than white. So they formed fortified posts, called sceribas, and
garrisoned them with Arab ruffians, who harried the country and
organized manhunts on a gigantic scale. The profits were enormous, but
the "bitter cry" of Africa began to make itself heard in distant Europe,
and the so-called Christian slave-dealers found it more prudent to
withdraw. This they did without loss, for they sold their stations to
Arabs, and the trade in human beings went on as merrily as ever. Dr.
Schweinfurth, the African explorer and botanist, visited one of these
slave-dealing princes in 1871, and found him surrounded by an almost
regal court, and possessed of more than vice-regal power. He was lord of
thirty stations, all strongly fortified, and stretching like a chain
into the very heart of Africa. Thus his armies of fierce soldiery, Arab
and black, were able to make raids over whole provinces, and gather in
the great human harvest to supply the demands of Egypt, Turkey, and
Arabia. This famous man was named Sebehr Rahma; and although he was
defeated by Colonel Gordon and sent down to Cairo, he never quite lost
favor at the Egyptian Court, and was not long since appointed commander
in chief of the Soudan, to uphold the power of Egypt against the Mahdi!
The scandals of the slave-trade, combined with the lust of conquest,
were the causes out of which grew the famous expedition of Sir Samuel
Baker to the Soudan. The love of conquest made it pleasing in the eyes
of the Khedive Ismail, and the desire to uproot the infamous slave-trade
obtained for the enterprise the warm approval of the Prince of Wales,
and the hearty co-operation of Sir Samuel Baker, who displayed the
greatest courage and energy in the conduct of the enterprise.

From this first expedition the two succeeding ones of Colonel Gordon may
be said to have arisen. The struggle against the slave-hunters had
developed into a war, and the Khedive began to fear that their power
would grow until his own position at Cairo might become endangered. The
slave-king Sebehr must be destroyed, together with his numerous
followers and satellites.

Gordon was not long in perceiving why he was selected for the office of
governor; for we find him writing home, "I think I can see the true
motive of the expedition, and believe it to be a sham to catch the
attention of the English people." With him, however, it was no sham. He
was determined to do what he was professedly sent to do, viz.: put down