Ismailia   By: Samuel White Baker (1821-1893)

A NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION TO CENTRAL AFRICA FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF THE SLAVE TRADE

ORGANIZED BY

ISMAIL,

KHEDIVE OF EGYPT.

by SIR SAMUEL W. BAKER, PACHA, M.A., F.R.S., F.R.G.S., Major General of the Ottoman Empire, Member of the Orders of the Osmanie and the Medjidie, late Governor General of the Equatorial Nile Basin, Gold Medallist of the Royal Geographical Society, Grande Medaille d'Or de la Societe de Geographie de Paris, Honorary Member of the Geographical Societies of Paris, Berlin, Italy, and America, Author of "The Albert N'yanza Great Basin of the Nile," "The Nile Tributaries of Abyssinia," "Eight Years' Wanderings in Ceylon," "The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon," etc. etc

Contents.

Chap.

I. Introductory

II. English Party

III. The Retreat

IV. The Camp at Tewfikeeyah

V. Exploration of the Old White Nile

VI. The Start

VII. Arrival at Gondokoro

VIII. Official Annexation

IX. New Enemies

X. Destruction of the Shir Detachment

XI. Spirit of Disaffection

XII. Vessels Return to Khartoum

XIII. Moral Results of the Hunt

XIV. The Advance South

XV. The Advance to Lobore

XVI. Arrival at Patiko

XVII. The March to Unyoro

XVIII. March to Masindi

XIX. Restoration of the Liberated Slaves

XX. Establish Commerce

XXI. Treachery

XXII. The March to Rionga

XXIII. Build a Stockade at Foweera

XXIV. No Medical Men

XXV. I Send to Godokoro for Reinforcements

XXVI. Arrival of M'Tese's Envoys

XXVII. CONCLUSION

Appendix

Index

PREFACE.

An interval of five years has elapsed since the termination of my engagement in the service of His Highness the Khedive of Egypt, "to suppress the slave hunters of Central Africa, and to annex the countries constituting the Nile Basin, with the object of opening those savage regions to legitimate commerce and establishing a permanent government."

This volume "Ismailia" gives an accurate description of the salient points of the expedition. My thanks are due to the public for the kind reception of the work, and for the general appreciation of the spirit which prompted me to undertake a mission so utterly opposed to the Egyptian ideas of 1869 1873; at a time when no Englishman had held a high command, when rival consulates were struggling for paramount influence, when the native officials were jealous of foreign interference, and it appeared that slavery and the slave trade of the White Nile were institutions almost necessary to the existence of Egyptian society.

It was obvious to all observers that an attack upon the slave dealing and slave hunting establishments of Egypt by a foreigner an Englishman would be equal to a raid upon a hornets' nest, that all efforts to suppress the old established traffic in negro slaves would be encountered with a determined opposition, and that the prime agent and leader of such an expedition must be regarded "with hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness." At that period (1869) the highest authorities were adverse to the attempt. An official notice was despatched from the British Foreign Office to the Consul General of Egypt that British subjects belonging to Sir Samuel Baker's expedition must not expect the support of their government in the event of complications. The enterprise was generally regarded as chimerical in Europe, with hostility in Egypt, but with sympathy in America.