Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-05-25
SATURDAY, MAY s5.rs4s.
BAKER. African Expea.tion.

According to the .test news from Egypt, Sir
Samuel Bakers expedition up the Nile TO the
lake region of Africa, is likely 10 be failure.
When the expedition was organized his agree
mont with the khediye was that lie should do
the proposed work in TWO wears, that he should
have f5OO0 year and pension for his wife if
he should die, and that he should have all need
tpl supplies and the use of strong military
force. II was expected, or at least represented
10 the khedive, that the ivory to be secured
would, to a very large extent, pay the expenses
Of the expedition 1t is now more than two
years since Baker left Cairo. and he has really
done nothing of any importance. He went up
the Nile TO Gondokoro, but found it impossible
TO get on further towards the lakes He had
lost half the 1900 men with which he started.
AT Gondokoro be expected to get assistance from
the Bars, bat found nothing hut hostility. AZ
Ter some fighting and more losses, he returned
10 Kharoum.
Up to this time, he had expended great
sum of money and lost about nine hundred
men; and he had written a letter to the Prince
of Wales, criticiSing the internal affairs of the
Egyptian government, and otherwise querulous
in tone. 1t was private letter, but it has been
published in the London Times; and thus more
trouble has been created between him and the
khediye. His failure, we suspect, is due in
part 10 some of his peculiar characteristics as a
representative of John Bull. letter from
Cairo, dated April ID, which We find in the New
York Herald gives the statement Of IAN inteli-
gent and respectable mechanic" connected with
the expedition, who had succeeded in getting
down the river from Khartoum to Cairo. This
statement is as follows
"The Bari tribe did not refuse to aid Baker
in putting down the slave trade, as they them
selves are its most frequent victims; but when
be told them he was going 10 annex them 10
Egypt and when they heard The noise of the
cannon fired in Saluinc the ceremony of al
neXatiOn they all gathered together their women
and children and fled into Tue woods The
months campaign, which Baker says he was
Obliged TO make against these people who re-
fused to be annexed was campaign for the
purpose of obtaining forced labor to
transport his steamers TO the NyanZas
which corree looked a good deal 70 the
frightened Bars like slave catching on a grand
scale, So the Ignorant obstinate anti-anneX-
aiionstS turned aud fought and drove Baker
PAcha back 10 the river, with a Loss OF ten stout
soldiers dead and many wounded. Then the
Egyptian officers, saying that the slave trade
beng suppressed as il had been by the severe
measures of RaOuy bay, acting under the in
strucnOns from the governor general of the
Soudan. and the ivory trade in the hands OF
government, they would not remain TO
waste away and die along with the thousands
who had gone before, merely TO prove that Baker
had discovered bigger lake than Spoke or
Burton, and they were going home. So
much the mechanic gives as the Egyptian YER
siOn."
Baker had sent to Cairo for more men and
supplies, which, ii seems he was not likely to
get. His men who remained alive would not go
with him again up the river, and it was uncer-
tain what course he would pursue. The letter
writer thought be would once more push on to-
wards the lakes, with such force as he could
collect, and try to make additional discoveries;
but how be could undertake such an expedition
without means, is not explained.