Suakin, 1885/Chapter 2
CHAPTER II.
SUAKIN.
(Lat. 19° 17′ N., Long. 37° 20′ E.)
There are three different passages through the reefs leading to Suakin. The northern passage is the shortest route for vessels coming from Suez, but It is the most dangerous of the three, and ninety miles in length. The southern passage is of course the most direct route for vessels from India, and is somewhat shorter, being only sixty miles long. The easiest and shortest in point of mere distance is the middle passage, thirty miles long, and running almost due east and west. It was by this last-named passage that we entered, our captain being, like most other people, strange to the place. It was a very hot morning, and the air was thick with a hot haze, so that we did not sight the land until we were getting quite close to it. Then miles and miles of desert, and a lofty and rugged range of mountains in the distance suddenly came into view. As we approached nearer, we could see, about four miles away on our right, two camps; these turned out to be the 49th (Berkshire) and 70th (East Surrey). On the left of the town of Suakin was another and much larger camp, where a part of the Indian contingent were lying. The whole country looked a burnt, parched-up wilderness, without a particle of vegetation except the dried-up bush of the desert. It certainly looked the hottest place I had ever seen, with a sky like one great sheet of burnished brass over head, and with the sun scorching down on an arid waste of sand.
It was midday before we entered the long narrow channel leading into the harbour. The navigation of this channel is very hazardous, as it is nowhere more than 300 yards broad, and in some places much less than this. On both sides run the low coral reefs, and woe betide the ship that happens to run on them. This channel which is fully three quarters of a mile in length, opens into a lagoon or bay, in which are two islands. One of these is known by us as Quarantine Island, and has been used all through the war as a depôt, where stores were landed, and as a starting-point for the railway. Several piers and landing-stages have been, erected here by the Royal Engineers, and vessels of 4000 tons are able to moor alongside these and discharge their cargoes. On the second island stands the old town of Suakin, and connected with the mainland by a causeway built by General Gordon some years ago. The town proper, or old town, consists of a number of low, flat-topped houses of the ordinary Eastern type, built right up to the water's edge. The thoroughfares or streets are of deep sand, there being no necessity for roads, as wheel traffic is unknown here. On the mainland, and adjoining the causeway just referred to, is a suburb which has outgrown the town both in population and importance. Here there are several mosques and buildings of some pretensions, as well as a large open barrack occupied by a battalion of Egyptian troops. Beyond this again comes the native town, composed of a great number of huts made of a sort of coarse grass matting spread over a framework of stout sticks in several thicknesses. Outside all are the earthworks and defences, running completely round and enclosing the whole place; they have been all erected since 1881, as before this date the town was quite open. These defences are exceedingly strong, and of considerable extent, and stretch over a distance of nearly two miles. The greater part of the lines are composed of strong earthworks, but in parts high walls of coral have been built. The principal forts and redoubts in these lines, commencing from the right or western side of the town, are Gerzireh Redoubt, close to the edge of the lagoons, and connected by a wet ditch with Yamin Redoubt on its left. The lines here turn sharply to the southward, the next strong points being Lausari Redoubt, Oorban Redoubt, Wastanieh Redoubti and Forts Carysfort and Euryalus, the strongest points of the whole of the defences. A little to the south-east of these two, forts are Fort Commodore and Gedeedeh Redoubt, where the lines trend eastward till they reach the lagoons on the south side of the old town, passing through Fort Turk, and the Arab and Sphink Redoubts to the Left Redoubt, Outside these lines, and about three quarters of a mile distant, there is a complete chain of small, circular redoubts with the Right and Left Water Forts on the west, and Fort Foulah on the south.
There are two principal entrances in the lines on the right of Fort Carysfort, and at Yamin Redoubt, this last being the one most used by us during the campaign.
There is a certain amount of trade carried on between Suakin and Suez, but this is much impeded by the heavy duties levied by the Egyptian Government.
