422 AGRICULTURE, COMMERCE, ETC. 



tion to work when such answers as these are sent, based, as 

 they are, on the most thorough misconception of circumstances. 

 I at length sent a military expedition to Monbuttu to protect 

 the country from the Danagla, but have been compelled to 

 withdraw it, because I encountered the greatest difficulties at 

 every step, and, having no power to decide questions myself, 

 should have been obliged to report to Khartum, and wait five 

 or six months for an answer. Excuse this long jeremiad. 

 You, who know this beautiful country, will understand better 

 than any one else that this forced inactivity is the greatest 

 curse to a man like myself. 



4. On the Agfjcultuee, Commerce, and Administration of 

 the Equatorial Province. 



[Letters to Dr. G. Scliweinfurtli from Lado, March 3 and 18, 1883.) 



THE MPAFU-TREE — AMOMUM FRUITS — LOMBO BULBS — TOMATOES — AT- 

 TEMPTS TO SOW BAMBOOS AND WHEAT — MAIZE — GUAVAS — ONIONS AND 

 OIL-PALMS — SATISFACTORY BUDGET — NEGRO REVOLTS ON THE BAHR- 

 EL-GHAZAL — PROJECTS FOR COLONISING CENTRAL AFRICA — ON MIS- 

 SIONARY SOCIETIES AND THEIR PROSPECTS IN CENTRAL AFRICA — NEW 

 STATION ON THE KIBBI — NEW ROUTE TO THE BAHR-EL-GHAZAL PRO- 

 VINCE — CONDUCT OF THE DANAGLA — INDIARUBBER. 



I AM sending you a box of seeds with this letter, and should 

 particularly like to know the name of the tree which bears the 

 three-cornered nuts that I enclose. I first met with this gigantic 

 tree in 1876 in Uganda, where some specimens of it grew 

 beside my hut. They were twenty-one to twenty-five feet in 

 circumference, and rose to a height of ninety to a hundred feet 

 above the ground before throwing out branches, which formed 

 a splendid broad crown. The fruits are olive-shaped, and are 

 enclosed in a green husk, which smells of resin ; after being 

 dipped in hot water they are eaten. I only send you the 

 kernels. The bark is light grey, thick, and cracked, and is 

 strongly impregnated with resin. If a cut be made in it, a 



