411 CHAPTEE XLII.

FROM KErARTOU:\[ TO SUEZ.

" Khartoum, Februar} 12th, 1881.

" To the Editor of the Esploratore.

" I FOUND Khartoum after an absence of three years very different from what I had left it. Fine edifices along the river bank, luxurious vegetation, new law-courts, a garden to the Government Palace: all these things on arriving from the marshy countries of the Nuer and the Shilluk, arouse a certain wonder even in one accustomed to the great cities of the world.

" It is the European colony which has transformed this region, instructing the people in the art of making brick and lime and cutting stone, and proving to them that the most unpleasant places can be rendered habitable, and life therein supportable.

The Catholic mission was the first teacher, later on the Maltese Del Bono, and then different Arab, Copt, and Greek merchants, and now there is general rivalry in building houses provided with all the comforts of European civilization.

" There are also many fine sho};s and warehouses abundantly furnished with European articles, such as preserves, confectionery, and a thousand other things which would please the most refined taste.

" Among the merchants M. Marquet, a Frenchman, distinguished himself dealing in an immense