272 Seven Yeai's in the Soudan.

Excellency to give orders that I and my troops should evacuate all the territory of Bahr-el-Ghazal.

Gordon Pasha, recognizing in these nine chiefs so many abettors of the massacres in Dem Idris, replied by having them shot.

On the 4tli of May the preparations for the expedition were ended. We had six hundred men, among whom were one hundred and fifty of the regular troops. As the inhabitants had fled, there were no porters, and I did not even succeed in finding a guide.

The route I followed with my column was in the opposite direction to that taken by the expedition of two thousand men lately sent by me. "We marched to the north-east of Dem Suleiman ; the others had gone southwards. As will be seen, the warfare we were engaged in was of the guerilla sort, and it was necessary to attack or to stand on the defensive everywhere. When the revolt had been subdued in one place, it raised its head in another as soon as we had gone aAva}' ; but all this did not deprive me of the hope of mastering it, and pacifying the whole country, vast though it be, if God in His merc}' would preserve my health, AAhich hitherto had been proof asfainst evervtliing.

Ever} soldier belonging to my little army, composed of troops now inured to battle, but knocked up with severe fatigue, carried one hundred and twenty cartridges and enough flour for fourteen days. The object of this march was Mount Serago, near Delguana, two and a half days from Dem Suleiman. The route we followed took us the first day to a large seriba belonging to Suleiman, where a great depot of ivory was supposed to exist. This seriba, as I afterwards learned, is called Yanga. The country which we crossed during this first march was very fine. Both my men and myself felt in high spirits after the successful campaign in Bahr-el-Ghazal, and the soldiers felt the good influence of the finer climate which we met with while going from east to west in