32S Seven Years in the Soudan.

promising them great booty, victories, &c. Although the Besingers Avere only savages, they very soon found out that Suleiman and the chiefs were impostors, and finished by losing all faith in them. Many soldiers deserted to the villages of the Xiam-A'iam.

" Though Dem Bako, on our arrival there, had been found well provided with doora, our prolonged stay there soon led to scarcity. Suleiman then determined to depart, first setting fire to a magazine full of ivory, the flames being fed with pots of honey, of which quantities are kept in this village.

" The number of Jelabbas who had joined us was not more than three thousand, but they were accompanied by more than five thousand women and slaves. Adding to this number about two thousand five hundred Besingers, their wives, servants and slaves, I do not think it an exaggeration to say that the whole number of fugitives was twenty thousand, all suffering from hunger and exhausted by fatigue.

" From Bako we were ordered to march towards Jebel Kara — (not to be confounded with the village Grara) — but the natives, having heard in time of our approach, had carried away all the grain, so that on our arrival in that country we suffered still more from famine, and were obliged to devour leaves and roots. Here the Jelabbas and slaves died by hundreds a day ; only the Besingers, who had munition, were able to hunt and so provide themselves with food.

" Suleiman was obliged to go away as quickly as possible, and sent a letter to Harun, offering to aid him to fight the common enemy, and to reconquer the realm of his forefathers. From Jebel Kara we went to the river Meringhi, then to Dulep towards Darfour ; Ave reached Kill, ]\Iusheshena, and lastly Tasha. There was o-reat scarcitv evervwhere, and we pushed on with great difiicnlty towards Magdud and Mundua. All along the route thousands of