Suakim

“ The two chief ports on the African coast of the Red Sea are Port Sudan and Suakim. They were nothing until the completion of the Red Sea road. The original plan was to use Suakim as the terminus of the Sudan railway. The English surveyors, however, finding a much better harbour at Port Sudan, extended the railroad to that point. The town which was a mere village a few years ago has now several thousand people, and grows like one of the mushroom settlements of the Canadian west. ”

“ Korti—Abu Klea—the Desert Column—a steamer called the Safieh > not the Condor , which rescued two other steamers wrecked on their way back from a Khartoum in the red hands of the Mahdi of those days. Then—the smooth glide over deep water continues—another Suakim expedition with a great deal of Osman Digna and renewed attempts to build the Suakim-Berber Railway. 'Hashin,' say the paddle-wheels, slowing all of a sudden—'MacNeill's Zareba—the 15th Sikhs and another native regiment—Osman Digna in great pride and power, and Wady Halfa a frontier town. ”

“ The Cabinet considered Gordon, what we should do with slavery at Suakim, and House of Commons business.'
About this date the main body of the British troops was withdrawn from Suakim in accordance with the decision of March 25th. They had inflicted defeats on Osman Digna at El Teb, and again at Tamanieb; many Dervishes and not a few English had been killed, but no effect of moment had been produced, and the road to Berber was not opened.
A new complication now arose. Egypt was presented with Europe's total claims for the losses to Europeans in the burnings at Alexandria. ”

“ The followers of this man had overrun the whole of the Soudan, shutting up the various Egyptian garrisons in the towns they occupied. One of the chiefs of the Mahdi, named Osman Digma, was threatening the port of Suakim, on the Red Sea, and had besieged the Egyptian garrisons in the towns of Sinkat and Tokar. Admiral Hewett was ordered to protect Suakim, and with the Ranger, Sphinx, Euryalus, and Decoy took his station off that town. ”

“ Suakim itself was threatened, and the ships of war then lying off the port landed bluejackets and Marines for its protection, while Major-General Sir Gerald Graham was sent from Cairo to reinforce them with 4000 British troops. There were two sharp engagements at El-Teb (February 29) and Tamai (March 13) , in which Osman Digna fought with magnificent courage, but sustained such heavy losses that his power for evil appeared sufficiently diminished to warrant the withdrawal of the British soldiers from the eastern Soudan. ”

“ Several times Osman Digma’s followers came close up to the place, but, whenever they did so, the bluejackets and marines from the four English ships were landed, and the men-of-war opened a fire over the town upon the ground which the rebels must cross to reach it. Thus they succeeded in defending Suakim from any serious attack until Baker Pasha, who was in command of a miscellaneous force known as the Egyptian Police, came down with some thousands of newly-raised troops. ”

“ At other times they rush with the wild impetuosity of a hill-torrent in winter.
For some time after the incidents just narrated the life of our hero rippled—but of course it must be clearly understood that a Suakim ripple bore some resemblance to a respectable freshet elsewhere! Osman Digna either waited for reinforcements before delivering a grand assault, or found sufficient entertainment to his mind, and satisfaction to his ambition, in acting the part of a mosquito, by almost nightly harassment of the garrison, which was thus kept continually on the alert. ”

“ The safest route would certainly be to go through Abyssinia, but the Arabs wouldn't like to travel that way if they could help it. There have been troubles for years between Abyssinia and the Soudan, and it is by no means certain what [Pg 365] sort of treatment we should meet if we got there. Massowah is certainly the best place to strike for. Suakim would have been the best place in some respects, because there are lots of English there and we should have no difficulty in getting money to pay the sheiks ”

