THE EGYPTIAN SUDAN Now a country called Hua is mentioned in an inscription of a later period in connection with Punt, and if it be the same region it follows that he invaded the country on the western shore near the southern end of the Red Sea. If this be so, this king must have been absolute master of all the great trade routes of the Egyptian Sudan, as well as of all the gold mines throughout the country. Before Usertsen's death arrangements were made for a systematic supply of gold for Egypt, and the caravans travelled on from fort to fort, bearing their precious loads to the old Egyptian frontier city of Elephantine in safety. It is probable that each caravan was provided with an escort of soldiers of sufficient strength to repulse any attack which was likely to be made upon it by the marauding tribes of the desert. It is clear from the inscriptions that each Egyptian settlement in the Sudan was ruled by an officer who possessed powers of summary jurisdiction, and that at places like Behen, or Wfidi Haifa, he was sometimes a man of high rank, i.e., an erpa or a hCi, and that one of the tribes of such an officer was " superintendent of the South," or, " governor of the South," is certain from the evidence of the monuments like that of Erta-Antef-Teti.

Under the Xllth Dynasty, however, there seems to have been no one official who was in charge of the whole Egyptian administration of the Siidan, and at that time there was no equivalent of the term " royal son of Kash," or viceroy, who was regularly appointed by Egypt under the XVlIIth Dynasty. The governor of each town was allowed to do as he pleased, provided that he succeeded in making the natives of his district contribute a satisfactory amount of gold, precious stones, skins, &c., to the revenue of the country, which had to be despatched to Egypt, and at this period the state of affairs in the Sudan must have been much like that in which they were under the rule of such " strong men " as Muhammad *Ali. To get everything possible out of the Siidan, slaves, gold, ivory, skins, &c., was the order of the day. The contempt which the governing classes felt for the natives is, as we have seen, clearly expressed in the words of the king himself, who called them timid, cowardly, vile, impotent, and stupid beasts.

In the reign of Amenemhiit III., the successor of Usertsen III., 554