24 PROSPECTS OF THE EXPEDITION. [chap. i. 
are sent to Cairo, and in fact they are disseminated 
throughout the slave-dealing East, the White Nile 
being the great nursery for the supply. 
The amiable trader returns from the White Nile 
to Khartoum ; hands over to his creditor sufficient 
ivory to liquidate the original loan of £1,000, and, 
already a man of capital, he commences as an inde¬ 
pendent trader. 
Such was the White Nile trade when I prepared 
to start from Khartoum on my expedition to the Nile 
sources. Every one in Khartoum, with the exception 
of a few Europeans, was in favour of the slave-trade, 
and looked with jealous eyes upon a stranger ven¬ 
turing within the precincts of their holy land; a land 
sacred to slavery and to every abomination and 
villany that man can commit. 
The Turkish officials pretended to discountenance 
slavery: at the same time every house in Khartoum 
was full of slaves, and the Egyptian officers had been 
in the habit of receiving a portion of their pay in 
slaves, precisely as the men employed on the White 
Nile were paid by their employers. The Egyptian 
authorities looked upon the exploration of the White 
Nile by a European traveller as an infringement of 
their slave territory that resulted from espionage , and 
every obstacle was thrown in my way. 
