362 Seven Years in the Soudan.

hundred women and a great many slaves ; but the Jehibba had escaped into the woods. The night being very dark, "it was impossible to find them, and 1 recalled my soldiers and took the necessary precautions against a night surprise. Late at night, Calliongo's Besingers succeeded in arresting eleven Jelabba, who were brought before me naked and bound. In the morning more than eighty Besingers arrived, begging me to set their women at liberty.

" ' We are slaves,' they said, ' and are not guilty of any crime.'

" I replied that I was read}" to restore their women, and not only that, but to make them free men, promising at the same time that the huts, utensils and cultivated ground should be their own property, on condition that they would arrest their masters and bring them to me bound. At this proposition, the Besingers, after consulting among themselves, departed at a run, howling and vociferating. Calliongo, who knew their language, translated what they had said, which was, ' AVe are free men !

Ave are free men ! Death to our oppressors ! ' "In a very few hours there appeared in every direction groups of Besingers leading their masters bound and despoiled, whilst distant gunshots proved that the struggle between the Jelabba and the slaves was still ofoinq* on. This scene continued all the day.

" The next morning I departed for Dem-el-Arbab, arriving at about ten a.m. There, at night, a leopard entered our camp and carried off one of my servants. The poor wretch was found the next day hanging, half eaten, upon a tree. My orderly, Murgian Ali, chased the leopard, but, having missed his aim, it escaped. Everyone believed the leopard to be an evil spirit which could not be killed.

" Some days after the arrest of the Jelabba, there arrived a few Arabs of the irregular troops, and I inquired whether any slave traders were to be found