WARS OF THE NINETIES. 64 exactly been enjoying myself with the 200 porters whom webrought with us by force, and who try toescape if they have the least chance. It was no useeven to shoot or hang those who were caught in the act— the others tried to get away allthe same, and some succeeded. We had sometimes to go into the villages along our route with four or five riflemen,andforcibly enlist as porters any men or women we could find there. Sometimes the whole population wouldtake to flight, and thenIwouldset fire to oneor two huts. This generally brought their ThoughtheFrench Government observed a discreetsilence as to the progressof the expedition, letters from aFrench non-commissioned officer serving with it were published in the Paris papers, and gave a striking picture of its endless difficulties and its limited success.

He wrote on July 25th,1897 :"lamengaged in the construction of a post on thebanks of the Such river, a sub-affluent of the White Nile. This is one stage farther into that little-known region which the Marchand expedition is to disputewith theBritish and theBelgianpioneers. If we succeed Ishall readily forget all our dangers and fatigues. But what difficulties, what struggles with nature, and perhaps, with men, we have to go through! The Dervishesarenot easy to deal with, and the boat that we have been dragging from Loango, now bywater, now b\T land, through forests, and over swamps and rocks, does not move without hard work. We have no rest, for oneday's delay might make all our efforts useless. All we have done would be in vain if the British or any others should be beforehand with us on our path. Inspite all back to the village. Then we would seize the chief and compel him to provide slaves to carry the loads. Then wecarriedaway all the food we could find in the villages and gave it to our porters, who were starving. We kept watch over them at night, but they would sometimes run away enmasse,and wecould notdealout wholesale slaughter. This business tired and disgustedme verymuch. You must not be too much surprised at whatIhave toldyou. It is the only way to get anything out of these brutes. It made me feeluncomfortable atfirst, but whenI saw CAPTAIN MARCHAND.

how disgusting, how savage they were, how they quarrelled overthe bodiesof their comrades whom we had shot, and then proceeded to devour them,Ioften felt Ishould like to fire a volley into the wholecrowd."

This vivid picture of the advance of one of the columns of the Marchand expedition presents a curious contrast to the orderly progress of the Sirdar's army on the Nile. Considering how it acted towards the natives, it is not surprising that news reached Europe early in iSq8 that one of Marchand's columns had been cut to pieces. But, nevertheless, it appears certain that the French had succeededby the close of 1807 in obtaining a footing on the tributaries of the Upper Nile, that they had one of my hope,however,Ihave a secret fear that we shall arrive too late. My only wish at the present moment is to see the Faidherbe (the sectional gunboat) displaying our flag between Khartoum and Gondokoro."

A month later he wrote, on August 27th: " We came into the Ubanghi district to occupv Upper Egypt, make our strength known to the Dervishes, launch a boaton the Nile,and unite, if possible, our Obok colony on the Red Sea with our Congo possessions on the Atlantic. For this purpose we have 23 whites and 500 black riflemen (Senegalese). The hardest part of the work has been done. Ihave just taken the last section of the boat to the banks of the river Sueh, where it is to be put together. Ihave not