All Merchandise Both
To And From The Soudan Must Be Transported Upon Camels, No Other Animals
Being Adapted To The Deserts.
The cataracts of the Nile between Assouan
and Khartoum rendering the navigation next to impossible, camels are the
only medium of transport, and the uncertainty of procuring them without
great delay is the trader's greatest difficulty.
The entire country is
subject to droughts that occasion a total desolation, and the want of
pasture entails starvation upon both cattle and camels, rendering it at
certain seasons impossible to transport the productions of the country,
and thus stagnating all enterprise. Upon existing conditions the Soudan
is worthless, having neither natural capabilities nor political
importance; but there is, nevertheless, a reason that first prompted its
occupation by the Egyptians, and that is, THE SOUDAN SUPPLIES SLAVES.
Without the White Nile trade Khartoum* would almost cease to exist; (*
This was written about twenty years ago, and does not apply to the
Khartoum of to-day. In 1869 The Khedive of Egypt despatched an
expedition under Sir Samuel Baker to suppress slavery in the Soudan and
Central Africa. To the success of that expedition, and to the efforts of
Colonel (now General) Gordon, who succeeded to the command of the
Soudan, was owing the suppression of the traffic in slaves. Within the
last few weeks, under the stress of circumstances, General Gordon has
been forced to promise the removal of this prohibition of slavery. - E.
J. W.) and that trade is kidnapping and murder. The character of the
Khartoumers needs no further comment. The amount of ivory brought down
from the White Nile is a mere bagatelle as an export, the annual value
being about 40,000 pounds.
The people for the most part enraged in the nefarious traffic of the
White Nile are Syrians, Copts, Turks, Circassians, and some few
EUROPEANS. So closely connected with the difficulties of my expedition
is that accursed slave-trade, that the so-called ivory trade of the
White Nile requires an explanation.
Throughout the Soudan money is exceedingly scarce and the rate of
interest exorbitant, varying, according to the securities, from
thirty-six to eighty per cent. This fact proves general poverty and
dishonesty, and acts as a preventive to all improvement. So high and
fatal a rate deters all honest enterprise, and the country must lie in
ruin under such a system. The wild speculator borrows upon such terms,
to rise suddenly like a rocket, or to fall like its exhausted stick.
Thus, honest enterprise being impossible, dishonesty takes the lead, and
a successful expedition to the White Nile is supposed to overcome all
charges. There are two classes of White Nile traders, the one possessing
capital, the other being penniless adventurers. The same system of
operations is pursued by both, but that of the former will be evident
from the description of the latter.
A man without means forms an expedition, and borrows money for this
purpose at 100 per cent. after this fashion: he agrees to repay the
lender in ivory at one-half its market value.
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