The Movements of Siileiinan.

was impossible, with the means at my disposal, that I should come out victorious.

My life at E-umbek had become insupportable. One cannot imagine a more monotonous village ; the huts croAvded, and the air pestilential. All the neighbourhood was full of filth. The upper floor of the hut is used by the master and his family, though the last in a separate tukul or apartment ; the lower floor serves as a kitchen and sleeping-place for the slaves. I am so disgusted that, if fate ever brings me to these parts again, I will do my best to avoid Rumbek.

During my stay there, news arrived that Suleiman had advanced with the intention of extending his dominion as far as Makraka. This news was true, for I had found many documents addressed as foUoAVS : " The Lord of Bahr-el-Ghazal, Rohl and Makraka." On the arrival of such news I caused Rumbek to be fortified Avith four trenched stockades, sufficiently strong to resist an assault. Suleiman intended to open the campaign when the Avater should haA'e completely retired, and had fortified his frontier along the shores of the river El-Tangi, erecting a seriba, Avhich was to serAe as his headquarters and as a depot for ammunition and food.

The opposition I met with among the Arabs increased daily. They not only refused to come AAth me, but they secretly induced the Besingers to desert. In consequence of this I decided, before going to the Bahr-el-Ghazal, to destroy the Arab seribe in Rohl, so as not to have at my back an enemy Avho, profiting by my suffering a possible defeat, could make common cause Avith Suleiman.

' As soon as the Arabs in the seribe were persuaded of my resolution they submitted, but with a bad grace. To prevent desertion I then caused a deserter to be shot, and by this measure was at last able to gather together a thousand men of irregular troops.