426 Seven Years in the Soudan.

equal in quality and strengtli to those sent from Khartoum, " Knowing the importance of cotton, both as material for clothing and as an article of commerce, I encouraged its cultivation along the banks of the Bahr-el-Ghazal. In some places I set hand-looms at work, which jDroduce excellent damnr, of which dresses are made in the Soudan. These hand-looms, worked by young negroes, will be a powerful means of spreading civilization among the blacks, for they are very fond of dress. The cultivation of cotton, if extended to other parts of the Soudan, will become, as in America, the principal article of production, and here there is the advantage that the cotton is better, finer, whiter, and longer than that of America or Lower Egypt. The trees yield a crop for twenty years in succession, and the greatest production is between the tenth and the fifteenth year. I have seen trees which the natives say have existed since the first invasion, that is, twenty-seven 3"ears. This year the crop will not suffice for local consumption, as the seed did not arrive from Khartoum in time.

" I Avas the first to discover caoutchouc in this region and to profit b}" it. This precious gum, which no one knew of here, is now collected throughout Bahr-el-Cxhazal and in the vast region of Xiam-Xiam, whither I have sent gatherers for a long time. Two das before my departure from "Wan a brother of Mdarama came to visit me, who brought a hundred and fift}' elejihant tusks, and told me that a large quantity of caoutchouc had been already gathered.

" In all the stations (also at Meslira-el-Rek) there Avas accumulated such a quantity of caoutchouc, that it was not j)ossible to load it all on the boats for want of space. I firmly believe that if the Government continue the work I have begun, it will be easy to procure five hundred tons of caoutchouc per year, representing a value of about £72,000,