At the same time I found that
the governor-general had just prepared a squadron of eleven vessels,
with several companies of regular troops, for an expedition to the Bahr
Gazal, where it was intended to form a settlement at the copper-mines on
the frontier of Darfur. This expedition had been placed under the
command of one of the most notorious ruffians and slave-hunters of the
White Nile. This man, Kutchuk Ali, originally of low extraction, had
made a fortune in his abominable traffic, and had accordingly received
promotion from the governor; thus, at the same time that the Khedive of
Egypt had employed me to suppress the slave trade of the Nile, a
government expedition had been intrusted to the command of one of the
most notorious slave-hunters.
I at once perceived that not only was my expedition unpopular, but that
it would be seriously opposed by all parties. The troops had been
quartered for some months at Khartoum; during this time the officers had
been intimate with the principal slave-traders of the country. All were
Mohammedans - thus a coalition would be natural against a Christian who
commanded an expedition avowedly to annihilate the slave trade upon
which Khartoum subsisted.
It was a "house divided against itself;" the Khedive in the north issued
orders that would be neutralized in the distant south by his own
authorities.
As in the United States of America the opinion of the South upon the
question of emancipation was opposed to that of the North, - the
opposition in Soudan was openly avowed to the reform believed to have
been suggested to the Khedive by England.
The season was already far advanced. There is no weapon so fatal as
delay in the hands of Egyptians. I knew the intentions of the
authorities were to procrastinate until the departure of the expedition
would become impossible. It was necessary to insist upon the immediate
purchase of vessels which should have been prepared months before.
None of the steamers from Cairo had passed the cataracts. The fifteen
large sloops upon which I had depended for the transport of camels had
actually given up the attempt and returned to Cairo. Only the smaller
vessels had mounted the cataracts, and they could not arrive at Khartoum
for some months.
The first division, consisting of all merchandise that I had sent from
Cairo, had arrived in Khartoum under the charge of a Syrian to whom I
had given the command. I heard that Mr. Higginbotham, accompanied by Dr.
Gedge and the English party, together with all the Egyptian mechanics,
was on his way across the desert in charge of the steamers and
machinery, carried by some thousand camels.
