347 CHAPTER XXXVITT.

THE SANDEH CHIPFS.

Submission of the Sandili chiefs to Gessi lnsha — Immense field of exploration o])ene(l to south and west — Tlie eunuchs of Moubuttu, " Meshra-el-Kek, March loth, 1880.

" To the Editor of tlie Esplonifore.

" On February 29th there arrived two steamers from Khartoum with two of your letters. I had another by favour of Signor Prada, who had the kindness to send me the provisions forwarded by you. I beg you to thank Signor Lattuada for sending me the whole without demanding even the cost of transport. By the same steamer Dr. Junker arrived on liis way to Monbuttu. He could not have chosen a more favourable moment, all the roads being free, and all the hostile chiefs pacified, having voluntarily submitted to the Government.

" The submission of the powerful King Mdarama is also a great event, not only as regards the new resources acquired by the Soudan, but because it opens the doors to Sandeh in all directions. Mdarama, his brother Mbio, and a relation called Mofio, command a vast still unexplored territory which remained closed both to the united enterprise of the Congolese, and to the slavers' settlements. Scarcely had the