24 PROSPECTS OF THE EXPEDITION. [chap. i.
/
are sent to Cairo, and in fact they are disseminated
throughout the slave-dealing East, the White Nile
being the great nursery for the supply.
The amiable trader returns from the White- Nile
to Khartoum; hands over to his creditor sufficient
ivory to liquidate the original loan of £1,000, and,
already a man of capital, he commences as an independent
trader.
Such was the White Nile trade when I prepared
to start from Khartoum on my expedition to the Nile
sources. Every one in Khartoum, with the exception
of a few Europeans, was in favour of the slave-trade,
and looked with jealous eyes upon a stranger venturing
within the precincts of their holy lan d ; a land
sacred to slavery and to every abomination and
villany that man can commit.
The Turkish officials pretended to discountenance
slavery: at the same time every house in Khartoum
was full of slaves, and the Egyptian officers had been
in the habit of receiving a portion of their pay in
slaves, precisely as the men employed on the White
Nile were paid by their employers.' The Egyptian
authorities looked upon the exploration of the White
Nile by a European traveller as an infringement of
their slave territory that resulted from espionage, and
every obstacle was thrown in my way.
CHAP. i.] - DIFFICULTIES AT THE OUTSET. 2.')
Foreseeing many difficulties, I had been supplied,
before leaving Egypt, with a firman from H. E. Said
Pasha the Viceroy, by the request of H. B. M. agent,
Sir R. Colquhoun; but this document was ignored by
the Governor-general of the Soudan, Moosa Pasha,
under the miserable prevarication that the firman was
for the Pasha’s dominions and for the Nile ; whereas
the White Nile was not accepted as the Nile, but
was known as the White River. I was thus refused
boats, and in fact all assistance.
To organize an enterprise so difficult that it had
hitherto defeated the whole world required a . careful
selection of attendants, and I looked with despair at
the prospect before me. The only men procurable
for escort were the miserable cut-throats of Khartoum,
accustomed to murder and pillage in the White Nile
trade, and excited not by the love of adventure but
by the desire for plunder : to start with such men
appeared mere insanity.. There was a still greater
difficulty in connexion with the White Nile. For
years the infernal traffic in slaves and its attendant
horrors had existed like a pestilence in the negro
countries, and had so exasperated the tribes, that
people, who in former times were friendly, had become
hostile to all comers. An exploration to the Nile
sources was thus a march through an enemy’s coun