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. The supply is at all times limited, and the quality of the water not particularly good, being strongly impregnated with salts. Towards the close of the dry season, when the water becomes very scarce, it turns thick, and is dark brown in colour. During the early autumn the climate is almost deadly for Europeans, and the natives themselves suffer greatly from sickness, the most prevalent complaints among them being dysentery and enteric fever. The shallow lagoons and damp marshy ground all round the north-west side of the town add considerably to the unhealthiness of Suakin. When the tide, whigh is only slight in the Red Sea, runs out, these lagoons are left exposed to the burning rays of the sun, and as they are full of filth and refuse of all sorts, the overpowering stench that arises from the foul black mud, festering and fermenting in the heat, simply defies description. The most unhealthy time of year is from August to the end of October, and during this period the battalion of Marines quartered here since May last had not unfrequently twenty per cent, of their strength sick; and at one time the percentage rose as high as twenty-five. In September, the ratio of sick per month, that is, men who passed through hospital, was equal to fifty per cent of the total strength. During the ten months, counting from May last year to February this year, fourteen hundred men passed through this battalion; that is, a total of fourteen hundred men either died or were invalided during a short period of ten months. The weekly returns from which I have collected these statistics were prepared for the information of the officer commanding the battalion, who was in Suakin the whole time himself, and who kindly allowed me to look through them. The facts, therefore, are unimpeachable, and show a degree of suffering concerning which people at home knew nothing at the time, and know little now. The returns referred to were most carefully made out, and amongst other information contained in them, I noticed a calculation of the per centage of sickness as applied to the age of the men. The cases were divided into three heads—men under 25 years of age, men between 25 and 35 years, and men between 35 and 45. I found that at least sixty-five per cent of the total number of cases occurred among the men under 25 years of age, while the men between 35 and 45 escaped with comparative immunity. Of the fourteen hundred men who passed through the battalion, by far the greater number were lost during the unhealthy season, that is between August and the end of October, and I found that from the 15th of November to the 27th of February, there were only 333 fresh admissions into hospital, the strength of the battalion during this period averaging about 520 of all ranks. The battalion was split up into various detachments, and the amount of sickness was materially influenced by the position of the detachment. In this way those who suffered least were those quartered at the Right Water Fort, some two miles out from the town; while the detachments at Fort Ansari and Island Redoubt, nearer the town, suffered most. The prevalent diseases were enteric fever, intermittent fever, simple continued fever (including typhoid), dysentery, diarrhoea, and debility, under which head were included affections from the sun.
Such, then, is the effect of the climate of Suakin on Europeans, and the above figures are a fitting monument to what the British soldier is called upon to suffer for Queen and Country. I have no wish to be an alarmist, and long ere these pages appear in print, I pray that the English soldier may have left these shores, never to return, I mention nothing about the actual number of deaths, because, although a great number occurred at Suakin, by far the greater number took place at sea, between Suakin and Suez. There was often a difficulty in sending the worst cases away in time, as the vessels available were few, and in this way many valuable lives were lost that might have been saved. There were, of course, many who recovered when they reached home, and numbers of these were not permanently lost to the service, but the after effects of climate are too well known to need a reference here. We had a sad experience after the Ashanti War, for I remember men being invalided and discharged two years after we had returned home, entirely owing to the germs of disease gathered on the Gold Coast.
But let us turn from this somewhat depressing subject, and go back to Suakin itself and its surroundings. There is one thing I omitted in dealing with the climate of Suakin, and that is the rainy season. They generally count upon rain during November or December, but the heaviest rain does not last more than about two days, when it comes down in real earnest and true tropical fashion, and in a way quite foreign to all but those who have experienced it. This one great downpour is followed by showers, which occur now and then, but by no means frequently. The climate is not unhealthy during this season, as it is in so many places during the rains. The temperature is highest during the month of August, and the highest point reached by the thermometer last year was 125° Fahr. in the shade; this was on the 20th of August. The official record of the temperature kept by the Royal Engineers on Quarantine Island gives the mean temperature during August last as follows; maximum 116'10°, and minimum 90'70°. On looking through these returns I found that in this month there were six days when the temperature was over 120° and thirteen on which it was over 116°, while there were only two on which the maximum temperature was below 100°, and on both these the thermometer stood at 99°. After the middle of September the temperature became slightly lower, but there did not appear to be very much difference between the two months. 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 all wear gold ornaments in their noses and ears. Certainly the operators, who made the holes in their noses to support these ornaments had no qualms about the destruction of beauty, for if they had bored them with an augur they could not have been more roughly done. Some of the women I saw, and who were not troubled with any superfluous clothing, had their hair done in curious fashion; the commonest way, though, appeared to be to wear it in a great number of veiy thin, straight twists, about as thick as an ordinary pencil. These twists were about six inches in length, and each one preserved in a thick plastering of grease. The men's heads were much more curious, though; I noticed some who wore the hair frizzed till it stood out fully six or eight inches on either side of their heads. This extraordinaiy thick growth, half hair half wool, was then parted over each ear and round to the back of the head, the hair below the parting being brushed downwards and outwards, and that above the parting upwards. A long wooden pin or thin stick was run through the top part of this erection, and the effect was complete. The Arab boys had their heads shaved with the exception of one tuft of hair, which was allowed to grow long, and this tuft was generally on the side and towards the back of the head, and gave them a very rakish appearance. Many of these little chaps are really nice-looking, with cheery faces and bright sparkling eyes. Their cheeks are almost always ornamented with three long slashes on each side, done with some sharp instrument when they are very young. I saw one or two little girls of twelve or fourteen years of age who were far prettier than I ever thought it was possible for blacks to be. 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.
