NATIVE RAIDS. 163 creatures underwent on the journey, having only the most scanty supply of food, and often no water, for days at a time, can be better imagined than described. Hundreds died on the way, and we ourselves could frequently distinguish the slave-road by the human bones, often those of little children, which were strewed along the route.

Over the Bahr-el-Grhazel Province a kind of rough-and-ready rule prevailed. The natives did not kill the Arabs, nor steal from them, for they knew too well the awful retribution which would follow such acts ; but they murdered and robbed each other to their hearts' content. When one village had been unusually active or successful in raids, two or three of the neighbouring villages combined together to punish the offenders ; often killing all the men of the place they attacked, burning down the village and dividing the women and children among themselves. This, however, was not the end ; for, " to put a stop to such disturbances," the Arabs interfered, and when in their turn victorious, they took the spoil to replenish their own harems and slave caravans. The cruelties practised by the Arabs upon the natives are such as cannot be mentioned in these pages ; but it will be easily understood why this kind of government—if government it may be called—has more than decimated the country. These atrocities have been going on for about fifteen years, during which the M 2