92 EGYPT AND THE SOUDAN.

seizing of men, women, and children, and the deportation of gangs and caravans of unfortunate creatures across the desert and in slavedhows on the Nile, he was as determined as ever, though it would be impossible to take any immediate action with regard to it; but so far as the retention of slaves was concerned, he distinctly said that the owners of slaves would not be compelled to forfeit that " property," or be otherwise interfered with by attempts to prepare for the realization of the treaty. It would have been futile to have endeavoured to do otherwise. He and the English government, who endorsed his action in this respect, had to accept the situation as they found it. Slavery had not ceased, nor was it likely to cease under the Mahdi, who was dependent on the men to whose interest it had been to restore the traffic and to undo much of the work that Baker and Gordon had accomplished. The assurance that no one would be compelled to give up his slaves was regarded as a concession and strengthened Gordon's position with the chiefs, and, as we have already seen, domestic slavery in Egypt and even in the towns of the Soudan was not to be regarded as a hardship to those who endured it. It was an entirely different institution to that of the system of field and plantation slavery in the West Indies and the Southern States of America.

In a report subsequently published by Colonel Duncan, the commander of the troops in Upper Egypt, concerning the refugees who had been received by him at Assouan it is mentioned : " The most striking feature, to my mind, was the large family and retinue I generally found with the government officials. Many had undoubtedly been slaves, but most had obtained their letters of freedom before they reached Assouan. For those who had not, I procured these letters from the civil authorities. I observed that the letters were always in the possession of the masters and never of the servants, and I doubt if many of the latter knew of their existence, and they were quite indifferent when told of it." This was written in July, and referred to the refugees coming through in April and May. At Berber, early in February, Gordon thought there were so many signs of confidence in the government