Most people now know Osman Digna's history, but for those who do not it may be as well to give a short sketch of his antecedents. This person, then, was born at Kouen, and is the son of French parents, his family name being Vinet He was called after his father, George, and began his education at Rouen, but after a while was moved to Paris. A few years after this his parents went over to Alexandria in connection with some matter of business, and shortly afterwards his father died there. His mother then married a merchant of Alexandria, Osman Digna by name. This man took a great fancy to his step-son, young George Vinet, and brought him up as a Mohammedan, sending him to complete his education to the military school at Cairo, where he had for his companion Arabi. Here he studied tactics and the operations of war under French officers. It was at this period that his father-in-law migrated to Suakin, where he set up as a general merchant and slave-dealer, and very shortly was doing a very lucrative business. At his father-in-law's death George Vinet continued to carry on the business under the same name. A few years passed, and when the war broke out in Egypt, in 1882, Osman Digna espoused the cause of his old friend and companion, Arabi, and became one of England's bitterest foes as the Mahdi's lieutenant. In appearance Osman Digna is a fine-looking man, tall and well-proportioned, though rather fat. He wears a long black beard, and has lost his left arm. He never gets on a horse, and in the few engagements in which he has thought fit to risk his valuable life he has always been present on foot. As for the Mahdi, the prime cause of all the misery and bloodshed of the past four years, he is, I believe, the son of a carpenter, and a native of Dongola. His proper name is Mohammed Ahmed, and he was born about thirty-seven years ago, and is much the same age as his lieutenant. In 1870 he went to live at the island of Abba, where he gained a great reputation for sanctity, and gradually collected a great number of holy men or dervishes around him. His subsequent actions are now a part of the history of the last five years of bloodshed, and call for no recapitulation here. How long he may be able to retain his position as the true prophet is a matter of doubt, but it is to be hoped that the poor deluded Arabs may be shown the folly of being carried away by the professions of a man whose sole aim is self-advancement, and who is ready to sacrifice everything, his religion included, for the attainment of this one end.
The Mohammedan religion appears to present peculiar attractions to the native tribes in Central Africa, and the false prophet is indebted for the number of his recruits to the enthusiasm of the converts to Mohammedanism, with whom the idea of the regeneration of Islam by force of arms is amazingly popular. The teachings of the Mahdi may be summed up as follows: universal law, religion, and equality; destruction of all who refuse to believe in his mission, whether they be Christians, Mohammedans, or pagans. The causes of the rebellion have been ascribed to the unjustness and venality of the Egyptian officials, the suppression of the slave-trade, and the military weakness of Egypt
It was noon before we were safely piloted through the treacherous inner reefs, some of which run out only two or three feet below the surface. The channel had been buoyed out by the sailors, and an officer came off to bring our ship in. We eventually made fast to shore half-way up the channel leading to the inner harbour, and right abreast of the English cemetery, which consists of a straight line of about thirty or forty graves, each with a cross at the head, some made of rough pieces of wood, and some of iron. Almost all are ornamented with a border of rough stones round them. This burial-ground is only about thirty yards from the water's edge, and is not at present enclosed in any way. Since we have been here there have been men at work perpetually digging graves at the rate of two or three a day, so that there might always be several ready. Whenever it has been practicable we have always brought in our dead and buried them here; the officers being for the most part buried in coffins, the men in their blankets. There are one or two of the common mimosa bushes among the graves, otherwise there is no vegetation of any sort, and nothing but the dry, hot sand of the desert
We were all hoping we should be disembarked that afternoon; but orders were sent off to say that this was to be postponed till the following morning at daybreak. Some of us, therefore, determined to try and get a boat and go ashore, but it was with difficulty we did so, as boats are scarce at Suakin. It does not seem to have occurred to the native mind that a large fortune might be made plying this trade. I should be very sorry, however, to trust myself in one of their very narrow canoes, which are of the type one used to read of as a boy in Fenimore Cooper's novels—mere long logs of wood hollowed out and sharpened bow and stem. The dexterity with which they handle these frail craft is marvellous, and they go along at a great rate, with the water very often within an inch of coming over the side.
Our first object on landing was to find the post-office, and such a post-office it turned out to be—four walls and a flat roof, the floor of sand, the furniture a very rickety table, apparently made out of old biscuit-boxes. On this table and on the floor lay a pile of letters and newspapers a foot and a half high. We routed among these for some time without much result, so contented ourselves by handing to an Egyptian boy, who appeared to be in sole charge as the local postmaster-general, the letters we had brought ashore to post, feeling that they had a very poor chance of ever getting to their destination. On our way back to the wharf we passed a row of about fifty Arabs, all sitting in the same position, with their backs against a white wall. This being my first introduction to black and withal naked people, the contrast of their black skins against the white wall struck me as very funny as they sat in a long row in solemn and perfect silence, staring at us as we passed.
It is a curious thing how many ways there seem to be of spelling the name of this place. One sees "Suakin," "Suakim," "Souakin," "Sawakin," and many others; but I believe, if one wished to be absolutely correct, the proper way is "Savagin," with the "g" pronounced hard, as in the word "begin." The Arabs have a legend about the place, and the story they tell you is as follows:—"Many hundred years ago a prince came from the north bent on some warlike enterprise, and, according to the custom of that day, he carried with him his women. Among them were seven virgins, who, before he commenced his further advance, he placed for safety on the island on which the town of Suakin now stands. Many months after the prince returned to find his seven virgins the mothers of seven children. No explanation being forthcoming he christened the place 'Savagin' (sava, with, and gin, a fiend or devil), literally, 'the place of the devil'"
I can only assure my reader that we found the literal translation of "Savagin" to agree perfectly in our minds with the opinion we very shortly formed of the place.