EED TAPE. 425 



for a larger boat to take goods having been refused. The 

 prohibition against merchants coming here was also retained, 

 in spite of my earnest appeals that it might be annulled ; 

 therefore, ever since December of 1 8 8 1 , the officials have been 

 absolutely cut off from all supplies, and have consequently 

 experienced greater distress than in the year 1878-9, 

 when the river was closed. Gordon, however, allowed mer- 

 chants to come here, for he clearly saw how absurd such a 

 measure was as a preventive against the export of slaves from 

 this country. Well, the legislators in Khartum — foreigners 

 and Arabs — may understand these things better than one like 

 myself, who is not a Pasha; but I can tell you one thing, 

 and that is, that under the present system they may quietly 

 draw their pens through the names of our provinces in a couple 

 of years. It is so ridiculous to dream of stopping the slave- 

 trade in the Sudan by setting up a slave department in 

 Khartum with branch offices ; to try and tie up our districts 

 with the red tape of Egyptian bureaucratism is an idea that 

 makes one's hair stand on end. If the Government, besides 

 the exploitation of the interior of Africa for pecuniary ends, 

 which seems to have been the cue latterly, is really bent on 

 carrying on a humanitarian mission there — and that was cer- 

 tainly Ismail Pasha's intention — it can, in my opinion, only be 

 done by uniting the Negro districts — the Bahr-el-Ghazal and 

 the Equatorial Provinces — and separating them entirely from 

 the Arab portions of the Sudan. Then a capable European 

 Governor must be found for them, who has a love for the work, 

 and will take an interest in the country, not one who does not 

 care whether " blue men or green live by the Albert Lake." 

 He should have three to four steamers at his disposal, and 

 should be commissioned to work out the details of the organi- 

 sation, of the exploitation of the country, of the disposal of the 

 products, and of matters affecting the slave-trade in conjunc- 

 tion with us, the local Governors. A commission in Khartum 

 for slavery affairs, consisting of the Governor of the Sudan, or 

 his representative, and the consuls, as well as five to six trust- 

 worthy natives, Mohammedans and Christians, should be in 

 direct communication with the Governor of the Negro districts, 

 whose residence should be at Sobat. Fashoda would of course 



