306 MEHEMED ALl'S SLAVE-HUNTS.

half of them fall victims to barbarous and cruel treatment before they reach the place of their destination. The Viceroy of Egypt institutes annually, once or twice in the course of the year, an actual hunt in the mountains of Nuba, and in the bordering countries, and seizes upon a certain number of the negroes by stratagem or force, in order either to pay the arrears due to his troops in Kordofan with these unfortunate men, instead of with ready money, or to increase his revenue by the sale of his fellow creatures. I must leave it to the kind judgment of my readers whether an apology for such a proceeding is to be found, and abstain myself from any observation on the subject, as the object of my sketch is simply to give a correct description of the slave-hunts as conducted by Mehemed Ali. Several European journals have stated that these marauding expeditions were put an end to by command of the viceroy on the occasion of his visit to Sennaar, but I can assure the reader that the order was " i?o<2? et prcBterea niJiil,'' and that these robberies take place as before even at the present day. No pen can describe the acts of deliberate cruelty perpetrated on these occasions, revolting atrocities which I am sure that Mehemed Ali, were he acquainted with the particulars, would visit on the heads of his officers, notwithstanding that they are committed in his interest and in his service ; unfortunately, however, the distance of this ill-fated province is too great from the