The rubber forests that were the objective of the trip lay in Abyssinia, east and south of Addis Abeba. The party consisted of the General, in command; an experienced Syrian trader named Idlibi, who had acted as his interpreter during the Egyptian Campaign of 1898; one or two men of a similar class, and a suitable number of servants and porters. Amongst Sir William's three personal servants, one was a Mahommedan bearer from India, with whom he could talk freely in Hindustani, and who could therefore act as interpreter to the Arab servants. The route selected involved a trip in steamers of about 500 miles up the White Nile to Taufikia, and then, turning eastward, a further 250 miles up the tributary river Sobat, which in its upper reaches is called the Baro, to Gambela, from which it is 300 miles by a good caravan track to Addis Abeba.
At Fashoda, which is now officially called Kodok, the party came across an English missionary boat. Gatacre went on board and had tea with the five missionaries a few days before Christmas.
It was hoped that there would have been enough water in the river to float the shallow craft right on to Gambela, but first one boat and then the two smaller craft ran aground. It was therefore necessary to open communications from Keg, where the last barge stranded, to Gambela by road, a distance of about thirty-eight miles. Leaving Idlibi in charge of the caravan, Sir William accomplished this march on foot in three days, accompanied by his servants and a few porters.
1906
Gambela is an important trading centre, and was the first objective of the journey. Politically it is known as an Enclave—that is, a tract of country leased by the King of Abyssinia to the Soudan Government. It thus becomes a frontier post of the Soudan, and has a small Soudanese garrison, which in January 1906 was under the command of the Memour Mehined Riad Effendi.
The Memour was exceedingly hospitable to Sir William, receiving him as a guest in his house, and doing everything in his power to facilitate his journey. Gatacre's letters speak most gratefully of the kindness he received at this officer's hands. At Gambela he discovered the Company's agent, and arranged with him to procure three hundred coolies, who should march to Keg, and then carry the merchandise from the boats along the track by which Sir William himself had just travelled.
His death in the desert
Having completed his business, Gatacre started back to join Idlibi, and report progress. On this return journey he was unfortunate in his camping-grounds. Tents being superfluous in such a climate, the party just bivouacked where they halted when the sudden darkness of the tropics fell upon them. In a small notebook of daily jottings, which at his leisure Gatacre worked up into a more formal journal, I find the following entry on January 11, 1906: "Camped in a swamp—horrible water." He reached Keg next day, and was pleased to find that Idlibi had disembarked all the stuff and divided it into suitable loads for the men to carry. A few days later, being impatient at the non-arrival of the coolies, Gatacre decided again to make his way to Gambela, but was attacked with fever on the road, and died at a place known as Iddeni.
His body was conveyed in a canoe to Gambela, where Mehined Riad Effendi saw to its burial in the Abyssinian Christian Cemetery, with due formality.
On Idlibi's arrival with the merchandise a court of inquiry was held, at which the Memour presided. The depositions of all the servants were formally taken, and a translation of their words was forwarded through the British Consul at Addis Abeba to the Foreign Office in London. It appears therein that there was another Englishman moving to and fro during that week, and that he passed the General on the Tuesday previous to his death, which took place on Thursday, January 18, 1906. I mention this to show that the locality was not unknown to civilisation, and that Gatacre was not the only one to brave the climate.