The British Campaign in the Soudan.’ ‘147 was on a tour of inspection to Gondokoro and the lakes. I made many inquiries and obtained much information from the Austrian Consul, who was in full sympathy with Gordon, and he told me that it was true that slave caravans were no longer brought to Khartoum, and that the traders had to seek concealment. “ But,” added he— “if you wanted to purchase a hundred boys or a hundred girls, they can be procured and delivered to you at a safe place in twenty-four hours for $35 to $50 per head.” Nevertheless, it is believed that under Gordon’s rule the annual importation from Central Africa was reduced from three hundred thousand to less than one hundred thousand, and in the attainment of this result, great numbers of the traders were financially ruined, and hundreds of the slave-hunting soldiers caught red-handed were shot—* pour encowrager les autres.” It must be kept in mind, however, that this warfare was carried on against slave-hunting only. In the nature of things no interference could be attempted or was desired with regard to domestic slavery as it existed in Egypt and the Soudan.

As a natural and inevitable consequence, all the powerful class of slave-hunters, together with all those who derived profit from the slave-trade, such as_jellabs, usurers, furnishers of supplies, bandits and adventurers, were driven to desperation by restraints which meant ruin to them, and they were ready for revolution.

But far more formidable than all the rest, if once aroused into hostility, were the half million of Bedouins roaming the deserts east and west of the Nile, of whom every male above fifteen is a warrior. They are of different blood from the people of Egypt and the Soudan,