204 UGANDA AND THE EGYPTIAN SOUDAN.

that the province should be given up, because it couki never be made to pay ; but if things are managed properly, this cannot be the case. The cost of the government for one year, including the Pasha's salary, is 3000/., and the taxes paid at Shaka alone amount to 3300/. or 3400/. a year, that one place alone paying for the whole government of the province ; the whole of the taxes collected in the Bahr-el-Ghazel, and the ivory, which amounts to about 30,000/. a year on an average, being clear profit. Of course in this calculation it is taken for granted that the governor and his officials are honest. These figures I took down at the dictation of Gessi Pasha himself, and he did not take into account any other trade which might under a good government be developed.

Hardly a book on Africa has been written without mention being made of the slave-trade, and I should have been glad if I could have avoided all reference to a subject which can afford no pleasure either to Avriter or reader. But having been brought so much into contact with slavery during my two years' travels in the Egyptian Soudan, I feel it to be a duty to bring the matter once more before the public.

Thousands of natives are wistfully looking forward to the time, long since promised, when this oppression shall cease, and an end be put to the cruel tyranny under which they have so long