12 SLAVE TRADE OF THE SOUDAN. [chap. i. 
a total desolation, and the want of pasture entails 
starvation upon both cattle and camels, rendering it 
at certain seasons impossible to transport the pro¬ 
ductions of the country, and thus stagnating all en¬ 
terprise. Upon existing conditions the Soudan is 
worthless, having neither natural capabilities nor poli¬ 
tical importance; but there is, nevertheless, a reason 
that first prompted its occupation by the Egyptians, 
and that is in force to the present day. The Soudan 
supplies slaves. 
Without the White Nile trade Khartoum would 
almost cease to exist; and that trade is kidnapping 
and murder. The character of the Khartoumers needs 
no further comment. The amount of ivory brought 
down from the White Nile is a mere bagatelle as an 
export, the annual value being about £40,000. 
The people for the most part engaged in the ne¬ 
farious traffic of the White Nile are Syrians, Copts, 
Turks, Circassians, and some few Europeans. So 
closely connected with the difficulties of my expedition 
is that accursed slave-trade, that the so-called ivory 
trade of the White Nile requires an explanation. 
Throughout the Soudan money is exceedingly scarce 
and the rate of interest exorbitant, varying, according 
to the securities, from thirty-six to eighty per cent.; 
this fact proves general poverty and dishonesty, and 
acts as a preventive to all improvement. So high and 
fatal a rate deters all honest enterprise, and the country 
must lie in ruin under such a system. The wild 
speculator borrows upon such terms, to rise suddenly 
like a rocket, or to fall like its exhausted stick. 
Thus, honest enterprise being impossible, dishonesty 
takes the lead, and a successful expedition to the 
White Nile is supposed to overcome all charges. There 
are two classes of White Nile traders, the one possessing 
capital, the other being penniless adventurers ; the 
same system of operations is pursued by both, but that 
of the former will be evident from the description of 
the latter. 
