386 Seven Years in the Soudan.

finished almost all the quinine : this is my position at the present moment.

The news from Khartoum is unsatisfactory. People whom I have expelled are being questioned about me, and they will certainly not speak Avell of mc. IVhat a source from which to obtain information !

The Arabs in general do not hesitate to say that I have ruined the Soudan, and that the measures I took to prevent the exportation of slaves has caused the abandonment of all agriculture, so that the people cannot pay the continually increasing taxes. After the departure of the old Govei'nor the slaves believed that the hour of salvation was come, but were verj' soon cheated of their hope. Some who went to complain were beaten and sent back to their masters.

They accuse me of Avisliing to exclude the Arab element, of propagating the idea of emancipation, and employing natives in the administration ; that I make great militar}" preparations and evolutions, and that 1 am working to the end that these districts may one day achieve their jndependence. Who knows Avhat they will still invent in order to get me out of the country ! It is certain that I have struck a terrible blow at all the slavers without distinction.

Bahr-el-Ghazal, Rohl, Monbuttu, Makraka and Kufra-el-lVahas furnished at least eight}' thousand slaves a year ; this number may seem exaggerated, but I am able to furnish the most exact statistics. Among the ]3apers and documents collected in various seribe I have found some accounts current, and at Dem Suleiman I found some obligations to the value of about ninety thousand dollars, gained by the selling of slaves. Suleiman Ziber had credited with this sum several Jelabbas, merchants, and government employers. There were more than twenty tliousaud Arabs m these regions occupied in the slave trade. Eecko-ning that each Arab captured on his own account only