chap, i.] PROSPECTS OF THE EXPEDITION. 17 
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. 
Foreseeing many difficulties, I had been supplied, 
before leaving Egypt, with a firman from H. E. Said 
Pasha the Viceroy, by the request of H. B. M. agent, 
Sir R. Colquhoun ; but this document was ignored by 
the Governor-general of the Soudan, Moosa Pasha, 
under the miserable prevarication that the firman was 
for the Pasha’s dominions and for the Nile ; whereas 
the White Nile was not accepted as the Nile, but 
was known as the White River. I was thus refused 
boats, and in fact all assistance. 
To organize an enterprise so difficult that it had 
hitherto defeated the whole world required a careful 
selection of attendants, and I looked with despair at 
the prospect before me. The only men procurable 
for escort were the miserable cut-throats of Khartoum, 
accustomed to murder and pillage in the White Nile 
trade, and excited not by the love of adventure but 
by the desire for plunder : to start with such men 
appeared mere insanity. There was a still greater 
difficulty in connexion with the White Nile. For 
years the infernal traffic in slaves and its attendant 
horrors had existed like a pestilence in the negro 
countries, and had so exasperated the tribes, that 
people, who in former times were friendly, had become 
hostile to all comers. An exploration to the Nile 
sources was thus a march through an enemy’s coun¬ 
try, and required a powerful force of well-armed men. 
For the traders there was no great difficulty, as they 
took the initiative in hostilities and had fixed camps 
as “ points d’appui,” but for an explorer there was no 
c 
