The Jelabba. 221 be prepared for a desperate struggle, convinced that the Government, even if they surrendered, would never pardon the massacres and unheard-of atrocities which they have committed. The Esploratore (year I., fascicle II.) has already published a long description of the seribe (villages surrounded by hedges) on the Gazelle, which I have seen copied in several English journals, and in which the famous Ziber Bey, now Pasha, is spoken of, whom finally the Central Government decided to imprison at Cairo. His son, Suleiman Bey, succeeded and even surpassed his father in cruelty. It would be difficult to calculate the number of slaves that were exported by father and son, and people here assure me that from the seriba called Dem Ziber at Shakka, there is no need for a guide, as it is only necessary to follow for twelve days the track of the skeletons of negroes scattered along the way. Yussef Bey also told me that, while crossing the country not a village Avas to be found ; nothing was to be met with but the ruins of huts, and the posts to Avhich the natives used to attach their cattle at night, the only signs of former habitation. In those times Egypt had only nominal possession of the land, but now that a regular government has been established, it will be able to do as much as has been done on the White Nile.

The question of the abolition of slavery is much more difficult than is believed in Europe. The right of possessing slaves being allowed by the Koran, it will be as hard for the Government here to suddenly destroy slavery as it would be for our Government to destroy the dogma of the Catholic Church. It cannot be denied that a great step has been already made, but it will need time to put the new laws into execution. I have had occasion to converse with many Arabs of some culture who have visited Cairo and Alexandria, and among whom there were even some who had served in European houses. When I told them that to drag one's fellow-man into slavery