148 Sir S. Baker's Rule.

Unyoro annexed, 14th May, 1872.

Baker returns to Cairo, August, 1873.

1871. Kailway scheme again taken up, careful surveys made.

1874. Colonel Gordon appointed Governor of Equatorial Provinces.

Nile, arrived at Gondokoro, and formerly annexed this station, as " Ismailia," on May 26th, 1871. In January, 187:i, he left Gondokoro for the south, and on the 14th May of the same year, at Massindi, proclaimed Unyoro an Egyptian province. He organised military posts such as Massindi, Foweira, Fatiko, &c, and entered on friendly terms with M'tesa, the King of Uganda, thus establishing the Khedive's rule to within 2 degrees of the Equator. He dealt the slave trade a heavy blow by putting a stop to it in the annexed territory, as well as on the Nile, so that all exit for the traffic in the direction of Khartum would have been closed if the Egyptian officials could have been trusted.

In August, 1873, Baker returned to Cairo, and the Khedive put the Government of the Sudan on a fresh footing, by dividing it into provinces under responsible governors, more or less independent of the Governor of Khartum. Thus Yusuf Effendi was made Governor of Fashoda, Ismail Yacub Pasha of Khartum, and Hussein Kalifa of Berber.

In 1871 the railway scheme was again taken up; Mr. Fowler was employed by the Khedive to make careful surveys, and the result was an elaborately prepared project for making a line from Wadi Haifa, via Shendi, to Khartum, with a plan for the passage of the 1st Cataract. Such a line would have been of vast importance in opening up the trade of Central Africa.

At the close of Sir Samuel Baker's expedition, the Khedive, still anxious to consolidate his Empire, appointed Colonel Gordon, R.E., to carry on the work. Gordon arrived in Cairo early in 1874, and left for the scenes of his future operations on 21st February. His appointed task was to continue the reconnaissance of the Upper Nile, to establish a Government, and to destroy the slave trade. Accompanying him were Lieut.-Colonel Long, an American officer in the service of the Khedive, Lieut. Hassan Wussif, and a number of European civil employes. It was arranged that the territory over which the Governor- General of the Sudan now ruled was to be limited to the south by Fashoda ; Gordon to be Governor-General of the Equatorial provinces of the Nile, and the respective headquarters to be at Khartum and Gondokoro.

Gordon left Khartum in March, 1874, and reached