358 Seven Years in the Soudan.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

REORGANIZATION OF THK COUNTRV.

Burned villages — Riddance of the Arabs — Proclamation — Energetic measures — Famine — Arrival of the Jelabba — El-Arbab — A man carried ofi by a leopard — Isolated slave traders — Natives set to work — Indiaiubber, tamarinds and gum sent to Khartoum — Arabs embarked — Crossing the country — Dr. Junker's exploration.

" Wau, " 17th December, 1879.

"Dear Camperio, — Before leaving: Dem Suleiman to pursue Suleiman to the copper mines of Hofrat-el-Nahas, and into Darfour, I had caused all important positions to be occupied by the most faithful of the Arab chiefs, charging them to watch that the rebels did not unite and commit brigandage.

" The war being ended with the death of Suleiman and his fifty-two principal chiefs, mv thoughts turned to the organization of the country and the restoration of all that had been destroyed. But though no longer troubled by the rebels, T had still a difficult mission to accomplish. The countr}' was in extreme misery, the grain was exhausted or destroyed, the cattle had disap})eared, and a fowl could not have been found at any price. Thousands and thousands of natives had fled into Sandeh and the neighbourinsr plains ; the villages were for the greater part razed to the ground, and Bahr-el-Ghazal had the aspect of a country destroyed by fire. How could I re-establish