22 



NATURE 



\Oct. 12, 1876 



of Sir Samuel Baker. The descriptions of the country and 

 the various tribes who are the " Naked People" of the 

 title, lead us for the most part over ground that has been 

 already brought to our notice by Speke, Baker, and 

 Schweinfurth, but a peculiar charm is contained in this 

 volume, as it introduces to our notice some of the 

 Dramatis Personce of "Ismailia," and we find ourselves 

 in the presence of many of the principal characters pour- 

 trayed in the last work of Sir S. Baker j among others, 

 the now well-known slave merchant, Abou Saood. 



Some persons may not have forgotten that Sir Samuel 

 Baker was accused of having dealt somewhat too harshly 

 with this arch slave-trader, and it is therefore gratifying 

 to receive the testimony of Col. Long who in p. 20 writes 

 on arrival at Khartoum : — 



" It may not be foreign to the subject to allude here to 

 the unfavourable impression produced upon government 

 officials and the well-wishers of the expedition on learning 

 that Abou Saood was on his way to join us, that he had 

 been renominated, and would go to Gondokoro in con- 

 nection with the administration of the Equatorial Pro- 

 vinces ; for in Khartoum Abou Saood was looked upon 

 as inimical to the interests of the Government in these 

 regions. Reference to him will be hereafter made and 

 his true connection with the expedition and final fate be 

 fully shown." 



On March 22, 1874, after an extremely rapid journey 

 of only twenty days from Suez, Col. Long, in company 

 with Col. Gordon, left Khartoum by steamer for Gon- 

 dokoro. The terrible difficulties which had impeded 

 the expedition of Sir Samuel Baker had vanished, 

 and the great White Nile was opened to navigation by 

 the removal of the enormous vegetable obstructions. 

 This great work had been accomplished by the energy 

 of Ismail Ayoub Pacha, the governor of Khartoum, who, 

 by the special orders of the Khedive, suggested by Sir 

 S. Baker, had worked with a large force during two fol- 

 lowing seasons (not for only three weeks as supposed by 

 Col. Long), and the river had resumed its original 

 character. The fleet of seven steamers which Sir S. 

 Baker had sent up from Alexandria to Khartoum had 

 now an uninterrupted channel, and communication be- 

 tween Khartoum and Gondokoro would be effected in 

 twenty days, instead of the weary and pestilential voyage 

 of twelve months, so painfully described in " Ismailia." 

 Under these favourable conditions Col. Long reached 

 Gondokoro on April 17, and he immediately prepared to 

 visit the interior instead of delaying at that unhealthy 

 station. 



The Commandant, Raouf Bey, furnished him with 

 two trustworthy soldiers from the faithful " forty thieves " 

 of Sir S. Baker. These men. Said Bagara and Abd-el- 

 Rahman, proved themselves worthy of the high reputation 

 of the corps, by extreme courage and devotion throughout 

 their service with Col. Long. In company with a large 

 party of irregular troops. Col. Long started from Gondo- 

 koro to the Victoria N'yanza, on April 23. The company 

 included a personage who becomes famous in the course 

 of the narrative ; this is Ba Beker, of whom Col, Long 

 thus writes : — " The presence at Gondokoro of a wily 

 black named Ba Beker, who had made his way through 

 Unyoro, coming from M'tdsd, King of Uganda, and 

 bearing letters to Sir Samuel Baker from Lieut. Cameron, 



announcing the death of Livingstone, at Ujiji, seemed a 

 propitious circumstance" — p. 36. 



It is to be regretted that Col. Long appears to have been 

 ignorant of the previous history of certain characters 

 which appear in his narrative. The "wily black," Ba 

 Beker, was formerly the dragoman, or interpreter, be- 

 longing to Abou Saood's station at Fabbo, and he had 

 learnt the language of Uganda during a visit to the court 

 of M'tdsd. Fa Beker's character for cunning and intrigue 

 was so well known to M'tds^, that, when that potentate 

 formed an alliance with Sir S. Baker, he stipulated that 

 Ba Beker should not be sent to his court as he was un- 

 trustworthy and a dangerous schemer. Sir S. Baker 

 therefore sent from Fatiko a soldier named Selim, who 

 had formerly been one of the " faithfuls " with Speke and 

 Grant, and knew the language of Uganda. This man 

 Selim was one of the " forty thieves," and he accompanied 

 the envoys of M'tdsd to remain at his court as a representa- 

 tive of the alliance formed with the Egyptian Government. 

 The grand reception which Col. Long received from King 

 M'tdsd upon his arrival at his capital, was the satisfactory 

 result of the friendship established with the king by Sir 

 Samuel Baker, who at his instance had already sent two 

 expeditions in search of Livingstone, one of which had 

 reached Lieut. Cameron, and had returned from an enor- 

 mous distance, bearing letters for Sir Samuel Baker ; 

 these were sent down from Uganda to Gondokoro, by the 

 wily Ba Beker, who had, against orders, found his way to 

 the court of M'tdsd. Ba Beker will be remarked through- 

 out the narrative as a plotter against the success of Col. 

 Long, whom he attempts to infect with small-pox, by 

 sending a native reeking with that disease to march by 

 his side. 



CoL Long commenced his journey during the rainy 

 season, and his people suffered severely from fever and 

 the miseries inseparable from a wet march. At that time 

 the new territory was occupied by several important 

 military stations left by Sir Samuel Baker, including the 

 Fort Fatiko on 3° lat., and Foweera, on 2°, in the country 

 of Unyoro. The latter station had been formed when 

 Sir S. Baker established an indissoluble alliance with 

 Rionga after the attack by Kabba Rega at Masindi, which 

 terminated in the defeat of the natives and the total 

 destruction of their capital ; but as the country was bare of 

 provisions, the troops were forced to destroy their own 

 camp, and to join Rionga. 



Col. Long started under the favourable conditions that 

 M'tdsd, on the equator, was an ally of the Government ; 

 Rionga had been declared chief of Unyoro by Sir S. 

 Baker. Two powerful government stations existed along 

 the road ; several stations, such as Fabbo and Faloro, 

 were held by the irregular troops established by Sir S. 

 Baker (formerly slave hunters) under the command of 

 Wat-el-Mek, and no enemies were supposed to exist 

 except Kabba Rdga, who had apparently somewhat 

 recovered his position after the departure of Sir S. Baker 

 to England. 



In speaking of the Baris, the first tribe through which 

 he passed, Col. Long says (p. 47): — "The treacherous 

 and cowardly Bari had at length accepted as a fact the 

 definitive occupation of the country by the government 

 troops, against whom, these people, and in fact every 

 other tribe, had been excited by the Dongolowe faction." 



