354 JOURNEY TO CENTRAL AFRICA.

strength and activity. In smelting and working up the iron ore of Mount Kereg they show a remarkable skill. Many of the spears in Dr. Knoblecher's possession are as elegantly formed and as admirably tempered as if they had come from the hands of a European blacksmith. They also have warclubs of ebony, which are nearly as hard and heavy as iron.

One end is of a sloping, oval form, and the other sharp, and they are said to throw them a distance of fifty or a hundred yards with such precision that the sharp point strikes first and the club passes through the body like a lance I have in my possession some of these clubs, which were presented to me by Dr. Knoblecher.

On the seventeenth of January the expedition left Logwek on its return to Khartoum, the traders having procured all the ivory which the natives had collected since the previous year.

The Missionaries were prevented from accomplishing their object by the jealousy of the traders, who persuaded the Bari chiefs that they were magicians, and that if they were allowed to remain, they would bewitch the country, prevent the rains from falling and destroy the crops of dourra. In consequence of these reports the chiefs and people, who had been on the most friendly terms with Dr. Knoblecher and Padre Angelo, suddenly became shy and suspicious, and refused to allow the latter to take up their residence among them. The design of the mission was thus frustrated, and the Vicar returned with the expedition to Khartoum. He designed leaving for the Bari country in November, 1852, but up to the present moment* no account has been received of the fulfilment of his plans. The pictures which these recent explorations present to us, *July, 1854.