“ Now he was in full retreat, and both his lines of supply—namely, that up the Nile and that from Suakim—seemed equally difficult. The Chancellor wrote on a slip of paper for me: "We seem to be fighting three enemies at once. (1) The Mahdi; (2) certain of our people here; (3) Wolseley." Nothing was settled, and we passed on to Egyptian finance.'
March 11th, 'In the evening a despatch was circulated in which Wolseley said: "Please tell Lord Granville that I cannot wait any longer, and I must issue proclamation, and will do so on my own authority if I do not receive answer to this by the 14th. ”

“ There will be no end of hard work, and what fighting they get won't be all one way. Sand and heat, and preserved meat and dirty water out of wells, are not very pleasant when you have to stick to them for months together. Like enough, too, there will be another rumpus down at Suakim while the expedition is away, and then those who are left here now will get some more of it. ”

“ Soon after, the overworked garrison had the immense satisfaction and excitement of bidding welcome to reinforcements with a stirring British cheer.
These formed only the advance-guard. For some time after that troops were landed at Suakim every day. Among them the 15th Sikhs, a splendid body of men, with grand physique and fierce aspect, like men who “meant business.” Then came the Coldstream Guards, the Scots and the Grenadier Guards, closely followed by the Engineers and Hospital and Transport Corps, the Shropshire Regiment, and many others. ”

“ They were scarcely settled in their quarters before they heard that, now that it was too late, an expedition was to be sent down to Suakim. Two English regiments would have saved Baker's force from destruction, and would have rescued the garrisons of Sinkat and Tokar; now a large force would have to be employed. Some time would, of course, be needed for the organization of the expedition, and in the meantime the Hussars had plenty of opportunity for investigating Cairo. ”

“ They are at outs with the government for having submitted to English influence, and pretend their religion suffers in consequence. Heaven knows how many have already fled by way of the desert, and by so doing have avoided the usual water route to Suakim, and as the government found out that Fatima had attempted to escape also, it ordered her to be placed under guard. Only by exchanging her and her children—as they are related to the Mahdi—for our men captured by them may we hope to get them back. ”

“ Suakin has been formed by nature as the principal port of the Egyptian Sûdan and the Nile provinces, but has never risen to a position of any pretension, and even now its prosperity is only comparative. The place was formerly held directly subject to Turkey, but in 1865 it was sold and handed over to the Viceroy of Egypt. The inhabitants depend for their water supply on two or three wells about a mile from the town, and also on rain-water, which is collected during the wet season in a large sort of reservoir at the same place. ”

“ I shall refer to the temperature that we experienced during the campaign further on.
The population of Suakin is very "mixed."
There are Arabs belonging to all the neighbouring tribes—Hadendowas, Amaras, Fadlabs, Beni Amers, Bisharems, and Shaharibs. There are also a number of Soumalis.
They are quite black in colour, and naked with the exception of a white cloth worn round the loins. The women, at least some of them, cover their faces with a thin white material, which they wear wound round them and over their heads. These are mostly the married women. ”

“ They lose these good looks, though, almost entirely as they grow older.
The population of the place varies a good deal; but, counting Italians, Greeks, and Egyptian soldiery, there must be at the time I am writing little short of eight thousand people here.
One of the chief points of interest to us in Suakin was Osman Digna's house; not that there was anything particular about the house, either inside or out. It stood close to the water's edge up a small creek on the south side of the town. A stick cut from Osman Digna's garden was considered a great trophy. ”

“ But he did not wish to be thanked for it. "At Suakin you must take the Greek merchant's advice and organise a rescue as best you can. It will be a long business, and you will have many disappointments before you succeed. But you must stick to it until you do."
Upon that the two men fell to a discussion of the details of the length of time which it would take for a message from Suakin to be carried into Omdurman, of the untrustworthiness of some Arab spies, and of the risks which the trustworthy ran. ”

“ After the rains become constant, these go eastward to Mendera and Gooz, and then the road from Sennaar to Suakem through these places becoming dangerous on account of all the other Arabs assembling there to avoid the fly, the caravan of Suakem is obliged to pass through Halfaia to Barbar, and from thence to Suakem, so that this was the most frequented road in the kingdom. Now, indeed, the communications on all sides are obstructed by the anarchy that prevails among the Arabs, so that he who passes to or from Egypt must depend solely upon his own exertions and the protection of Heaven. ”

