BACK AT LADO, JULY 1882. 437 of interest because it is the starting-point of the road which runs through the Dinka country to the Bahr-el-Ghazal.

It was really pleasant, after my long absence, to be once more in my own district and amongst the Negroes, with whom a long residence has made me very intimate. I received here the first news from the Bahr-el-Ghazal, that the Rizegat on its northern boundary had rebelled, and that the Bakara, who had been incited by the emissaries of the Mahdi, were giving a great deal of trouble to Lupton Bey, my former assistant, now Governor of the Bahr-el-Ghazal district. It appears, therefore, that the most distant possession of Hgypt, the Equatorial province, is at this moment the only part of her entire dominions which is perfectly tranquil.

The station of Bor was, as usual, in a very neat and clean condition ; it is surrounded by extensive gardens, and its garrison lives on the best footing with the thousands of Negroes who reside in the neighbourhood, and who have learnt to feel like men since I drove the Danagla from this place, and so put an end to the slave-trade here. The Government, too, has gained materially by this transaction, for the tax in grain, the only tax which I have imposed, has been almost doubled in amount. The people, who formerly left their homes, and who preferred to lead a miserable life as fishers on the numerous islands in the river, rather than lose their children, have gradually returned home, and have recommenced to cultivate extensive stretches of land which they had left lying fallow. The whole district between Bor and Lado on the west bank of the river, is an almost unbroken line of villages and huts, and even where the Dinka give place to the Shir (who are Bari), new fields and plantations have started into existence. All that is needed is to protect the Negro population, and unrelentingly to prevent the old razzias for men and cattle; the Negroes will themselves see to the spreading and increase of the population. The Dinka, who possess large herds, were once the most oppressed of the natives, and now they have already extended far beyond their original boundaries.

Lad6, my capital, celebrated on account of its storms, its thunder and lightning, and heat, suffered this year from want of rain, so that in many places the first crops of durrah were