By this swindle, the government would
be cheated out of the share of two-fifths of the ivory which belonged to
them by contract with Agad & Co.
Abou Saood having personally witnessed the departure of the troops to
Khartoum, considered his game as won, and that the expedition, now
reduced to only 502 officers and men, would be compelled to centralize
at Gondokoro, without the possibility of penetrating the interior. He
had thus started for his stations in the distant south, where he
intended to incite the natives against the government, to prevent me
from following out my plans with the small force at my disposal.
This was the first time in the career of Abou Saood that he had ever
travelled inland. He had for many years been in the habit of arriving at
Gondokoro from Khartoum with the annual vessels from Agad & Co.,
bringing new levies of brigands together with fresh supplies of arms and
ammunition. He then remained at Gondokoro for several weeks, and
received the ivory and slaves collected from his various stations in the
interior with which he returned to Khartoum.
The necessity of the occasion induced him to use much personal activity.
Knowing well the date when my term of service would expire, he had only
one object, in which he had already nearly succeeded, - this was to
prevent the possibility of my advance within the given period.
