Expedition by Mohammed Ali, 1838.In the autumn of 1838 Mohammed Ali himself, at the age of 69, started to visit Fazogli, and in 1840 and following years three large expeditions were organised. Although gold was not found in any important quantities, the provinces were reduced under Egyptian sway, the navigation of the White Nile was declared free, military stations were established on both rivers, and many slaves were brought back to swell the ranks of Mohammed’s army. Whatever may have been his dreams of civilisation, the result of Mohammed’s expedition and consequent government was to establish at Khartoum, not only the capital of the Sudan provinces, but also a central mart for a huge slave trade.
The provinces thus annexed were Kordofan, Sennar, and Taka (Kassala).
Abbas Pasha, 1848-1854.Abbas Pasha, grandson of Mohammed, who ruled Egypt from 1848 to 1854, kept up his authority in the Sudan provinces by means of a large force, which was necessary for the purpose of collecting taxes from a discontented population. In 1853 the most southern Egyptian settlement was about 120 miles south of Khartoum, but in that year the first trading voyage to the Upper Nile was started by Mr. Petherick, the English Consul for the Sudan. He was soon followed by other traders, who established posts far up country, and organised armed bands under the command of Arabs. It was soon found that slave hunting paid even better than ivory, and raids were made on the surrounding tribes.
1854-1868.Said Pasha, the successor of Abbas, found the country in a deplorable condition; exhorbitant taxes, a depressed agriculture, and a disordered administration openly encouraging an open slave trade.
Said Pasha reorganises Government at Khartoum, 1857.With the resolution of organising a better state of things, Said, in the year 1857, made a rapid tour through the provinces in question. At Berber he proclaimed the abolition of slavery, and at Khartoum he organised a new government for the five provinces then comprised in the Sudan, i.e., Kordofan, Sennar, Taka, Berber and Dongola. He ordered that the excessive taxes on the lands and waterwheels of the people should be discontinued, and postal services on fast camels organised across the desert. About the year 1860 the European traders sold their stations to their Arab agents who paid rental to the Egyptian Government, and the misery and ruin were increased tenfold.
To Said Pasha is due the first idea for making a railway to unite the Sudan with Lower Egypt; Mougel Bey was ordered to report on the subject, but the probable expense caused the project to be abandoned.
Source of the Nile discovered.The sources of the Nile had long been the object of much speculation, but comparatively little had been done to solve the question. Towards the latter end of the eighteenth century, Bruce had tracked the Blue Nile to its origin in the Abyssinian mountains, but the White Nile remained unexplored till Speke and Grant, carrying out in 1860-62 an expedition organised by the English Government, proved that the Victoria Nyanza, discovered by Speke[154] in July, 1858.1858, was the source of the Nile.
Sir S. Baker’s expedition in 1861.In 1861 Sir Samuel Baker started on an expedition from Cairo viâ Khartoum, with hopes of meeting the travellers in question, and of making independent investigations on his own account. He was successful in both ways, and his explorations resulted in the discovery, in 1864, of Albert Nyanza Lake. State of the Sudan in 1864.His description of the Sudan at this period under the governorship of a certain Musa Pasha gives a melancholy picture of the results of Egyptian rule. He describes the provinces as utterly ruined and only governed by military force, the revenue unequal to the expenditure, and the country paralysed by excessive taxation; shut in by deserts, all communication with the outer world was most difficult; and the existing conditions rendered these countries so worthless to the State, that their annexation could only be accounted for by the fruits of the slave trade.
Ismail Pasha, 1863.On Ismail Pasha coming to the throne in 1863, orders for the suppression of the slave trade were issued, and on Baker’s return journey in 1865, he found an Egyptian camp of 1,000 men established at Kodok in the Shilluk country for the purpose.
Scheme for railway again brought forward, 1865-66.In 1865-6 the Khedive again brought forward the scheme for a Sudan Railway, and a study of the country from Aswan to Khartoum was made by Mr. Walker and Mr. Bray, but nothing came of it. About the same time Mr. Hawkshaw recommended the canalisation of the 1st Cataract, but this was strongly opposed by Mr. Fowler, who proposed as an alternative to construct a ship incline over land, using the mechanical force supplied by the descending water.