For Selim Qapudan, the expedition had been sent by Muhammad Alï as a means of gathering information and offering the Nilotic tribes a glimpse of the civilization that was extending its authority over their territories. For the Shilluk and the Kik, it was an act of conquest by armed men sent with- out warning to their land by a nameless authority. For European geographers and scientists interested in the Nile Valley, it was a knowledge-seeking cam- paign that opened new pathways into the "mysteries of Africa." And for Muhammad Alï, the real author of the expedition, it was a gesture that would dignify Egyptian control of the Nile Valley with European ideals about the values and uses of such scientific information.

Eve M. Troutt Powell, A Different Shade of Coloni…, loc. 212