Trade of the White Nile, and the natives would
in a few years be restored to confidence.
So long as the so-called traders of Khartoum should be permitted to
establish themselves as independent piratical societies in the Nile
Basin, the slave trade would continue, and the road through Darfur and
Kordofan would be adopted in place of the tabooed White Nile.
Should the White Nile companies be totally disbanded, the people now
engaged must return to their original agricultural pursuits in the
Soudan, and their labour would tend to an increase of the revenue, and
to the general prosperity of the country.
I have already published so much on the subject of the slave trade in
"The Albert N'yanza," that I fear to repeat what I have before so
forcibly expressed. I have never changed my original opinions on this
question, and I can only refer the public to page 313, vol. ii., of that
work, whence I take the following extract: - "Stop the White Nile trade;
prohibit the departure of any vessels from Khartoum to the south, and
let the Egyptian government grant a concession to a company for the
White Nile, subject to certain conditions, and to a special supervision
. . . .
. . . "Should the slave trade be suppressed, there will be a, good
opening for the ivory trade; the conflicting trading parties being
withdrawn, and the interest of the trade exhibited by a single company,
the natives would no longer be able to barter ivory for cattle; thus
they would be forced to accept other goods in exchange.
