It was the trader and lessee, Achmet Sheik Agad, who had
applied to Mr. Higginbotham as a mediator, and he stated clearly a case
of great hardship. He had paid annually about 3000L for the sole right
of trading. Thus, if he paid rent for a monopoly of the ivory, and the
government then started as traders in ivory in the country leased to
him, he would be in the same position as a man who rented a cow at a
fixed sum per week, but the owner, nevertheless, insisted upon a right
to her milk.
It would be a hard case upon the traders at any rate, even should they
trade with equal rights to the government.
There was no actual bartering of merchandise for ivory, neither was any
merchandise shipped from Khartoum, except that required as clothing for
the people who belonged to the slave-hunters' companies. If an honest,
legitimate trade were commenced by the government, and law and order
thoroughly established, it would become impossible for the slave hunters
to exist in the White Nile districts. Their so-called trade consisted in
harrying one country to procure cattle and slaves, which they exchanged
for ivory in other districts. If a government were established, such
razzias must cease at once - and the Khartoum traders would be without an
occupation.
I had originally proposed that the districts of the White Nile south of
latitude 14 degrees N. should be placed under my command; this, for some
unexplained reason, was reduced to latitude 5 degrees N., thus leaving
the whole navigable river free from Gondokoro to Khartoum, unless I
should assume the responsibility of liberating slaves and seizing the
slavers wherever I might find them. This power I at once assumed and
exercised, although I purposely avoided landing and visiting the
slave-hunters' stations that were not within my jurisdiction. I regarded
the river as we regard the high seas.
It was clearly contrary to all ideas of equity that the government
should purchase ivory in countries that had been leased to the traders.
I was therefore compelled to investigate the matter with the assistance
of Djiaffer Pacha, who had made the contract in the name of the
government. It was then explained that the entire White Nile was rented
by the traders. The government had assumed the right and monopoly of the
river, and in fact of any part of Africa that could be reached, south of
Khartoum; thus no trader was permitted to establish himself, or even to
start from Khartoum for the interior, until he should have obtained a
lease from the government. If Central Africa had been already annexed,
and the Egyptian government had been established throughout the country,
I should not have complained; but I now found that my mission from the
Khedive placed me within "a house divided against itself." I was to
annex a country that was already leased out by the government.
My task was to suppress the slave trade, when the Khartoum authorities
well knew that their tenants were slave-hunters; to establish legitimate
commerce where the monopoly of trade had already been leased to traders;
and to build up a government upon sound and just principles, that must
of necessity ruin the slave-hunting and ivory-collecting parties of
Khartoum.
It was easy to conceive that my mission was regarded as fatal to the
interests of the Soudan. Although the actual wording of the contracts
was pure, and the lessees bound themselves to abstain from
slave-hunting, and to behave in a becoming manner, it was thoroughly
understood that they were simply to pay a good round sum per annum
punctually, and that no questions would be asked. There were no
authorities of the government in those distant countries, neither
consular agents to send home unpleasant reports; thus, when fairly away
from all restraint, the traders could act as they pleased. It appears
hardly credible that although the wording of the contracts was almost
holy, no examination of the vessels was made before their departure from
Khartoum. Had the Soudan government been sincere in a determination to
lease out the White Nile for the purpose of benefiting the country by
the establishment of legitimate commerce, surely the authorities would
have convinced themselves that the traders' vessels contained cargoes of
suitable merchandise, instead of being loaded with ammunition, and
manned by bands of armed pirates.
If the owner of a pack of wolves were to send them on a commission to
gather wool from a flock of sheep, with the simple protection of such
parting advice as "Begone, good wolves, behave yourselves like lambs,
and do not hurt the mutton!" the proprietor of the pack would be held
responsible for the acts of his wolves. This was the situation in the
Soudan. The entire country was leased out to piratical slave-hunters,
under the name of traders, by the Khartoum government; and although the
rent, in the shape of large sums of money, had been received for years
into the treasury of the Soudan, my expedition was to explode like a
shell among the traders, and would at once annihilate the trade. I now
understood the reason for the alteration in my proposed territorial
limit from the 14 degrees N. lat. to the 5 degrees. Khartoum is in lat.
15 degrees 35' N. Gondokoro is N. lat. 4 degrees 54', thus, if my
jurisdiction should be reduced to the south of Gondokoro, the usual
traffic of the White Nile might continue in the north during my absence
in the south, and the original contracts would be undisturbed.
