Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1887 — Khartoum. [ARTICLE]

Khartoum.

Khartoum is a city numbering between fifty and sixty thousand people. Several European consuls reside there. The American consul Azar . Abd-el-Melek is a Christian Copt from Esneh, and one of the principal merchants. The European colony is small and continually changing; for Khartoum is a perfect grave-yard for Europeans, and in the rainy season for natives also, the mortality averaging then from thirty to forty per day, which implies three thousand to four thousand for the season. Khartoum is the commercial center of Soudan trade, amounting altogether to sixty-five million dollars a year, nnd carried on by one thousand European and three thousand Egyptian commercial houses. Drafts and bills of exchange upon Khartoum are as gold in Cairo and Alexandria, and vice versa. F rom official sources 1 learned that the city contained three thousand and sixty houses, many of them twostoried, each having from ten to one hundred and fifty occupants. Stone and lime are found in abundance, and the buildings are, after a fashion, substantial, the houses belonging to rich merchants being very spacious and comfortable. There are large bazars, in which is found a much greater variety of European and Asiatic goods than would be expected in such distant regions. In the spacious mar-ket-place a brisk trade is carried on in cattle, horses, camels, asses, and sheep, as well as grain, fruits, and other agricultural produce. Many years ago an Austrian Roman Catholic mission was established and liberally supported by the Emperor of Austria, and by contributions from the entire Catholic world. Ft occupies a large parallelogram, surrounded by a solid wall. Within this inclosure, in beautiful gardens of palm, fig, pomegranate, orange, and banana, stand a massive cathedral, a hospital, and other substantial buildings. Before the people of Egypt and the Soudan had been irritated by foreign interference, such was their toleration and good temper that the priests and nuns, in their distinctive costumes, were always safe from molestation, not only in Khartoum, but evem at El Obeid and the neighborhood, where the majority are Mussulmans and the rest heathens.