1871. Railway scheme again taken up.In 1871 the railway scheme was again taken up; Mr. Fowler was employed by the Khedive to make careful surveys, and the result was an elaborately prepared project for making a line from Wadi Halfa, viâ Shendi, to Khartoum, with a plan for the passage of the 1st Cataract. Such a line would have been of vast importance in opening up the trade of Central Africa.
1874. Colonel Gordon appointed Governor of Equatorial Provinces.At the close of Sir Samuel Baker’s expedition, the Khedive, still anxious to consolidate his Empire, appointed Colonel Gordon, R.E., to carry on the work. Gordon arrived in Cairo early in 1874, and left for the scenes of his future operations on 21st February. His appointed task was to continue the reconnaissance of the Upper Nile, to establish a Government, and to destroy the slave trade. Accompanying him were Lieut.-Colonel Long, an American officer in the service of the Khedive, Lieut. Hassan Wassif, and a number of European civil employés. It was arranged that the territory over which the Governor-General of the Sudan now ruled was to be limited to the south by Kodok; Gordon to be Governor-General of the Equatorial provinces of the Nile, and the respective headquarters to be at Khartoum and Gondokoro.
Gordon left Khartoum in March, 1874, and reached Gondokoro the 15th of the following month, where he was cordially received by the Commandant, Rauf Bey. He found that the provinces in question were merely nominally under Egyptian control, there being but two garrisons, one at Gondokoro consisting of 450 men, 150 of whom were Egyptian soldiers, and a second at Fatiko of 200 Sudan soldiers. His first steps were to occupy Bor, an important position north of Gondokoro, and to send Colonel Long on an expedition to M’tesa, King of Uganda. Slave stations broken up, 1874.He then in June, 1874, proceeded to break up three large slave-trading stations on the Bahr el Zeraf, and established a strong post at the Sobat junction, so situated as to be able to arrest all illegal traffic on the river. The liberated slaves he, in accordance with their own option, planted at Sobat, and encouraged them to turn their attention to agriculture, it being one of his ideas that most of the wars between the tribes were caused by the great deficiency of food.
During the summer of 1874, Rauf Bey returned to Cairo, and was given the command of the Harrar country. Gordon sent Gessi about the same time to make an inspection along the Bahr el Ghazal.
Abu Saud, notorious in Baker’s time, had accompanied Gordon from Cairo. The latter, though aware of his character, knew him to be a man of great influence among the slave-dealing communities, and determined to turn him to account. On first taking over the government at Gondokoro, he made Abu Saud his lieutenant, and employed many of the other slave dealers under him. This, however, was of short duration; Abu Saud soon got beyond himself, and, showing his true character, was speedily dismissed by Gordon; while, towards the end of the year, a clean sweep was made of all the other slave-dealing Dongolese, whose intrigues had seriously hampered Long’s expedition.
September, 1874. Submission of chiefs round Gondokoro.On 11th September, 1874, 25 chiefs of the tribes round Gondokoro came in to pay homage to Gordon, a remarkable proof of the success of his rule, as up to this they had been at open enmity with the garrisons.
In October Yusef Bey, Governor of Kodok, intercepted a convoy of 1,600 slaves and 190 head of cattle from the stations of Ratatz and Kuchuk Ali on the Bahr El Zeraf.
About this time Gordon was making preparations for his expedition to the lakes. The sections of the steamers, which had been left at Gondokoro by Baker, were sent forward by carriers, to be put together at the Falls of Dufile, beyond which point there is a free passage to the lake Albert Nyanza.
It was decided to establish fortified posts at the following stations:—Labore, Dufile, Fatiko, and Foweira; this step was rendered necessary by the hostile attitude shown towards Colonel Long’s expedition by the King of Unyoro backed up by slave-traders.
1874. Representative sent to M’tesa.In consequence of the report of Colonel Long, who returned in October, Gordon arranged to send a trustworthy representative[155] to M’tesa, King of Uganda, who had shown himself to be friendly.