"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.

To effect this grand reform it would be necessary to annex the Nile
Basin, and to establish a government in countries that had been hitherto
without protection, and a prey to the adventurers from the Soudan. To
convey steel steamers from England, and to launch them upon the Albert
Lake, and thus open the resources of Central Africa; to establish
legitimate trade in a vast country which had hitherto been a field of
rapine and of murder; to protect the weak and to punish the evil-doer,