But before long they began to suffer from want of food.  The tribes round about had been set against them by the slave hunters, and would supply them with nothing; so that Baker, in the midst of plenty, seemed likely to perish of starvation.  However, he soon adopted energetic measures to prevent that.  Having taken official possession of the land in the name of the Khedive he seized a sufficient number of animals for his requirements.

The head man of the tribe and his followers were soon buzzing about his ears like a swarm of wasps; but seeing he was not to be frightened by their threats they showed themselves ready enough in the future to supply him with cattle in return for payment.

His own soldiers were nearly as troublesome as the natives.  They were lazy and mutinous; the sentries went to sleep, the scouts were unreliable, they were full of complaints; whilst round about him were the natives, ready to steal, maim, and murder whenever they could get an opportunity.

His life was daily in danger; and, so as not to be taken unawares, he organised a band of forty followers for his personal service.  On these men he could always rely.  They were proud of the confidence placed in them, and were ready to go anywhere and do anything.  By a strange perversity they were nicknamed “the forty thieves,” though they were amongst the very few who were honest.

What with sickness and fighting and losses encountered on the way up the river, Baker’s force was now reduced to about five hundred men, in place of the twelve hundred whom he had once reviewed at Gondokoro.  Still, he did not despair of accomplishing, with God’s help, the mission on which he had been sent.

In January, 1872, with his wife and only two hundred and twelve officers and men, he started south on a journey of three or four hundred miles into the region where the slave trade was carried on with the greatest activity.

He had arranged with one of the chiefs to supply him with two thousand porters to carry the goods of the expedition; but when the time came not a single man was forthcoming.  So his soldiers had to be their own carriers for a time.  At a later date he was enabled to hire five hundred men to assist him to transport his goods, and presented each with a cow as a reward for his services.  All took the cows readily enough, but sixty-seven of the carriers did not appear at the time appointed.  The others were extremely desirous of going to look after them; but Baker, knowing their ways full well, thought it better to lose the services of the sixty-seven men rather than to allow this; for he felt sure if they once returned to search for their companions there would be no chance of seeing a single one of them again.

After many perils he reached the territory of Kabbu Rega on the Victoria Nile.  The king was apparently friendly at first.  But on several occasions the war drums sounded, and although no violence was actually offered yet Sir Samuel thought it well to be on his guard.