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.
