INTRODUCTION 5 



its own preconceived theories. However, worse em- 

 ployment might be found for the Secretariat at 

 Khartoum than the compilation of a map that would 

 show concisely the actual ravages wrought by the 

 Mahdi and Khalifa amongst the various populations 

 committed to their care, and if a reprint of this map 

 were furnished to every member of Parliament, its 

 effect might conceivably outvalue the cost incurred. 

 And here farewell to politics, save that I wish to 

 place upon record my desire that every member of 

 the party of Tariff Reform should have shared a 

 portion of the pleasure which I experienced on paying 

 to the Government of the Sudan a duty of 8 per cent 

 ad valorem upon every article imported by me into 

 the Sudan, by which transaction the Government 

 benefited to the extent of nearly 15 upon my 

 rifles only, the aforesaid enjoyment being heightened 

 when I ascertained that since I was to spend more 

 than six months in the country, no portion of the 

 duty would be recoverable on re-export. 



Having learned that the Abyssinian part of my 

 scheme was unworkable, I made up my mind to begin 

 business by shooting ibex in the hills behind Souakin, 

 then to travel through the eastern skirts of the 

 Nubian desert to Kassala, afterwards to shoot along 

 the valleys of the Atbara and Settit, then to cross the 

 watershed and shoot over the valleys of the Rahad 

 and Binder, and finally to reach the Blue Nile, and 





