STATISTICS OF A YAK. 411 



seemed to have any idea of getting a living except by plunder 

 and the slave-trade. On the very first day of my visit two 

 hundred slaves were reclaimed by their relations. More than 

 five hundred carrier-loads of corn have been sent here by the 

 natives during the last few weeks, and squandered. The maga- 

 zine is now quite empty ; the people complain of hunger, and at 

 the same time wander about the station drunk. A certain Abd- 

 el-Kher, an official here, has himself collected not less than 

 eighty-four slaves, while the number of those reclaimed in two 

 days from the immediate neighbourhood is about four hundred, 

 besides the Monbuttu who have been restored to their chief, 

 Gambari. Of course I have made a great stir among this 

 rabble, and think now that the Negroes will have a little 

 peace, and will entertain more respect for the Government 

 than they have done hitherto. 



Ayak, one of the oldest settlements of the Danagla, and one 

 of the strongest bulwarks of the slave-market, was governed 

 by a certain Defa'allah, who, in spite of his most glaring and 

 cruelly bad treatment of the Agar-Negroes, and in spite of 

 having connived at robbery and murder, has contrived to 

 maintain himself here for years — how I do not care to discuss. 

 He was hated and feared by all the Negroes. Shortly before 

 my arrival, this exemplary governor had hunted up over four 

 hundred slaves of both sexes and all ages, belonging to the 

 neighbouring Agar, Klch, Atwot, and Mandari. About two 

 hundred of the choicest boys and girls had been concealed by 

 trusted chiefs in the small zcribas of the so-called Dragomans, 

 and about fifty Monbuttu who presented themselves to me were 

 said to have been voluntarily set free. If we reckon to these, at 

 a low estimate, from seven to eight hundred slaves present in the 

 station, it gives in round numbers 1500 persons, a number 

 certainly about one-third under the mark. 



If we summarise the inhabitants of Ayak, we find them to 

 be as follows : — 



Pedlars (one of them a Greek) ... 7 

 Persons without any employment . 57 



Ushur'ie . . . . . . -57 



Irregular soldiers 30 



151 



