Muhammad Ali’s expedition framed exploration by promising gifts and peaceful intentions to tribes

Evidence

The expedition left Khartoum on 16 November 1839 (9 Ramadan A.H. 1255) and began the journey up the Nile following earlier charts of the river (charts that Selim Qapudan did not identify). Five days after their departure, the expedition encountered a man from the Shilluk tribe. Ten members of the crew surrounded him, and, presumably with the help of a translator, Selim Qapudan asked him where they could find his chief. After learning the chief’s whereabouts, the captain informed him of why the expedition had come: “We did not come here to harm anyone but instead in hopes of finding the source of the White Nile.There is no need to fear us, as we will just continue on our path in hopes of fulfilling our goals. Our leader, the viceroy, has ordered us to gather only what we require, like wood, and we will present to all the tribes who agree to meet us gifts and curiosities.” — Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Colonialism_…, 199