422 AGRICULTURE, COMMERCE, ETC.

tion to work when such answers as these are sent, based, as they are, on the most thorough misconception of circumstances. I at length sent a military expedition to Monbuttu to protect the country from the Danagla, but have been compelled to withdraw it, because I encountered the greatest difficulties at every step, and, having no power to decide questions myself, should have been obliged to report to Khartum, and wait five or six months for an answer. Hxcuse this long jeremiad. You, who know this beautiful country, will understand better than any one else that this forced inactivity is the greatest curse to a man like myself.

4. ON THE AGRICULTURE, COMMERCE, AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE HQUATORIAL PROVINCE.

(Letters to Dr. G. Schweinfurth from Ladé, March 3 and 18, 1883.)

THE MPAFU-TREE— AMOMUM FRUITS— LOMBO BULBS — TOMATOES — AT-TEMPTS TO SOW BAMBOOS AND WHEAT—MAIZE—GUAVAS—ONIONS AND OIL-PALMS—SATISFACTORY BUDGET—NEGRO REVOLTS ON THE BAHR-EL-GHAZAL—PROJECTS FOR COLONISING CENTRAL AFRICA—ON MIS-SIONARY SOCIETIES AND THEIR PROSPECTS IN CENTRAL AFRICA—NEW STATION ON THE KIBBI—NEW ROUTE TO THE BAHR-EL-GHAZAL PRO-VINCE—CONDUCT OF THE DANAGLA—INDIARUBBER.

I aM sending you a box of seeds with this letter, and should particularly like to know the name of the tree which bears the three-cornered nuts that I enclose. I first met with this gigantic tree in 1876 in Uganda, where some specimens of it grew beside my hut. They were twenty-one to twenty-five feet in circumference, and rose to a height of ninety to a hundred feet above the ground before throwing out branches, which formed a splendid broad crown. ‘The fruits are olive-shaped, and are enclosed in a green husk, which smells of resin; after being dipped in hot water they are eaten. JI only send you the kernels. The bark is light grey, thick, and cracked, and is strongly impregnated with resin. If a cut be made in it, a