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. Profiting by this nervous state of affairs, I induced them
to allow the boat to start immediately, and we concluded all our
arrangements, contracting for the diahbiah at 4,000 piastres (40
pounds). The plague having broken out at Gondokoro, the victims among
the natives were dragged to the edge of the cliff and thrown into the
river; - it is impossible to describe the horrible effluvium produced by
the crowds of slaves that had been confined upon the limited area of the
station.
