Ismailia | Page 8

of Egypt, are now joined in the firm determination to uphold
the integrity of the great canal of Suez, and these powers and leaders of
civilization will become the guides and guardians of Egyptian interests.
The reforms already sanctioned with a new era of justice and economy
will insure the confidence of British capitalists; the resources of Egypt

will be developed by engineering skill that will control the impetuosity
of the Nile and protect the Delta alike from the scarcity of drought, and
from the risk of inundation. The Nile sources, which from the earliest
times had remained a mystery, have been discovered by the patience
and industry of Englishmen; the Nile will at no distant period be
rendered navigable throughout its course, and Egypt, which for actual
existence depends alone upon that mighty river, will be restored by
British enterprise, supported by the intelligence and good-will of its
ruler, to the position which it held in the pages of Eastern history.
1878.
S. W. B.
ISMAILIA.

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
In the present work I shall describe the history of the Khedive of
Egypt's expedition, which I have had the honour to command, as the
first practical step that has been taken to suppress the slave trade of
Central Africa.
I shall not repeat, beyond what may be absolutely necessary, that which
has already been published in my former works on Africa, "The Albert
N'yanza" and "The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia," but I shall adhere to
the simple path taken by the expedition. This enterprise was the natural
result of my original explorations, in which I had been an eye-witness
to the horrors of the slave trade, which I determined, if possible, to
suppress.
In my former journey I had traversed countries of extreme fertility in
Central Africa, with a healthy climate favourable for the settlement of
Europeans, at a mean altitude of 4,000 feet above the sea level. This
large and almost boundless extent of country was well peopled by a
race who only required the protection of a strong but paternal
government to become of considerable importance, and to eventually
develop the great resources of the soil.

I found lands varying in natural capabilities according to their position
and altitudes--where sugar, cotton, coffee, rice, spices, and all tropical
produce might be successfully cultivated; but those lands were without
any civilized form of government, and "every man did what seemed
right in his own eyes."
In this dislocated state of society, the slave trade prospered to the
detriment of all improvement. Rich and well-populated countries were
rendered desolate; the women and children were carried into captivity;
villages were burnt, and crops were destroyed or pillaged; the
population was driven out; a terrestrial paradise was converted into an
infernal region; the natives who were originally friendly were rendered
hostile to all strangers, and the general result of the slave trade could
only be expressed in one word--"ruin."
The slave hunters and traders who had caused this desolation were for
the most part Arabs, subjects of the Egyptian government.
These people had deserted their agricultural occupations in the Soudan
and had formed companies of brigands in the pay of various merchants
of Khartoum. The largest trader had about 2,500 Arabs in his pay,
employed as pirates or brigands, in Central Africa. These men were
organized after a rude military fashion, and armed with muskets; they
were divided into companies, and were officered in many cases by
soldiers who had deserted from their regiments in Egypt or the Soudan.
It is supposed that about 15,000 of the Khedive's subjects who should
have been industriously working and paying their taxes in Egypt were
engaged in the so-called ivory trade and slave-hunting of the White
Nile.
Each trader occupied a special district, where, by a division of his
forces in a chain of stations, each of which represented about 300 men,
he could exercise a right of possession over a certain amount of
assumed territory.
In this manner enormous tracts of country were occupied by the armed
bands from Khartoum, who could make alliances with the native tribes

to attack and destroy their neighbours, and to carry off their women and
children, together with vast herds of sheep and cattle.
I have already fully described this system in "The Albert N'yanza,"
therefore it will be unnecessary to enter into minute details in the
present work. It will be sufficient, to convey an idea of the extended
scale of the slave-hunting operations, to explain that an individual
trader named Agad assumed the right over nearly NINETY
THOUSAND SQUARE MILES of territory. Thus his companies of
brigands could pillage at discretion, massacre, take, burn, or destroy
throughout this enormous area, or even beyond this broad limit, if they
had the power.
It is impossible to know the actual