Ismail Pasha not only determined to extend his territories, but seemed in earnest to put down the slave trade.
The traders were chiefly Arab subjects of the Khedive, and the traffic was being carried out under the cloak of legitimate commerce. Khartoum was the headquarters for the trading companies, who leased from the Governor-General of the Sudan certain districts nominally for carrying on the ivory trade, for which they bought the monopoly. In these transactions the Government did not hesitate to lease territories over which they had not a vestige of right; in fact, any portion of Central Africa south of Khartoum was considered open to them for selling the monopoly. The result was that certain traders established themselves in, and claimed a sort of proprietary right to large districts, especially in that part which lies to the South of Darfur and Kordofan, and borders the course of the White Nile, now known as the Bahr El Ghazal. Traffic in slaves was the real business carried on, and for this purpose the traders organised armies of brigands, and formed chains of stations, of about 300 men each, throughout their districts. Raids were made on native tribes, who were obliged to submit, fly the country, or ally themselves to the slave hunters, to be used against other tribes; and anarchy prevailed throughout the country.
In order to carry out the reforms it was necessary to annex the Nile Basin, to establish a sound government and commerce, and to open the Equatorial Lakes to steam navigation. The Khedive accordingly issued a firman to Sir S. Baker on 1st April, 1869.1869, whereby he gave him absolute and supreme power over all the country south of Gondokoro.
Baker left Suez for Suakin in December, 1869, and proceeded to Khartoum, where the expedition was fitted out.
He experienced much opposition from officials, who were all more or less implicated in the slave trade. He also made the discovery that the very provinces he was about to annex were already leased by the Governor-General of the Sudan to a notorious slave-trader, named Ahmed Sheikh Aga, whose son in-law and partner, Abu Saud, was a still more notorious character.
SUDANESE WOMEN.
Another expedition was being fitted out, at the same time, to the Bahr el Ghazal, for the purpose of establishing a settlement at some copper mines on the frontier of Darfur.
Annexation of Gondokoro, May 26th, 1871.In February 1870 Baker left Khartoum, and after several abortive attempts, with great difficulty succeeded in dragging his boats over the sudd in the Bahr El Zeraf and arrived at Gondokoro, and formally annexed this station, as “Ismailia,” on May 26th, 1871. In January, 1872, he left Gondokoro for the south, and on the 14th May of the same year, at Masindi, Unyoro annexed, 14th May, 1872.proclaimed Unyoro an Egyptian province. He organised military posts such at Masindi, Foweira, Fatiko, etc., and entered into friendly relations with M’tesa, the King of Uganda, thus establishing the Khedive’s rule to within 2° of the Equator. He dealt the slave trade a heavy blow by putting a stop to it in the annexed territory, as well as on the Nile, so that all exit for the traffic in the direction of Khartoum would have been closed if the officials could have been trusted.
Baker returns to Cairo, August, 1873.In August, 1873, Baker returned to Cairo, and the Khedive put the Government of the Sudan on a fresh footing, by dividing it into provinces under responsible governors, more or less independent of the Governor of Khartoum. Thus Yusef Effendi was made Governor of Kodok, Ismail Yagub Pasha of Khartoum, and Hussein Khalifa of Berber.