484 LETTERS TO DR. SCHWEINFURTH.

should be sent to Bor to bring the men from there, if it were still practicable. A corporal overtook me at Bedén, who had been captured near Amadi by the Danagla, and had escaped. He asserted that they had lost a great many men both at Amadi and before Rimo, and also that their ammunition was coming to an end. They were busily engaged in collecting slaves and sending them to the Bahr-el-Ghazal. Keremallah had issued orders from Kamari to make preparations for retiring to the Bahr-el-Ghazal; he was coming shortly himself. <A large number of men who actually came from there had already marched off. The twenty-six soldiers who had been made prisoners were to be chained, and employed in the transport of goods. When the corporal heard this, he made his escape with three of his comrades, but he could not say where the others were, for he had swum across the river at Amadi and left them behind. He said that the prisoners were neglected, and suffered severely from want. The Danagla had fired twentyfive cannon-shots to celebrate the taking of Khartim. This was the first statement received from an eye-witness. Some days later, the corporal’s three companions arrived at Kari, having also succeeded in escaping, and they confirmed the accounts I had received in all essential particulars.

I next went to Muggi, where I made a longer stay, and succeeded in sending off to Ladd a good quantity of corn and some ground-nuts for making oil. Meanwhile, several fugitive soldiers from Amadi had arrived in Ladd, all of whom agreed in stating that the Danagla were getting ready to march off to the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and were in a great hurry about it. This could only be explained by the supposition that their ammunition was really almost exhausted, and that they had no desire to wait here for the rainy season, when the swollen rivers would cut off their retreat from this country, which is already famished ;. possibly, also, they wished to go to Kharttm as soon as they could. Again, it was quite within the bounds of possibility that the Mahdi had at last sustained a defeat, and was drawing his men together. We cannot, of course, decide the question at present. We first heard of the definite departure of the Danagla when at Laboré, but no particulars reached us. I stopped at Khor Ayu, near Laboré, till June 23, fully occupied