The character of the Khartoumers needs no further comment.

The amount of ivory brought down from the White Nile is a mere bagatelle as an export, the annual value being about 40,000 pounds.
The people for the most part enraged in the nefarious traffic of the White Nile are Syrians, Copts, Turks, Circassians, and some few EUROPEANS.

So closely connected with the difficulties of my expedition is that accursed slave-trade, that the so-called ivory trade of the White Nile requires an explanation.
Throughout the Soudan money is exceedingly scarce and the rate of interest exorbitant, varying, according to the securities, from thirty-six to eighty per cent.

This fact proves general poverty and dishonesty, and acts as a preventive to all improvement.

So high and fatal a rate deters all honest enterprise, and the country must lie in ruin under such a system.