 However, like other merchants, he found that profits were not sufficient for the required capital of his own company and hence ventured into slave trading.In 1865, Zubeir’s army of slaves killed a local king called Adoo Shukoo and took control of his small territory, transforming the merchant into a monarch.Johnson stresses the strategic importance of the location “"where the north-south caravan route from Dar Fartit to Zandeland joined the east-west route to the Nile via Wau, Meshra el-Rek, Rumbek, and Shambe"”.