- 36 -did you not so inform me while we were on the road together from Meshra el Rek ?" Moreover, I showed him how that I had been the first to proffer him assistance, although I had been of opinion that he had given false information to the Government : I added further, that I had received instructions from Jaafar Pasha, saying that I was to succour him in every way possible in the matter of the mines. In conclusion I gave him to understand that the chiefs were under my rule, and that I would not allow him to have any direct speech with them. Upon this he proposed to confiscate the goods of Kutchuk Ali, and distribute them among the troops, but I refused, and said that this property must go to the lawful heirs. Then a long dispute ensued between us, but, in the latter end, the merchants hearkened to my spoken counsel, and we sold the goods of the dead man for forty seven cantars of ivory: this we put in a private chamber, which we sealed, until such time as the son of Kutchuk Ali should come and take it to Khartoum. At this Billali was affected with violent vexation, and set forth for Deim el Zubeir, where I caused a separate zeriba to be built for him.

I also apportioned to him and his followers fifteen hundred purses of gold, as well as clothes and copper from the mines of Hofret el Nahas.

This copper, which was worth as much as ;[Ce. 15 a cantar, was of extraordinary purity, and far