A MONEY-MAKING WAKEEL, make up for that by well lining his own pockets at the expense of the government.

As a rule, Egyptian officials, both high and low, go to the Soudan only in order to rob for themselves as much as possible during the time they are there ; and, when they have feathered their own nests as well as their opportunities allow them, they give place to others, whose ambition it is to follow them in the same noble course. These Englishmen were most kind in helping us, and allowed us to leave some things, that we did not require to take with us, in their care.

We saw very little of the Wakeel Achmed Effendi, and did not hear at all a good report of him. We were told that he was doing anything but discouraging the slave-trade ; that, on the contrary, he took a bribe of two napoleons for every slave that he permitted to leave the port, and that the chief of police took one in addition. Some slaves had been lately seized, and a great to-do made about them • but this was because the hushmoney was not forthcoming.

The entrance to the harbour o_ Souakim is narrow and long, and steamers can only go in by daylight ; the entrance is well marked out by beacons, but there are dangerous reefs outside.

Our captain had never been to the port before, and did not seem at all to relish taking his vessel in. There is not anchorage in the harbour for more than four or five steamers at a time.

The town, which is built of coral, is rather picturesque-looking, though of a glaring white ; and it boasts of one or two minarets. The carving of some of the doors and windowshutters of the houses is most elaborate, and of a different pattern from any I have seen in Cairo. I was told that there was a great deal of the same kind of work at Jeddah.

The town is built on an island, which is united to the mainland by a causeway which Col. Gordon had made when he was