Travels in Kordofan : $b Embracing a description of that province of Egypt, and of some of the bordering countries, with a review of the present state of the commerce in those countries, of the habits and customs of the inhabitants, as also an account of the slave hunts taking place under the government of Mehemed AliPallme, Ignaz
History
Travels in Kordofan : $b Embracing a description of that province of Egypt, and of some of the bordering countries, with a review of the present state of the commerce in those countries, of the habits and customs of the inhabitants, as also an account of the slave hunts taking place under the government of Mehemed Ali
Pallme, Ignaz
Kordofan (Sudan : Province) -- Description and travel; Nile River; Sudan -- Description and travel
people receive no indemnification. The interests of the separate
functionaries are, moreover, too closely united for the one to
place any impediment in the way of the other. The judges are bribed,
and a mere deposition, or loss of office, generally terminates the
affair. When the detected fraud is, however, too flagitious, the
criminated officer is immediately sent into a distant province, and
then prosecuted, in order that he may have no opportunity of coming
to an understanding with his judges, or accusers. In this case he
is certainly lost; but the state confiscates the proceeds of his
rapacity, and his successor plunders and extorts again, as much as
he possibly can, as long as he can manage to keep his actions secret.
An additional, and chief grievance, is the circumstance of the
Viceroy being obliged to treat the governors with the utmost lenity
and forbearance; for he knows full well how dangerous it would be to
irritate them, and thus, perhaps, to goad them on to rebellion. In
one moment the whole Belled Soodan would be lost, and not so easily
regained. The troops of the garrison consist of native negroes,
who implicitly obey those who give them the most, or merely make
them the largest promises, and who more especially treat them with
kindness. The country in general detests the Viceroy, believing him
to be the cause of all the oppression under which it groans, as it
considers all the acts of injustice, under which it has to suffer,
to be perpetrated by his orders. In case of a governor, therefore,
rebelling against the government, the whole province would instantly
attach itself to his faction, if he merely released them of a portion
of their taxation. To re-conquer the country by force of arms would
be a more difficult matter than it was twenty years ago; we know what
resistance the negroes of Kordofan and Sennaar offered the Turks,
when armed with spears and swords only; and at present, there are
15,000 muskets in the arsenal at Khartoom, which would give the
insurgents no small advantage. Mehemed Ali knows all this very well,
and acts very wisely in conciliating the governors: the authority
of the latter is, therefore, virtually far greater than that of
the Viceroy, and most wofully do they use it to their advantage;
for, with few exceptions, they exert unlimited power, are masters
over life and death, as also over the property of the people. A
code of laws has certainly been instituted, but these are totally
disregarded, and in every case will is law. Judgment is sometimes
even passed according to the whim or fancy of the individual in
the most unjustifiable manner. During my residence in this country,
I had the opportunity of convincing myself of this fact.
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