Thus, in spite of my orders
given to Abou Saood about ten months previous, the opportunity of moving
had been lost, and the time of departure was reduced to sine die. This
was a hopeless condition of affairs. There were no cattle in Abou
Saood's possession, and without cows the ivory could not be moved. At
the same time, it would be impossible for me to permit him to make
razzias upon distant countries, as I had arrived to establish
government, and to afford protection to all tribes that would declare
their allegiance.
I now discovered that the principal vakeel of Abou Saood, named Mohammed
Wat-el-Mek, had only recently started with a large force, by Abou
Saood's orders, to invade the Kooshi country on the west side of the
White Nile, close to its exit from the Albert N'yanza.
This was a tribe that could not possibly have interfered with Abou
Saood; but as the cattle had been exhausted on the east bank of the
river, he had commenced a series of razzias upon the west. The Koshi
were people with whom friendship should have been established, as they
were on the navigable Nile that would eventually be traversed by the
steamer, when constructed at Ibrahimeyah.
