Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol I (1901).djvu/166

 correct the account of the extent of the Albert Nyanza to the south, Baker's name will ever be associated with the solution of the problem of the Nile source. The fact also that the whole expedition had been independently devised and the charges thereof defrayed by the traveller added not a little to the honour of his achievement. On his return to England in October 1865 he found that the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society had already been awarded to him ; and in the following year he was presented with the gold medal of the Paris Geographical Society, and his services were recognised in August 1866 by the honour of knighthood. Baker became an honorary M.A. of Cambridge in 1866, and was elected F.R.S. on 3 June 1869. He published his account of the expedition, entitled 'The Albert Nyanza, Great Basin of the Nile, and Explorations of the Nile Sources,' in 1866, and the work immediately became popular, and many editions have been issued.

Baker now spent a few quiet years in country life at Hedenham Hall, Norfolk, which he rented for a term. He here prepared his book on the Nile tributaries for the press, and wrote his tale of adventure, 'Cast up by the Sea,' which was published in 1868. He was, however, soon to be again actively employed ; and at the beginning of 1869, by request, travelled in the suite of the Prince of Wales on his visit to Egypt and journey up the Nile. The Khedive Ismail entered into communication with him to secure his services under the Egyptian government, and on 1 April 1869 he was appointed governor-general of the Equatorial Nile basin for a term of four years, with the rank of pacha and major-general in the Ottoman army. The objects of his command were set forth under the firman by which he was appointed. They included the subjection to Egyptian authority of the countries situate to the south of Gondokoro, the suppression of the slave-trade and the introduction of regular commerce, and the opening to navigation of the great lakes about the Equator. To carry out this ambitious programme Baker was provided with some twelve hundred Egyptian and Soudanese troops, and a great quantity of supplies of all kinds. He was the first Englishman to undertake high office under the Egyptian government, and in accepting the command was in no way supported by the English foreign office. The first difficulty of the new governor was to arrive at his seat of government ; his intention had been to proceed by the Nile from Khartoum to Gondokoro, but the period of high flood was lost owing to the transport vessels promised by the government not being ready, and after a fruitless struggle with the sudd-covered stream, he was obliged to fall back and wait for the next Nile flood. He started again with Lady Baker on 1 Dec. 1870, and the expedition passing through the Bahr Ez Zraf branch of the river made its way with enormous difficulty by cutting canals through the sudd. Gondokoro was reached on 15 April 1871, and was formally annexed to Egyptian sovereignty on 26 May 1871. As the station was practically in the possession of the slave-traders. Baker was forced for a supply of porters and provisions to come to terms with the great dealer, Ahmed Akad, who leased from the Egyptian government the monopoly of the ivory trade. The hostility, however, of the traders was. hardly veiled, and the Bari tribesmen were by them incited to attack Baker's force, and were only partially subdued after very troublesome fighting. Leaving a garrison at Gondokoro the new governor started on 23 Jan, 1872 with 212 officers and men on his journey south ; he established stations at Afuddo and Faliko, and pushed on through Unyoro, which country he publicly declared at Masindi on 14 May 1872 to be under the protection of the Egyptian government. But the young king, Kabrega, behaved with a duplicity worthy of his father, Kamrasi, and, (encouraged by the slave-traders, attacked Baker's force when incapacitated by drugged or poisoned plantain wine. Though able to beat off the attack through the devoted bravery of his Soudanese body-guard. Baker was obliged to abandon his position at Masindi on 14 June 1872, and only after seven days' fighting through constant ambuscades in the long grass on the line of march, and after being forced to abandon the bulk of his baggage, did he succeed in reaching Rionga's country. That sovereign's claim to the kingship of Unyoro the governor-general now supported, and also communicated with Mtesa, king of Uganda, who despatched troops to Unyoro in his support. On his return to Faliko he was attacked by Aba Saiid, the slave-dealer, whom he defeated and captured after a pitched battle, and by this success again established his authority. He returned to Gondokoro on 1 April 1873, leaving garrisons at the stations which he had formed on behalf of the Egyptian government, and on 26 May, his period of command having expired, started on his return journey to Khartoum.

Baker's services to Egypt were recognised