A.n. 1866— 1S72. 233 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 accordingly issued a firman to Sir S. Baker on 1st April, 1869, whereby he gave him absolute and supreme power over all the country south of Gondokoro.

Baker left Suez for Suakin in December, 1869, and proceeded to Khartoum, where the expedition was fitted out. He experienced much opposition from 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 Saud, was a still more notorious character.

1869.

SUDANESE WOMF.N.

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

In February 1870 Baker left Khartoum, and after several abortive attempts, with great difficulty succeeded in Annexatiou dragging his boats over the sudd in the Bahr El Zeraf and arrived at Gondokoro, and formally annexed this station, <>( Gomloas " Ismailia," on May 26th, 1871. In January, 1872, he left Gondokoro for the south, and on the 14th May of the same year, at Masindi, proclaimed Unyoro an Egyptian province. He organised military posts such at Masindi, Foweira, Fatiko, etc., and entered into friendly relations with M'tesa, the King of Uganda, thus establishing the Khedive's rule to within 2° 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 Khartoum would have been closed if the officials could have been trusted.

kciro, Mav 26th, 187"].

Unyoro anuexed, 14tli Mav, 1872.