None
of the slave-traders had any intelligence of my station at Tewfikeeyah.
The people of Kutchuk Ali, on the Bahr Giraffe, were under the
impression that we had returned direct to Khartoum. I was rather curious
to know whether they would presume to send slaves down the White Nile
during this season, knowing that the Khedive had sent me expressly to
suppress the trade. I could not believe that the Koordi governor of
Fashoda would have the audacity to allow the free passage of slave
vessels after the stringent orders that had been given. Although I had
heard that this governor had amassed a considerable fortune by the
establishment of a toll per head for every slave that passed Fashoda, I
imagined that he would this year make up his mind that the rich harvest
was over.
If any vessels should attempt to descend with slave cargoes, they must
pass my new station, of which they were ignorant, and the fact would
prove the complicity of the governor of Fashoda, as it would
substantiate all the reports that I had heard concerning his connivance
with the slave-traders. The strange sail now reported was rapidly
approaching on her route to Khartoum, without the slightest suspicion
that a large military station was established within four miles of the
Sobat junction. If guilty, she was thus approaching the jaws of the
lion.
As she neared the station, she must have discovered the long row of
masts and yards of the fleet moored alongside the quay. Of these she
appeared to take no notice, and keeping well in the middle of the river,
she would have passed the station, and continued on her voyage. This
looked very suspicious, and I at once sent a boat to order her to halt.
When she was brought alongside, I sent my trusty aide-de-camp, Colonel
Abd-el-Kader, on board to make the necessary inquiries. She was quite
innocent. The captain and the vakeel (agent and commander of station)
were amazed at my thinking it necessary to search their vessel. She had
a quantity of corn on board, stowed in bulk. There was not a person
beside the crew and a few soldiers from Kutchuk Ali's station.
The vakeel was the same whom I had seen at the station at the Bahr
Giraffe, to whom I had given advice that he should not attempt to send
slaves down the river again. All was in order. The vessel belonged to
Kutchuk Ali, who now commanded the government expedition sent by
Djiaffer Pacha to the Bahr Gazal. She was laden with ivory beneath the
corn, which was for the supply of the crew and soldiers.
Colonel Abd-el-Kader was an excellent officer; he was one of the
exceptions who took a great interest in the expedition, and he always
served me faithfully.
