436 THE SUDAN AND EQUATORIAL PROVINCE. 



the purpose of having the steamers coming from the Bahr-el- 

 Ghazal and Bahr-el-Jebel searched for slaves. This station 

 originally belonged to the Equatorial province, but it was sub- 

 sequently placed in the mudirie of Fashoda ; the people, how- 

 ever, from Fashoda had only used the station in order to make 

 razzias into the country entrusted to my care ; therefore, as my 

 complaints had not been heeded, and the station had also been 

 evacuated at the beginning of the present difficulties, I had 

 requested the Governor-General to make the station over to 

 me again, and he had granted my request. The reason I 

 asked for it back was that I wished, by reoccupying the Sobat, 

 and by erecting two or three small stations between it and my 

 station at Bor, to establish a post-road, which would enable me 

 to be independent of the arrival or non-arrival of steamers 

 from Khartum, and which I might also use, in case of blocks 

 in the Nile, to send my correspondence safely and expeditiously 

 to Khartum. After arriving at the Sobat, where some two 

 thousand Shiluk assembled to meet us, I was able to make the 

 necessary arrangements with their chiefs. The three days that 

 we remained there cutting wood were passed on the best of 

 terms with the natives, who brought very large quantities of 

 provisions for sale, such as flour, durrah, fowls, and fish, as also 

 straw mats ; iron and tobacco were the articles most sought 

 for in exchange. From the Sobat to the station of Shambe, a 

 distance of about a hundred hours' steaming, we had to pass 

 through a monotonous, depressing stretch of swamp. Broad 

 lake-like expanses of water, large swampy reed islands, tufts of 

 papyrus, groves of arnhaj, and more rarely small strips of firm 

 ground, alternated constantly with each other, and only very 

 seldom could a solitary tree be seen. There was, however, no 

 lack of material for the observer, for hosts of various kinds 

 of Diptera would have gladdened the heart of any entomolo- 

 gist, and there were millions of bloodthirsty mosquitos, against 

 which it was almost impossible to protect oneself. Any one 

 without sufficient interest in entomology to sacrifice his blood 

 to the cause, would wish, as I did, to be again on land. The 

 small station of Shambe, which we reached after more than 

 four days' steaming, affords the traveller a very desirable rest. 

 This station is really nothing but a wooding-place, and is only 



