Presently we saw the Turkish flag emerge from Gondokoro at
about a quarter of a mile distant, followed by a number of the traders'
people, who waited to receive us. On our arrival, they immediately
approached and fired salutes with ball cartridge, as usual advancing
close to us and discharging their guns into the ground at our feet. One
of my servants, Mahomet, was riding an ox, and an old friend of his in
the crowd happening to recognise him, immediately advanced, and saluted
him by firing his gun into the earth directly beneath the belly of the
ox he was riding; - the effect produced made the crowd and ourselves
explode with laughter. The nervous ox, terrified at the sudden discharge
between his legs, gave a tremendous kick, and continued madly kicking
and plunging, until Mahomet was pitched over his head and lay sprawling
on the ground; - this scene terminated the expedition.
Dismounting from our tired oxen, our first inquiry was concerning boats
and letters. What was the reply? Neither boats, letters, supplies, nor
any intelligence of friends or the civilized world! We had long since
been given up as dead by the inhabitants of Khartoum, and by all those
who understood the difficulties and dangers of the country. We were told
that some people had suggested that we might possibly have gone to
Zanzibar, but the general opinion was that we had all been killed. At
this cold and barren reply, I felt almost choked. We had looked forward
to arriving at Gondokoro as to a home; we had expected that a boat would
have been sent on the chance of finding us, as I had left money in the
hands of an agent in Khartoum - but there was literally nothing to
receive us, and we were helpless to return. We had worked for years in
misery, such as I have but faintly described, to overcome the
difficulties of this hitherto unconquerable exploration; we had
succeeded - and what was the result? Not even a letter from home to
welcome us if alive! As I sat beneath a tree and looked down upon the
glorious Nile that flowed a few yards beneath my feet, I pondered upon
the value of my toil. I had traced the river to its great Albert source,
and as the mighty stream glided before me, the mystery that had ever
shrouded its origin was dissolved. I no longer looked upon its waters
with a feeling approaching to awe for I knew its home, and had visited
its cradle. Had I overrated the importance of the discovery? and had I
wasted some of the best years of my life to obtain a shadow? I recalled
to recollection the practical question of Commoro, the chief of Latooka,
- "Suppose you get to the great lake, what will you do with it? What
will be the good of it? If you find that the large river does flow from
it, what then?"
CHAPTER XVIII.
THE LATEST NEWS FROM KHARTOUM.
The various trading parties were assembled in Gondokoro with a total of
about three thousand slaves; but there was consternation depicted upon
every countenance. Only three boats had arrived from Khartoum - one
diahbiah and two noggurs - these belonged to Koorshid Aga. The resume of
news from Khartoum was as follows: -
"Orders had been received by the Egyptian authorities from the European
Governments to suppress the slave-trade. Four steamers had arrived at
Khartoum from Cairo. Two of these vessels had ascended the White Nile,
and had captured many slavers; their crews were imprisoned, and had been
subjected to the bastinado and torture; - the captured slaves had been
appropriated by the Egyptian authorities.
"It would be impossible to deliver slaves to the Soudan this season, as
an Egyptian regiment had been stationed in the Shillook country, and
steamers were cruising to intercept the boats from the interior in their
descent to Khartoum; - thus the army of slaves then at Gondokoro would
be utterly worthless.
"The plague was raging at Khartoum, and had killed 15,000 people; - many
of the boats' crews had died on their passage from Khartoum to Gondokoro
of this disease, which had even broken out in the station where we then
were: people died daily.
"The White Nile was dammed up by a freak of nature, and the crews of
thirty vessels had been occupied five weeks in cutting a ditch through
the obstruction, wide enough to admit the passage of boats."
Such was the intelligence received by the latest arrival from Khartoum.
No boats having been sent for me, I engaged the diahbiah that had
arrived for Koorshid's ivory; - this would return empty, as no ivory
could be delivered at Gondokoro. The prospect was pleasant, as many men
had died of the plague on board our vessel during the voyage from
Khartoum; thus we should be subject to a visitation of this fearful
complaint as a wind-up to the difficulties we had passed through during
our long exile in Central Africa. I ordered the vessel to be thoroughly
scrubbed with boiling water and sand, after which it was fumigated with
several pounds of tobacco, burnt within the cabin.
Three days were employed in ferrying the slaves across the river in the
two noggurs, or barges, as they must be returned to their respective
stations. I rejoiced at the total discomfiture of the traders, and,
observing a cloud of smoke far distant to the north, I spread the alarm
that a steamer was approaching from Khartoum! Such was the consternation
of the traders' parties at the bare idea of such an occurrence that they
prepared for immediate flight into the interior, as they expected to be
captured by Government troops sent from Khartoum to suppress the
slave-trade.
