An attack or razzia, such as described, generally leads to a quarrel
with the negro ally, who in his turn is murdered and plundered by the
trader - his women and children naturally becoming slaves.
A good season for a party of a hundred and fifty men should produce
about two hundred cantars (20,000 lbs.) of ivory, valued at Khartoum at
4,000 pounds. The men being paid in slaves, the wages should be NIL, and
there should be a surplus of four or five hundred slaves for the
trader's own profit - worth on an average five to six pounds each.
The amiable trader returns from the White Nile to Khartoum; hands over
to his creditor sufficient ivory to liquidate the original loan of 1,000
pounds, and, already a man of capital, he commences as an independent
trader.
Such was the White Nile trade when I prepared to start from Khartoum on
my expedition to the Nile sources. Every one in Khartoum, with the
exception of a few Europeans, was in favor of the slave-trade, and
looked with jealous eyes upon a stranger venturing within the precincts
of their holy land - a land sacred to slavery and to every abomination
and villainy that man can commit.
The Turkish officials pretended to discountenance slavery; at the same
time every house in Khartoum was full of slaves, and the Egyptian
officers had been in the habit of receiving a portion of their pay in
slaves, precisely as the men employed on tile White Nile were paid by
their employers. The Egyptian authorities looked upon the exploration of
the White Nile by a European traveller as an infringement of the slave
territory that resulted from espionage, and every obstacle was thrown in
my way.
To organize an enterprise so difficult that it had hitherto defeated the
whole world, required a careful selection of attendants, and I looked
with despair at the prospect before me. The only men procurable for
escort were the miserable cut-throats of Khartoum, accustomed to murder
and pillage in the White Nile trade, and excited not by the love of
adventure, but by the desire for plunder. To start with such men
appeared mere insanity.
There was a still greater difficulty in connection with the White Nile.
For years the infernal traffic in slaves and its attendant horrors had
existed like a pestilence in the negro countries, and had so exasperated
the tribes that people who in former times were friendly had become
hostile to all comers. An exploration to the Nile sources was thus a
march through an enemy's country, and required a powerful force of
well-armed men. For the traders there was no great difficulty, as they
took the initiative in hostilities, and had fixed camps as "points
d'appui;" but for an explorer there was no alternative, but he must make
a direct forward march with no communications with the rear.
