156 
TEAVELS IN CENTEAL AFETCA. 
triumph. It appears to me that, if in 184B the British Govern- 
ment had sufficient motives for establishing a Consulate in the 
Soudan, there exist, at the present time, much more powerful 
reasons for maintaining it. The recent discoveries of Captains 
Grant and Speke must result in the organization of other scien- 
tific expeditions, of which Khartoum will form either the point 
of departure or that of arrival. England, which may lay claim, 
and with justice, to the honour of nearly all new discoveries in 
Africa, will certainly take the lead in these expeditions ; and I 
cannot conceive it possible that she will willingly deprive them 
of the protection of a British Consul at Khartoum. This pro- 
tection will become especially indispensable to those expeditions 
which require Khartoum, or some other place in the Soudan, as 
the point of departure ; for in the absence of Consular interven- 
tion with the local authorities, or the mediation of a man of 
local experience — who, from his position, is under obligations to 
render service — I am of opinion that it will be impossible to 
organize any expedition there. They will be scandalously fieeced, 
or leave badly provided, and so will fail. It would not be 
difficult to cite instances in support of what I advance. 
“A higher motive renders it desirable to maintain at Khar- 
toum a British Consulate. The slave traffic in the While Nile 
country (for a long time held in restraint sufficiently feeble) has had 
for years — thanks to the encouragement of certain high function- 
aries who find their profit in it — an extension truly frightful ; and 
it is exercised with such horrors, that I hesitate to describe them. 
“ Every year more than one hundred vessels leave Khartoum 
for the purpose of hunting down the negroes ; and slaves, who 
formerly were brought in by stealth, are now dragged publicly 
along the highways of the country, and even through the streets 
of Khartoum, with the yoke upon their necks. 
“ The British Consul, Mr. J. Petherick, initiated measures 
