THE RACE FOR THE UPPER NILE.

Thames Advertiser, Volume XXIX, Issue 9156, 28 September 1898, Page 4

THE RACE FOR THE UPPER NILE.

■ MABOHAND HAB DONE. '■:■ ~.; Judging by tteinfomationfient by the of'the Daily Telegraph,,;; it Iβ now fairly "safe to assume whites V';, found' at Fashoda are French-expedition; of all political,, considerations, there is no doubt! that- Msrohand'e'"desert march the Nile Valley will rank high amongst African feats of travol and exploration. Leaving the French sphere onjth.9 Congo-rthe easternmost,part,6f which is at least 600 miles from Fa.ahoda~he;. had to face a,maroh eastward, partly by land 'and partly by '■ water,vjrith'' transport obstacles , that seemed''almost insuperable, The tlifflculties, as a glance at the map will show,'were in themselves formidable,but when one considers that dependence had to be placed' for longdistances , pn utterly,.untrustworthy native "carriers wh'b "desert at'tne first opportunity, it will be recognised that' |)apt. Maijoband, has shown rare, persistence;, and ' pyrseverance. , ! As a sample of the incredulity' that has levelled at the sucooes of his effort, we may quote the words of an En'glisb' officer-Oapt. Burrows— spoken in England not ao many ;mojnths ■ ago. ,Gapt,.Burrows at , th^' time of the interview had just returned from the Upper Congo, where •..ho.had* .been for three years in the 'service of the Congo Free State, .bayng^puJmancied : three districts on the Ujipe'r Welle. As Captain Burrows disuiQbJ.was-exactly opposite to i; tiiajb from' 'ihk\ Captain Jfcfarohand ifetyrtedv onf;his- expedition,* ho had special/bpiVoriunilies of knowing what the! French'had bepn doing on their (northern) side ot the Congo. In reply tatjuestions Captain Burrows f'i believe tne stories of French activity ouihe Upper Nile are greatly atoa, and I do not it as probable that ;aiiy > expedition st)rayellibg llrom tfie direction ot'the Frencli Congo has g6t J any where near Fashoda, The statment that there a guoboat niidjHve: oihfcr-; boats ■ belobphig to tlie Fi'epch on tho Nile above Khartum.is oxtremely unlikoly to bo true' The of , tninsporting them such, a distance'is su great as to mike the scKeae impossible." Yet, in spite of predictions and disbeliefs,. •Marchaiid, however' fruitless' his jonrjiey'inay be, has reached bis goal, whilp the other French'expedition, under de Bonchnrapu, which camo

i from the French Red Sea colony of •. Obok, v/e Abyssinia, was forced to retreat. :■; VARIOUS FIIENCH EXPEDITIONS. Marchand's expedition was organised ■' by. the Governor of the French Congo it in 1895 or 1896, the proceedings being kept fairly secret. Much material was ro brought from France, landed at the Iβ seaport Loango, and was sent to id Bangassu, in the Freuch Übangi. There a numerous and well equipped expediit tion <was assembled, and the march for a Faahodn,' 'under Captain Marchand, ,begun. Thenceforward, until its present » discovery at Pashodu, the whereabouts ;- ,of the' expedition was clouded in ll doubt. ;Ic tvae known to have reaohed ■J a tributary of the White Nile, aud was 1 last definitely heard from at Meehra--0 el-Relva town about two hundred . miles from Fashoda. Since then rumors of success aud massacre have alternated with regard to the expedition. It was the intention of Captain Marchand to meefc at Fashoda the } ; co operating expedition aibre-men- |. tioued, which was approaching by way : of :Abysßinia under the Marquis de .Bonchamps. This venture of de Bonchamps' was for some time bus* ; pected to be secretly backed by the •Negus Menelek, and it was to have been reinforced ;by another starting i from Meuelek's capital of Addis Abeba, , uudor Captain Colchette. The captain j ,met with a iatal accident, however, and ( the progress of both expeditions was \ delayed. ■■With Menelek's supposed \ aid the ; expedition under the Marquis j de Bonchamps finally reached the ] western frontier of Abyssinia, and for , a' long time nothing more was heard, j Then came the newsthat.it had re- j turned unsuccessful. ' So when Mar- \ ohand with his > western expedition c reaohed Fashoda,.,there was no ally j irom the eastern coast to greet him. e And in this ceuhection it may be « mentioned that Leoatieff, the Russian (j who, in conjunction with Prince Honry p of Orleans, some time ago conducted {J an intrigue at Menelek's Court, recently t! met with a serious accident, While contemplating an Abyssinian expedi' ' tion into the Nile rogiona, he was p disabled from proceeding by the I 1 bursting of a" fowling piece, G '" Sootii■■•alter, the present Anglo* ei Egyptian expedition started up the I Nile, the. Marquis de More , s, a'French- tl man' well' known throughout Europe, es started from Tunis to cross the great E desert and'.ieach the Khalifa, with h: whom he hoped to arrange an alliance for France. He was killed by the E natives befqre he reached. Ehartum,. Ec ■ So übw'i't is apparent that out of all B these French and i semi-French expedi- A tions| ironi west, and east, and north, U only one has reached its' : destination. m

