170 UGANDA AND TEE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

Meshera-er-Eek, and there take tlie steamer which comes periodically from Khartoum up the Bahr-el-Grhazel. There had been no tidings of a steamer for some time, and a report was in circulation that the Bahr-el-Ghazel, which joins the White Nile at Lake No, was again blocked by " sudd." While waiting for decisive news on this point, and we both having suffered constantly from fever in Djour Ghattas, Gessi Pasha advised us to try change of air, and we accordingly went to the village of Drarr, which was formerly Abou Garoon's station ; now a chief named Fing lives there. We spent a week there, and, but for the annoyance caused by myriads of mosquitoes, had a very pleasant visit. About 500 prisoners, captured in the war, were waiting here till they could be sent down to Khartoum ; they were a miserable lot of fellows, with villainous faces.

They complained loudly of being obliged to march from place to place, although they had had no mercy on the slaves whom they had dragged from their homes and compelled to march weary distances under the scorching sun.

At Drarr we saw Genaue Bey, the only remaining ivory merchant in the Bahr-el-Ghazel Provinces ; he has his headquarters at Denibo, and his espediditions in search of ivory penetrate as far as the Congo, or a river supposed to be the Congo. He is a very fine man, and always travels in great state. He had at Drarr about sixty followers,