Stop The White Nile Trade; Prohibit The Departure Of Any Vessels From
Khartoum For 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.
(There are already four
steamers at Khartoum.) Establish a military post of 200 men at
Gondokoro; an equal number below the Shillook tribe in 13 degrees
latitude, and, with two steamers cruising on the river, not a slave
could descend the White Nile.
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the ivory trade; the conflicting trading parties being withdrawn, and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. The newly-discovered Albert
lake opens the centre of Africa to navigation. Steamers ascend from
Khartoum to Gondokoro in latitude 4 degrees 55'. Seven days' march south
from that station the navigable portion of the Nile is reached, where
vessels can ascend direct to the Albert lake - thus an enormous extent
of country is opened to navigation, and Manchester goods and various
other articles would find a ready market in exchange for ivory, at a
prodigious profit, as in those newly-discovered regions ivory has a
merely nominal value. Beyond this commencement of honest trade, I cannot
offer a suggestion, as no produce of the country except ivory could
afford the expense of transport to Europe.
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