-56 -would not let a single traveller pass that way ; rather would they slay him and rob him of his possessions.

The Sultan of Dar Fur at that time was Ibrahim : so 1 sent him a letter, dated June 27, 1873, informing him of the conduct of the Rizighat and of their violation of the treaty by holding up the road.(i) I asked him to assist me against them, but the Sultan paid no heed to my request, and, as the Rizighat did not discontinue their depredations, I placed my trust in God and declared war against them. 1 invaded their country with my army, and the enemy collected to do battle with me. At first we made but slow progress (2) inasmuch as the enemy were all mounted on horses : in fact we did not subdue them until we had lost more than seven hundred men, a very different tale from our conquest of Dar Fur in which we lost but two Arabs and two slaves. The Rizighat had so many horses that they were like to a cloud of dust, and even if we put out a rear guard they would avoid it and attack our flank or any other unprotected part. For many days we were unable to travel for more than one hour a day, inasmuch as the Rizighat were always (i) Ziibeir has preserved copies of all these letters which I saw at Geili.

{2) This is on the evidence of Nur Bey Angara and Mohammed Adam ; Zubeir does not admit that he had any difficulty in dealing with the Rizighat.