468 LETTERS TO DR. SCHWEINFURTH.

absolutely necessary stations, and have completely evacuated the Fauvera, Fadibek, and Latuka districts. Some of the soldiers thus set free have been employed to strengthen the garrisons of stations situated on the river, but the greater part have been ordered to Makraka and Amadi. ‘The stations ot Rumbek, Ayak, and Bufi are also to be evacuated, for they are quite useless, and monopolise three hundred men, who are therefore not available for our help. If ever a steamer comes, and brings arms and ammunition, I shall be in a position to reoccupy every post which may seem necessary. These repeated evacuations do not tend, of course, to raise the prestige of the Government among the Negroes. If the proper course had been taken from the first, we should not be where we are now. ‘The mischievous prohibitive system, the halfmeasures, the trifling with the slave-question, the hollow phrases about the equal rights of the Sudanese—all these are bearing fruit now, and my prophecies have been proved only too true.

I should long ago have sent an expedition through Bor to the Sobat, in consequence of the strange absence of all news from Khartum, just as I did twice during the time the river was closed in the years 1878-80. But Lupton’s information that Fashoda had been given up (Sobat has long been deserted) makes me anxious about my men, for they would have to cut their way through Dinka and Arabs along the whole route between Sobat and Khartum. So this plan is impracticable, and the only thing to do is to exercise patience. <A few days ago news reached me that Keremallah, while on the march with his men (perhaps on his way hither !), had suffered a severe defeat from the people of Sabi, and been completely driven back; he himself had fled. Another version confirms the facts of the battle and defeat, but says that Keremallah was not present at all, but had gone some days before to Kordofan in answer to a summons from the Mahdi. Supposing these reports are true, there still remains the difficulty of understanding what can have induced the people of Sabi to fight against their countrymen. Abdullahi Wod Abd-es-Samat, chief of this district and nephew of Mohammed Abd-es-Samat, is a true Kenusi and not a Dongolaui, but there are probably genuine Danagla among his men. However that may be, it would be