described as too severe. Gordon was for a time of that opinion. Bub when he suoceeded Baker in the Governor-generalship he changed his opinion. "I am," said he, "convinosd that but for Baker's energy in dealing with the slave-traders and their friends along the river, and the fear he inspired among the natives, I should have encountered the moat active opposition." — Daily News.