EVACUATION OF MAKRAKA. 481 Amadi with the higher officials of the province within ten days of Jumadi-el-Akhir 10 (March 26); otherwise he, Keremallah, would march from Amadi against Lad6 on the 20th of the said month (April 5); whatever might then happen would be my own fault. The second, also from Keremallah, but directed to me privately, informed me that he was only coming to support me; no harm should happen to me if I would come and surrender. ‘The third letter is signed by some of our own people, who have joined the Danagla in Amadi (Mohammed-es-Sayad, Egyptian captain ; Yussuf-Bei, Sudanese joiner; Abd-el-Aziz Aga and Hassan Aga, Sudanese leutenants, and several corporals). These informed me that the officers in Amadi were drunk night and day, while the soldiers ate old leather and hides to appease their hunger, and they invited me to give myself up, for that they, the writers, had not received any bad treatment from the rebels. As Khartim is not even mentioned in any of these letters, we may almost conclude that our opponents had also received no news from there for a long time. ‘The bearers of the letters, two Negroes of Amadi, said that a number of Jellabas had come from Kordofan, that the slave-trade was in a very flourishing state, and that the slaves I freed in 1881 had been reclaimed.

Meanwhile the Danagla in Amadi had not remained idle, but had pushed forward their outposts again to within three days’ march of Lado, and had instigated the Negroes to slay unmercifully any stragglers from Amadi, and to close the road to Makraka. This being the case, I was obliged to send my letters to Makraka by the road I had lately opened through Rejaf and Rimo. . A detachment of the enemy had dispersed the few officers and soldiers in Kamari, near Wandi, and then marched against Wandi, which was untenable owing to its position. The soldiers therefore retired in good order towards Rimo, intending to take the road from there to Rejaf. But before they could reach it, the Danagla attacked them fiercely, and were thoroughly defeated, losing a large number of men, and flying precipitately. The march forward was then commenced, and detachment after detachment arrived safely at Bedén, with their sick men and followers. I sent some clerks ‘and officials from Ladd, where scarcity of corn prevailed, to 2