The Khedive, thus supported and encouraged in his ideas of reform, concluded his arrangements for the total abolition of the slave trade, not only throughout his dominions, but he determined to attack that moral cancer by actual cautery at the very root of the evil. I was accordingly requested to draw up a plan for the proposed expedition to Central Africa. After some slight modifications, I received from the Khedive the following firman:-- "We, Ismail, Khedive of Egypt, considering the savage condition of the tribes which inhabit the Nile Basin; "Considering that neither government, nor laws, nor security exists in those countries; "Considering that humanity enforces the suppression of the slave-hunters who occupy those countries in great numbers; "Considering that the establishment of legitimate commerce throughout those countries will be a great stride towards future civilization, and will result in the opening to steam navigation of the great equatorial lakes of Central Africa, and in the establishing a permanent government . . . . We have decreed and now decree as follows:-- "An expedition is organized to subdue to our authority the countries situated to the south of Gondokoro; "To suppress the slave trade; to introduce a system of regular commerce; "To open to navigation the great lakes of the equator; "And to establish a chain of military stations and commercial depots, distant at intervals of three days' march, throughout Central Africa, accepting Gondokoro as the base of operations. "The supreme command of this expedition is confided to Sir Samuel White Baker, for four years, commencing from 1st April, 1869; to whom also we confer the most absolute and supreme power, even that of death, over all those who may compose the expedition. "We confer upon him the same absolute and supreme authority over all those countries belonging to the Nile Basin south of Gondokoro." It was thus that the Khedive determined at the risk of his popularity among his own subjects to strike a direct blow at the slave trade in its distant nest. To insure the fulfilment of this difficult enterprise, he selected an Englishman, armed with a despotic power such as had never been intrusted by a Mohammedan to a Christian. The slave trade was to be suppressed; legitimate commerce was to be introduced, and protection was to be afforded to the natives by the establishment of a government. The suppression of the slave trade was a compliment to the European Powers which would denote the superiority of Egypt, and would lay the first stone in the foundation of a new civilization; and a population that was rapidly disappearing would be saved to Africa.