STATISTICS OF AYAK. All seemed to have any idea of getting a living except by plunder and the slave-trade. On the very first day of my visit two _ hundred slaves were reclaimed by their relations. More than five hundred carrier-loads of corn have been sent here by the natives during the last few weeks, and squandered. The magazine is now quite empty; the people complain of hunger, and at the same time wander about the station drunk, <A certain Abdel-Kher, an official here, has himself collected not less than eighty-four slaves, while the number of those reclaimed in two days from the immediate neighbourhood is about four hundred, besides the Monbuttu who have been restored to their chief, Gambari. Of course I have made a great stir among this rabble, and think now that the Negroes will have a little peace, and will entertain more respect for the Government than they have done hitherto.

Ayak, one of the oldest settlements of the Danagla, and one of the strongest bulwarks of the slave-market, was governed by a certain Defa’allah, who, in spite of his most glaring and cruelly bad treatment of the Agar-Negroes, and in spite of having connived at robbery and murder, has contrived to maintain himself here for years—how I do not care to discuss. He was hated and feared by all the Negroes. Shortly before my arrival, this exemplary governor had hunted up over four hundred slaves of both sexes and all ages, belonging to the neighbouring Agar, Kich, Atwét, and Mandari. About two hundred of the choicest boys and girls had been concealed by trusted chiefs in the small zeribas of the so-called Dragomans, and abont fifty Monbuttu who presented themselves to me were said to have been voluntarily set free. If we reckon to these, at a low estimate, from seven to eight hundred slaves present in the station, it gives In round numbers 1500 persons, a number certainly about one-third under the mark.

If we summarise the inhabitants of Ayak, we find them to be as follows :— Pedlars (one of them a Greek) . : a e/, Persons without any employment . aS Ushurie ; : : ; EEG 7 Irregular soldiers ; ‘ : ; AO