The break-up of the White Nile slave-trade
involved the depression of trade in Khartoum, as the market had supplied
the large bands of slave-hunters. The ivory of the numerous adventurers
still remained in the White Nile stations, as they feared confiscation
should their vessels be captured with the ever accompanying slave cargo.
Thus little ivory arrived at Khartoum to meet the debts of the traders
to the merchants in Cairo and Alexandria. These owed Manchester and
Liverpool for calicoes supplied, which had been forwarded to the Soudan.
The direct blow at the White Nile slave-trade was an indirect attack
upon the commerce of the country, which was inseparably connected with
the demand of the Soudan employers of brigands.
This slight outline of the situation will exhibit the difficulties of
the Khedive in his thankless and Herculean task of cleansing the Augean
stables. He incurred the wrath of general discontent; his own officials
accused him of deserting the Mahommedan cause for the sake of European
Kudos, and while he sacrificed his popularity in Egypt, his policy was
misconstrued by the powers he had sought to gratify. He was accused of
civilizing "through the medium of fire and sword" by the same English
journals which are now extolling the prowess of the British arms in
Caffraria and the newly-annexed Transvaal!
In this equivocal position it would have been natural either to have
abandoned the enterprise at the termination of my own engagement, or to
have placed a Mahommedan officer in charge of the new provinces. Instead
of this, His Highness adhered most strictly to his original
determination, and to prove his sincerity he entrusted the command to an
English officer of high reputation, not only for military capacity, but
for a peculiar attribute of self-sacrifice and devotion. Colonel C. E.
Gordon, R.E., C.B., was appointed Governor-General of the Soudan and
equatorial districts, with supreme power.
This appointment extinguished the delusions which had been nourished by
the Soudan authorities, "that at the expiration of Baker Pacha's rule
the good old times of slavery and lawlessness would return." There was
no longer any hope; the slave-trade was suppressed, and the foundation
was laid for the introduction of European ideas and civilization. It
will now be interesting to trace an outline of the advance of Egypt
during the last five years.
The main difficulty in my original enterprise was the obstruction of the
White Nile by the accumulation of matted vegetation, which impeded
navigation, and actually closed the river. Upon arrival at Gondokoro,
after the tedious process of cutting through 50 miles of swamp and
vegetable matter, via the Bahr Giraffe, I had requested the
Khedive to issue an order that the Governor of Khartoum should
immediately commence the great work of re-opening the White Nile.
