THE TROOPS. 199 CHAPTER XII.

THE TROOPS.

The military force stationed in Kordofan consists of three battalions of the first regiment of the line, each battalion being composed of 1000 men, further of 800 Bedouin horsemen, called also iVIogghrebeen, and of about 40 artillery men to serve the few guns employed in the slave-hunting expeditions ; to this number about 200 men of the irregular Turkish cavalry were added, in the commencement of the year 1839. The latter troops were removed from Dongola to Kordofan, but for an indefinite time only; they were, indeed, expecting orders shortly to return to their former quarters. The staff is stationed at Lobeid, and the colonel of the regiment (the Bey) whom we have before mentioned, is both civil and military governor of the province. Two companies of the same regiment are quartered in Sennaar. This regiment was originally the first which Mehemed Ali formed of Negroes at Assuan in Egypt, and placed on European footing; hundreds of Egyptians have, at various times, been drafted into this corps, but they mostly fell vie-