Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Communication With the Egyptian Soudan by the Congo: In a Letter to the Postmaster General
Having had much experience in river navigation in India, I beg respectfully to offer for your consideration some thoughts on the subject of the Upper Congo. The important debate on the 8rd instant, left one vital point in the subject of that river untouched; as, of course, it is absolutely necessary in these debates, to keep within some bounds. Mr. Jacob Bright's ad mirable speech probably dealt necessarily with the first point only, viz., the question of the mouth of the river. I cannot express my sense of the masterly way in which he broached the subject and especially in bringing out, in plain unqualified language, the great essential point, the curse that Portugal has been to every tract that she has touched with her finger. Her in?uence has been for evil, and evil only, whether in respect of slavery, trade, missions, or civilization. There can be but one single point to be kept in view in respect of her, and that is, to confine within the smallest possible limits her Opportunity of doing mischief. England must insist upon one thing only, that she shall not exercise her poisonous in?uence over one additional square mile beyond what she now actually holds. But having thus opened the mouth of the Congo absolutely for ever, We are at liberty to extend our thoughts to the interior. I look upon the descent of the river as the greatest exploit ever accomplished by a traveller, and hold Mr. Stanley thereby to have shewn himself the very first of explorers; and certainly what he has done has opened the way for an extent of good that no words can measure. How wonderful it is to consider this great discovery in the light which is thrown upon it by the last and greatest addition to the British Empire. I consider the establishment of British sole authority in Egypt as incomparably the greatest political event that has happened in my long life, planting at the centre of the earth the ?ag of thatnation which it has pleased God to place at the head of the World, exerting a commanding in?uence throughout the earth. Round that grand centre all the leading events of times past have been arranged, and around that centre the great future events, we know from God's word, will also be arranged. This river gives us direct access by ocean and inland water carriage, at a cost which brings everything required within range, to the southern extremity of the Egyptian territory, as the Med iterranean and Red Sea do to the north. Perhaps the Soudan is at present the greatest difficulty in the Whole Egyptian question. The distance between Cairo and the advanced southern post on the Uelle river, in lat. N and long. 27 E., is 1800 miles in a direct line, and the various difficulties of every possible sort, on the line, cut off the frontier so effectually from the seat of government, that, as it is evident, the authorities are at their wit's end how to reduce the Soudan to a state worthy of a civilized government. This difficulty is surely completely met by the access offered by the Congo, and it seems certainly? As if it would. Go far to remove all the obstacles to an effective settlement of that vast province, the Egyptian Soudan. For instance, the moment the news reached the insurgents that a handful of troops with ammunition, &c., had been landed in -their rear, it would go far to paralyse all their plans. I am, however, by no means certain. That the Nile cannot be navigated by suitable. Boats, to near Lake Albert All that I have heard on the subject of the petty rapids, as Gordon Pashaw calls them, leaves me in doubt whether, if an Indian engineer, experienced in shallow river navigation, is sent to Egypt, he would not be able to provide boats that would run up these' rapids. Many clumsy steamers, not calculated for river navigation, have already been sent up to Khartoum.
