— 33 — came to Khartoum. He was one of the people from the West Coast, who had remained on his way back from the pilgrimage to Mecca, and was called El Haj Mohammed el Billali.(i) He came to the Bahr el Ghazal with the intention of occupying it, and had with him a company of two hundred disciplined Sudanese, under the command of Mohammed Effendi Munib, as well as four hundred Bashi Bazuks, or irregulars, under Sanjak (2) Kutchuk Ali (3), and six hundred men of the Equatorial Police. It appeared that Billali had been to Cairo and told the Khedive that he had conquered Dar Fur, and wished to resume possession of the mines at "Hofrat el Nahas which, in those days, were considered to be in Dar Fur. When I heard of his arrival I went to greet Billali, whom I came upon at Meshra el Rek, I soon discovered that Billali and Kutchuk Ali had quarrelled, but I accommodated them with all (1) Mohammed el Bulalwi was a Fiki from Lake Fitri district which was subject to the sway of the Buliila people, an outlying south eastern branch of the Tibus. Junker.

(2) A Turkish military term corresponding to a captain of a company.

It is really a Persian word originally meaning banner or standard, the term was then applied to the bearer of a standard, and then to a body of troops enrolled under one standard, and, lastly, the captain of such a corps. Junker, Travels in Africa i. 372, (3) A notorious slave dealer : he was appointed to this command by Jaafar Pasha who professed a desire to abolish the traffic in slaves. See Schw. 1.70, 2.16 and 171.