34 Seven Years in the Soudan.

" Let us now return to the Jelabba. I could not place any trust in what the irregular troops reported, so I assembled all the sheikhs, and declared that if they had not arrested all the Jelabba Avithin twentyfour hours, I should hold them responsible for the consequences. They told me, that besides the Jelabba already captured, there were about three hundred more in the Avoods. They then began a hunt that lasted two days and ended in the capture of all the remaining JelalDba. Reckoning those taken before, they numbered more than six hundred. Those belonging to Darfour, Shakka, and Kordofan were sent under escort to Darra ; those belonging to Khartoum, Sennaar, and Massolemia were kept at Jur Gattas to be sent later to Khartoum. The irregular troops, of whom T could expect nothing but treachery, -were all disarmed and also taken to Jur Gattas.

" I was obliged to stay for some time in the south of Bahr-el-Ghazal to rid the province of Rumbek of the Arabs and slavers. Means of transport are scarce, so that the work of cultivating the fields will be slow, and I fear it will be impossible to sow them all this year. It will depend on what is sent me from Khartoum. The number of Arabs still settled in the province of Rohl exceeds two thousand.

" Yours, " Gessi."

" Jur Gattas, " January 8th, 1880.

" I have found at last a means of emplopng the natives. I set them to work collecting the caoutchouc, tamarinds, and gum which I discovered during my last journe} to Meshra-el-Rek. The first load of caoutchouc that has ever been exported from this region of the Soudan will be sent bv next