AN UNCOMFORTABLE STATION. 335 



It received its name from that of the chief of the district. 

 After Malzac's * death it was purchased by Binder, a Transyl- 

 vanian, and subsequently passed through the hands of Halil 

 Shami, Tohami, Ghattas, until finally it became the property 

 of the Government, whose authority, however, up till the time 

 of my arrival has only been a nominal one. This place, 

 originally erected for elephant hunting, became after the lapse 

 of years the centre of the settlement in this district, and the 

 starting-place for the caravans via Amadi to Monbuttu ; it 

 was also the collecting-place for the ivory, both white and 

 black, obtained by these caravans ; and lastly, it provided an 

 asylum and free quarters for all idlers and scamps from the 

 various Danagla settlements throughout the Sudan. Its rise 

 was facilitated by the dense neighbouring population and the 

 luxuriant corn-fields. At the present time the station has a 

 very uncomfortable look, owing to the former attempt to con- 

 struct a moat round the station, and the numerous trenches 

 in the yellow clayey soil, from which clay has been taken to 

 plaster the walls of the huts and to form the floors of the 

 platforms. Besides this, wells were constructed by means of 

 a row of deep holes, which the rain during the kharif has 

 deepened in some parts and destroyed in others, so that you 

 can now almost imagine that you have come upon a colony 

 where gold-diggers have been at work. In the midst of this 

 chaos of trenches, mounds, and pools, the station buildings 

 form a kind of island. They consist of a motley group of huts 

 built upon platforms, the irregular arrangement of which defies 

 all description. Paths about a foot broad, and covered by 

 every kind of filth, lead through this confusion ; and as the 

 spaces underneath the platforms are occupied by crowds of 

 slaves, who live after their own manner, the stench and dirt are 

 prodigiously increased. Hardly any one has thought of fencing 

 in his house, so that every one can see into his neighbour's 

 dwelling, and if any one quarrels with his concubine every one 

 in the station can see and hear. In one corner a kind of 



* M. Alfonse de Malzac died at Khartum in April 1881. Lejean (" Les Deux 

 Nils," pp. 19, 77, 99) calls him a monster of iniquity, but a good botanist ; Heuglin 

 (Petermann and Hassenstein's "Inner Afrika," p. 99) refers to him as "a slave- 

 hunter of the worst type." 



