AGAJR OB lYACK. 137 The town is surrounded by a small stockade and a deep moat ; and a few small cannon, in a rusty condition, are mounted on its ramparts. The houses are all built on high raised platforms, and each cluster of huts is encircled by high fences of reeds. The streets, if streets they can be called, are so narrow that two people can scarcely pass each other, and the disorder, filth, and stench are beyond all description. The town is very crowded, for in a small space some fifteen hundred slave-dealers and slaves are huddled together. Eound the Seriba there are large villages, and a native population of probably fifteen hundred. Elamin Bashir and Achmet Abdullah were the men in charge, and it was the only place where we were not well treated. We should have fared badly but for the wife of a Greek merchant, M. Marco, who sent us food, with her compliments, three times a day. This Grreek had brought up a great quantity of cloth and other goods from Khartoum to this place ; and the agent, Dufalla Ali, had told him he must sell it all to the soldiers, taking from them a note of hand for payment, and as soon as their next wages should come from Khartoum he should receive the money. So he disposed of the goods on these terms, but when the wages for the troops came, instead of paying M. Marco, Dufalla Ali pocketed the whole sum, and the poor man had nothing but waste paper in exchange for his goods. When we were at lyack he