UNTRUSTWORTHY OFFICERS. 497 and east of Africa, the Pacific Ocean, and elsewhere. Reading these short and meagre telegraphic notes really makes one nervous; the statements are so abrupt that it is vain to search for the connexion between all the events. Excuse these long digressions, which will certainly not interest you. I do not as a rule fill my letters with reflections and personal opinions, but I may be pardoned this time in consideration of my exceptional position. And exceptionally brilliant it is! In Egypt and elsewhere they have certainly no notion of the difficulties of my situation. They simply suggest to me the way to Zanzibar, just as they would a walk to Shubra. You will have perceived from the information contained in the foregoing leaves that I cannot depend with any certainty on ' my own officers. The greater part of my men, especially the officers, have no desire to leave this country. I have repeatedly drawn the attention of the Government in Khartum to the fact that it is absolutely necessary to change the officers here every second year, and also the men, in part at any rate, lest in troublous times our movements should be impeded by innumerable obstacles. I have not even received an answer. ‘The oreater part of our soldiers, coming, as they do, from our own districts (Makraka, Dinka, &c.), and having never seen Egypt, naturally prefer to remain here and live as their fathers did, while the Negro soldier sent hither from Hgypt, whether he be an officer or a private soldier, has forgotten in the lapse of years what strict discipline means, and, further, has adapted himself to the country to such a degree that it has quite taken the place of his native land. Hach has his family, often a very large one, if all its dependents be counted, and each has his couple of goats or cows. very one knows that the journey is long and the toils great, that many days of hunger and _ hardship lhe before him, and that when he arrives in Egypt the loose bonds of discipline will be tightened again, that he must then say farewell to the mrisa jug, and that the “ 7’a’ali ya valad” (Come, O boy) and “ Ruh ya valad” (Go, O boy) must come to an end. . . . Then consider how little attention has been shown to our soldiers from Kharttm, how they have been left without supplies, without clothing, without pay,—but enough, you can now understand why the men do not wish Pa