On 8th June we steamed along, towards the tall masts and yards of the
three vessels which we perceived upon the horizon.
The intricacies of the narrow channel were such that we did not overtake
the slavers until sunset.
We then anchored for the night in a lake, while I sent a boat forward
into the canal occupied by the three vessels to order the vakeel of the
company to visit me immediately.
In a short time the boat returned with my old acquaintance Wat Hojoly,
the vakeel of the Bohr station belonging to Abou Saood.
I had always liked this man, as he was generally straightforward in his
manner. He now told me, without the slightest reserve, that during my
absence in the south, several cargoes of slaves had passed the
government station at Fashoda by bribing the governor; and that he would
certainly have no difficulty, provided that I did not seize him. He
confessed that he had 700 slaves on board the three vessels, and
according to orders that he had received from his master, Abou Saood, he
was conveying them to their destination, a few days south of Khartoum,
on the White Nile; at which point they could either march overland to
the west via Kordofan, or to the east via Sennaar; whence they could
pass unmolested to the Red Sea or to other markets.
The small-pox had broken out among the slaves, several of whom had died.
I was most thoroughly disgusted and sick at heart. After all the trouble
and difficulties that we had gone through for the suppression of the
slave trade, there could be no question of the fact that Abou Saood, the
great slave-hunter of the White Nile, was supported by some high
authority behind the scenes, upon whom he could depend for protection.
This was apparently the last act of the drama, in which the villain of
the piece could mock and scoff at justice, and ridicule every effort
that I had made to suppress the slave trade. His vessels were actually
sailing in triumph and defiance before the wind, with flags flying the
crescent and the star, above a horrible cargo of pest-smitten humanity,
in open contempt for my authority; which Wat Hojoly had been carefully
informed did not extend north of Gondokoro.
I asked this plain-spoken agent whether he was quite sure that he could
pass the government station? "Oh yes," he replied, "a little backsheesh
will open the road; there is nothing to fear."
I was then informed by the same authority that Abou Saood had gone to
Cairo to appeal to the Khedive's government against my proceedings, and
to represent his TRADE as ruined by my acts.
This was a remarkable disclosure at the end of the last act; the moral
of the piece was thus explained before the curtain fell.
