488 LETTERS TO DR. SCHWEINFURTH.

stroyed by the Negroes, just as the men were at last starting to march to Ladé. The Major in command at Ladd had not thought of sending a single soldier to Bor, in spite of all my orders; but after the disaster had occurred, he despatched about two hundred men there in a great hurry, without my permission, and forgetting that that number would be far from sufficient. They had reached Bor safely, and recovered a quantity of ammunition, &c., but, instead of being satisfied with this and returning, they had advanced northwards, probably at the Mayjor’s desire, had been beset by swarms of Negroes on the Bahr-el-Zaraf, and thoroughly dispersed in a panic, without having fired a single cartridge. Only fortythree men out of a hundred and eighty have returned up to the present time. The immediate consequence of this was that the Bari naturally revolted, having perceived our weakness. On October 4, in the early morning, Lado was attacked on all sides at once by the Bari, Dinka, Shir, and Nyambara combined, but the attack was repulsed. It is now besieged, and I must send troops at once to relieve it. My old friend Befo, of the Belinian mountains, is at the head of the movement.

On October 19 some more men arrived here from Kabréga, led this time by my old travelling companion and Dragoman, Msige. His instructions were to see if the chief of the Turks were really Kabréga’s old acquaintance, Emin Effendi, and, if so, to put himself under his orders; but if it were another man, to return at once, for Kabréga would not have anything to do with the Government. The men were sent off in great haste, and had not been able to bring with them sufficient cloths or other things for sale. The Arabs had prepared a quantity of wares to send, but Kabréga told them they had better wait until Msige returned with his report, and then, if the road were safe, they could go with their goods. Msige brought four letters, two from Kabréga, one from Abd-er-Rahman-bin-A beid-bin-Hamis-el-Habeshi, a relation of Said-Bargash, and one from my old Uganda acquaintance, Masudi-bin-Abeid-bin-Hamis. Kabréga’s letters contained the usual tales about the outrages the Turk had formerly committed in his country, and the cool request that I should