385 CHAPTER XLI.

GREAT iMORTALlTY THROUGH FAMINE.

One huntlred thousaml slavos — "Who is Emiii Pasha ? — Return from Bahr-el-Cihazal — Famine — Cannibalism — i\J arno's aviival — A few saved — On the Jlordeeu — A terrible night — Arrival at Khartoum— The last notes of Gessi Pashn.

At last, after waiting five months, we have the satisfaction of a post from Khartoum, By the same steamer arrived Captain Casati, sent me by Captain Camperio. The Gazelle river is blocked by more than sixty bars formed of vegetable flotsam from a thousand to six thousand feet long, and is almost unnavigable. If the Government at Khartoum does not take energetic measures, the navigation will entirely cease, and we shall be obliged to send ivory and other merchandise by way of Gaba-Shambe. A glance at the map shows the immense distance, and one can imagine what the toil of transport would be to the porters. More than eight months ago I reported the state of the river, asking for a steamer and boats when it would have been easy to remedy the thing, but now it is different, and it will take at least six months to open a free passage. I am now on the steamer for Khartoum ; we have taken fourteen days to make a run that could be done in one day if the river were not blocked by grass, papyrus, and ambash. I have two companies of regular troops, who are all day in the water working to clear the way, and our provisions are beginning to fail; a third of my men are suffering from fever, and I have c c