; '"■' BJtrasn COUNTEB»!R)VEe. • ' !-}C'lt;!-ie;clear,- then, that Britain: and and France have beea playing &\ game of cross purposes, l'he British.counter.* moves have, been two' in viz: the main Anglo-Egyptian expediiion under Kitchener from the north, • and the Uganda expedition, under Major McDonald, from the south. With Kitchener's progress the world is now familiar. A few days ago he conquered . Khartum, and now he has occupied Fashoda over the heads of the Frenohi Major> MoDonald's whereabouts ia a matter of doubt, as he was delayed at starting by a.mutiny of the Soudanese troops in the Uganda protectorate.. That is briefly, the present'postion.■'■■'&■* '■-■■; ';

■Butit must'by no means bo'underetood' that Marchaad's'is the first European expedition', that has lately visited , Fashoda. In 1896 Lord Ifelamere lejft : Eugland on what was declared to be a ° sporting trip," fitted up an expedition:at his ; own expense in British 'East Africa, 1 -and proceeded to Fashoda by way of the recentlydiscovered Lake Eudolph—His Lordship being r in;fact, only the second white 3 main'to'look upon that little known lake. Lord Dulamere had with him aq companions .Dr. Atkinson and tw,o'other white men) anarmed;force of 200 strong, and a caravan of 200 camels. Although he did not carry a piece of bunting in his pocket to plant af any likely spot, it is oontendod that Lord Delamere's visit to Fashoda is quite as important an incident asCapt. Marohand'a. ;'.;:.. •

:; ;..• , Belgium's part. - ■ ■ r Belgium' is also a. factor in the Upper > Nile' Valley; The' Belgian •Congo Free State holds the left bank of. tho river froud tho lakes as far north as Lado, and recently sent an expedition against the Darvishes, which was claimed to be the outcome of a desiro to assist British designs. For some time nothing, has been heard of the Belgians' doings. Like several of the other parties, they had to face a native insurrection, a , revolt of the Batatela .tribe, which at the outset gave , ' Baron Dhanis muoh trouble, paptein Burrows, *;he Central African authority aforementioned, 'on being questipnod regarding the military operations on the part of the Belgians on the Upper Nile, andastfed if they were intended to threaten the Dervishes in view of the advance from Egypt, is reported as saying:—"The object of Baron Dhanis's expedition was to reaoh Lado and to ocoupy the whole of ttye Nile valley from Lado to the Lake Albert,m conjunction with the column starting from the Upper Welle ojia•manded by Captain Chaltin. As a faot.Lado does not exist as a place J ; it is merely a geographical expression, as it; has been completely wiped v oiit by "the Dervishes. The moat s'o'iitherly Dervish garrison is now at i Bor, on the right bank ot the Nile, and some 70 miles north of Rejaaf. To this r place they retreated a v short time after they had been driven from Rejaaf by the Free State troops. Captain Chaltin, who is in command ot the Belgian CQlumn, some eovero jight

' ing with the Dervishes on '■February' The Dervish gaiiisi'i) a' Bor still nu hers probably soino '3000 treii. 'I Belgians have now re.uhei ihiiirolj fcive on the Nile and they are i likely to move. They cannot g<) f urtl nortn, haying reached the limit their political activity as definod the afjrnoii" tit nonduilnl wi h Frar in 1894. Th'yhavo, tlicntfore, noi ing more to &\ of a m,i:itnry.cliaract ; I do not think they hWe anything fear from tho Dervishes except'in t extreme and improbable caeo o£ t Khihfa's people, after the downfall Omdurmsn, retreating towards t Equatorial Province. Evea then th have sufficient guns and men to ho their own." ABYSSINIA LOOKS ON. ' According to the cables, there arei Abyssinian troops in the Upper Ni Galley. This, as we have stated, is m he outcome of any lack of intrigue c ihe part of French semi-politic idventurers. The chances are, hoi iver, that Menelek, after leceiving tl British mission of Mr Rennell Rodi ecognised that there is more to I [ained by a diplomatic.friendship wit Britain than by thwarting the deaigr f the dominant* Power, The. treat itely arrived at between Meiielek an ix .Rodd (on behalf of the .Britis |overnment) cpritains seme ver ignificant provisions.' •■ Tlius;r^/.'.lt i jrbidden for armed bands from eithe ide to cross the frontier of the other o ny pretext whatever without previon uthorization from ■ the coinpoten . r . His Majesty th Imperqr Menelek 11., King of King f Ethiopia, engages himself toward \Q[ Government of Her Britanni lajesty to do all in his power to pre ;nt the passage through his dominion : arms and ammunition'to tb [ahdiate, whom he declares to be tin lemies of hia empire.". Havinj upended his 'royal signature to tlii 3claration, Menelek : was absolutelj ecluded from sending any help to th( ami there is ; no iiidicatioi latitis his policy to do so. .' ■ v- ' SOMJS NAMES,' In . looking at the map , sevara aces of interesf: should be noted. El isheiyin DarEur, is where Slatin, jvernor of Darfur, under Gordon, rrenderedtothe Dervishee-in 1884, 0 was for twelve years a prisoner in e hands of the Mahdists , before he japed, He is pow with the, Anglo* jyptian expedition,' warring against s old masters, (Southeast of El Faslier will be seen ,Obeid... It was a little to the south--3t of this town that the army of ;oks Pasha was annihilated in 1883, Lado, about half way between janda and Fashoda, Emin, who was irohing-north with his forces from ) equatorial provinces to the relief Khartum, heard of Gordon's death 1 turned back. • rKassalamay be the it wnich.the Britieh ! are dangljng :ore Menelek to induce him'to •go w'fwith Frenoh, arid,-Russian-in*