“ Suleima lies down to rest in her father's tent, when an hostile Arab tribe breaks into the camp, and the chief, lifting Suleima from her couch, bears her away with him. Suleima has been dreaming, and the abduction must be imagined to be a continuation of her dream. She sees the white-robed Sheik bending over her; she meets his admiring gaze, and hardly awake, she allows herself to be carried away, partly paralysed with fear, partly captivated by his magnetism and by the fantastic violence of the situation. ”

“ The fort is strong, defended by artillery, and requires for its garrison an entire battalion of infantry.
No description of Suakin would be complete without some allusion to the man to whom it owes its fame. Osman Digna had been for many years a most successful and enterprising Arab slave dealer. The attempted suppression of his trade by the Egyptian Government drove him naturally into opposition. He joined in the revolt of the Mahdi, and by his influence roused the whole of the Hadendoa and other powerful tribes of the Red Sea shore. ”

“ In the beginning of August rumours reached Suakin that emissaries of the Mahdi were inciting the Arabs in the neighbourhood of Sinkat [328] and Erkowit [329] to revolt. On the 2nd Tewfik Bey, the Governor of Suakin, left for Sinkat, to inquire into the true state of affairs. He there learned that Osman Digma, a well-known slave-dealer, assisted by his nephews, Ahmed and Fagi Digma, had raised the Erkowit, Sherah, Mishab, Migadaff, and Bishirieh tribes in the name of the Mahdi. All these are small tribes, living in the Erkowit district ”

“ It is a cosmopolitan city, where the trade is chiefly in the hands of the Arabs. Turks and Hedarmeh, or "Men of Hadramaut," here meet the Greek, Maltese, or European merchants: But the native population live in huts of branches covered with mats outside the town in the suburb of El-Kef. It is a far more extensive place than Suakin itself, with which it is connected by a low bridge some 330 feet long, and since 1884 by a railway ”

“ It is a testimony to the existence of the Creator, who created all according to His will and who has the power, control, and ability to direct all that happens on high and in the lower world, to do with them as He wills, as he had done with us when he brought us forth form Egypt with signs and wonders. Sukkos specifically relates to the clouds of glory, with which they were surrounded, protecting them from the elements. ”

“ Soundings of 3,000 fathoms have been obtained. In the library you will find the 'Cruise of the Challenger,' which is the latest authority on this subject."
"I shall refer to it; thank you, Captain."
"On a little rocky island on our right," continued the commander, pointing to the location, "is the town of Suakin, as it is generally called, though the proper word is Sawakin. It is a town of ten thousand inhabitants. It is abreast of Nubia, the Soudan, and is the outlet of its commerce. When the Mahdi War became a serious matter, England took possession of this port ”

“ For centuries the chief port of the eastern Sudan, Suakin has been since 1906 to some extent superseded by Port Sudan (q.v.) , a harbour 36 m. to the north. The customhouse and government offices present an imposing frontage to the sea, and the principal houses are of white coral stone three storeys high. The mosques are not remarkable. The mainland part of the town is surrounded by a high coral wall, built in 1884 to resist dervish attacks. About a mile beyond is a line of outer forts. ”

“ For this engagement a bar inscribed TAMAAI was issued, and to those who had also taken part in the previous battle of El-Teb one inscribed EL-TEB—TAMAAI.
Suakin, 1884.—Undaunted Osman Digna still managed to preach his holy war, and secure thousands of adherents to his banner. Within four miles of the disastrous defeat which he had suffered he successfully got together, at Tamanieb, about 2,000 fighting men, but General Graham did not give him much rope, and immediately set out to meet him. Leaving Suakin on March 25th, he marched with a force which included marines to meet the Mahdists. ”