272 NORTH-EAST AFEICA. 



can be judged, without attempting an at present impossible approximation, the 

 area of Dar-Fôr and its dependencies may be estimated at 200,000 square miles. 

 This extent of country is bounded to the north by the desert, east by Kordofân, 

 south by the Bahr-el-Arab, and west by Wadaï, whilst its total populations, 

 according to Nachtigal, amounts to at least 4,000,000. Mason, however, who has 

 also visited this country, thinks that the population does not exceed one million 

 and a half . 



Progress of Discovery. 



Dar-Fôr, whose capital is more than 360 miles from the Nile in a straight 

 line, is too far removed from this great commercial route to have been frequently 

 visited. It was not known even at the end of the last century except by name, 

 and it was then that it entered for the first time into the history of geography, 

 thanks to the voyage of the Englishman, Brown, who remained in the country 

 three years, although rather as a captive than a free man.* An Arab, Mohammed 

 el Tunsy, or the "Tunisian," dwelt still longer in Dar-Fôr, and wrote a very 

 interesting work upon it, which has since been translated into French. It is still 

 the only book which contains the fullest and most valuable account of the history, 

 manners, and customs of the Dar-Fôrians. 



The Frenchman Cuny in 1858 presented himself at the court of El-Fasher, 

 but he mysteriously died there a few days after his arrival, and not even his diary 

 from El-Obeid to El-Fasher has been preserved. The sovereign of Dar-Fôr had 

 doubtless wished to act up to the name bestowed on his country, " the mouse- 

 trap of Infidels," who, it is said, " can easily come in, but never get out again." 



It was to Nachtigal, the third European visitor, that fell the honour of 

 describing, for the first time during this century, the interior of a country hitherto 

 so little known. This explorer was still in Dar-Fôr when the slave-dealer Zibehr 

 commenced its conquest, which was soon afterwards achieved in the name of the 

 Egyptian Government. The country was opened to travellers, and the European 

 staff ofiicers were able to draw up a map of it ; but the Egyptian occupation has 

 not even lasted ten years. The governor nominated by the Khedive is a prisoner 

 of the insurgent Mussulmans, and the frontier of Dar-Fôr is again forbidden to 

 explorers for a time. 



Physical Features. 



More truthfidly than to most other countries the expression " backbone " may 

 be applied to the mountain system of Dar-Fôr. Here almost more than elsewhere 

 the whole living organism — streams, plants, animals, man himself and his history 

 — are attached to the main ranges as to the bones of a skeleton. Without the 

 mountains of Marrah there would be no Dar-Fôr. This chain of lavas and granites, 

 whose general shape is that of a crescent, commences north of the fourteenth degree 

 of latitude, and after running southwards for a distance of about 120 miles, sweeps 

 round to the west. At the point where Nachtigal crossed it, towards its northern 

 * W. G. Brown, " Travels in Afiica," 1799. 



