ESCAPE OF A FEMALE SLAVE. 219 



people, with whom she is now probably safe. They wanted 

 us to assist them to continue the hunt into the Base 

 country, and were very much astonished to hear, on the 

 contrary, that we were very glad she had escaped from 

 their clutches, and that had it been in our power we 

 would have given her every assistance to do so. Albert 

 says they have a suspicion she is now in concealment 

 with us, and it is a little curious that they should have 

 tracked her here and no farther. She is supposed to 

 have lived during her hurried flight upon the nabbuk- 

 berries she could pick up by the way. AH looks very 

 miserable about his loss, and it is a great one to him, as 

 he paid an Abyssinian sixty dollars for her only two years 

 ago when with others she fell into the hands of those 

 people in a frontier fight with the Base. From the 

 information we can gather from the Hamrans there 

 must still be considerable trade in slaves in these parts. 

 Essafi's father has frequently volunteered to procure for 

 us a little boy and girl to take back to England, for 

 the very modest sum of twenty dollars apiece, and 

 cannot understand why we should refuse so good an 

 offer, as he thinks they would be so useful to us. 

 According to him there are plenty of slaves always 

 for sale at ' El Kadarif,' a trading town one day's 

 journey from 'Gwayha,' where they are brought by 

 the Abyssinians after a successful raid upon their 

 neighbours. There is another place much nearer home, 



