82 Seven Years in the Simdan.

Tlie natives tlien refused all requests or orders to sell or supply cattle or doora, and Sir Samuel's trooj)s began to suffer from this, and Avere already reduced to rations, when the dilemma presented itself of either dying of hunger or resorting to force. Sir Samuel then began his incursions among the tribes with fire and sword, taking possession of their cattle and their doora. All this is incontestably true, and I learned the facts by serious inquiry among the natives, as well as among the officers and soldiers who took an active part in the affair.

Abu-Sud Avitnessed all this with pleasure, foreseeing in the end Sir Samuel's ruin. All the people became hostile to the latter without being able to count much on the aid of the Government, and things came to such an extremity that the soldiers of Baker, and Baker himself, could not venture a step out of Gondokoro, Avithout the risk of receiving a poisoned arrow or a blow from a lance.

Undoubtedly this was in great part the work of Abu-Sud, who strove to render the position of Baker always more difficult and critical, as the latter confessed it to be in his reports. Abu-Sud, only thirty years old, and endowed with uncommon energy, hastened first to the Dongolese and then to some other tribe, exciting their imagination and promising victory.

The enormous distances from one ]ioint to another of the provinces prevented Sir Samuel Baker's troops from being at all the threatened points at once. A few tribes were defeated, but never subjugated; many at the ai)proach of the troops abandoned their villages, taking their cattle with them and seeking refuge among the mountains or in the interior of the country. Nothing remained for Sir Samuel but to set fire to the huts, which were rebuilt twenty-four hours afterwards by the natives, as soon as the soldiers had disappeared.

We will follow further on the warlike operations