The Slave Trade. L47 The traders were chiefly Arab subjects of the Khedive, and the traffic was being carried on under the cloak of legitimate commerce. Khartum was the headquarters for the trading companies, who leased from the Governor-General of the Sudan certain districts, nominally for carrying on the ivory trade, for which they bought the monopoly. In these transactions the Government did not hesitate to lease territories over which they had not a vestige of right ; in fact, any portion of Central Africa south of Khartum was considered open to them for selling the monopoly. The result was that certain traders established themselves in, and claimed a sort of proprietary right to, large districts, especially in that part of Central Africa which lies to the south of Darfur and Kordofan, and borders the course of the White Nile. Traffic in slaves was the real business carried on, and for this purpose the traders organised armies of brigands, and formed chains of stations, of about 300 men each, throughout their districts. Raids were made on native tribes, who were obliged to submit, fly the country, or ally themselves to the slave hunters, to be used against other tribes ; and anarchy prevailed throughout the country.

In order to carry out the reforms, it was necessary to annex the Nile Basin, to establish a sound government and commerce, and to open the Equatorial Lakes to steam navigation. The Khedive issued a firman to Sir S. Baker 1869. on 1st April, 1869, whereby he gave him absolute and supreme power over all the country south of Gondokoro, Baker left Snez for Suakin in December, 1869, and proceeded to Khartum, where the expedition was fitted out. He experienced much opposition from Egyptian officials, who were all more or less implicated in the slave trade. He also made the discovery that the very provinces he was about to annex were already leased by the Governor-General of the Sudan to a notorious slave-trader, named Ahmed Sheikh Aga, whose son-in-law and partner, Abu Saoud, was a still more notorious character.

Another expedition was being fitted out, at the same time, to Bahr el Ghazal, for the purpose of establishing a settlement at some copper mines on the frontier of Darfur.

In February, 1870, Baker left Khartum, and after, with Annexation great difficulty, exploring the navigation of the White koro° nd°~ (386) l 2 y' 26th'