432 Seven Years in the Soudan.

Darra confirmed the facts, and exposed the whole affair of the abduction of women and children, and the murders and robberies committed, your Excellency did not cause the culprits to be arrested, so that it seems these brigands enjoy immunity for their crimes and have a right to laugh at the laws sanctioned by the Khedive.

" I have abolished slavery throughout Bahr-el-Ghazal and dependencies, not by vain Avords or empty promises, but in fact. All are free subjects of the Khedive, and none can be kept b}' force or against his Avill, " No raids are allowed, and war between the tribes has ceased. This state of things has exasperated the slave traders, and, in order to revive the iniquities of the past, they believe they can find in your Excellency a means of getting rid of me. If this were not so, tliey would never have dared to present their ridiculous petition.

" In order to content them I should have had, as was the case under the rule of Yussuf Pasha, Atrouch Bey, Idris Bey, and Tangi Bey, to permit slavery, encourage the trade, allow the making of eunuchs, the robbing of the Government, the neglect of agriculture, and the committing of massacres. Then, without doubt, I should have given them no reason to complain of me, and should have been called a model Central- African governor. But now, as if to punish me for all I have done in the interests of the Government and the people, your Excellency is pleased to restrict my authority, reducing me from the rank of governor to that of a simple mudir (or head of a district), and decreasing my power to the point of not being able to dismiss the least of my servants without previous Government permission. In justice to my cause I hope to find elsewhere the assurance of satisfaction which the Government of your Excellency is pleased to deny me.

"In three years I have received in all 1400Z. sterling