BACK AT LADO, JULY 1882. 437 



of interest because it is the starting-point of the road which 

 runs through the Dinka country to the Bahr-el-Ghazal. 



It was really pleasant, after my long absence, to be once 

 more in my own district and amongst the Negroes, with whom 

 a long residence has made me very intimate. I received here 

 the first news from the Bahr-el-Ghazal, that the Kizegat on its 

 northern boundary had rebelled, and that the Bakara, who had 

 been incited by the emissaries of the Makdi, were giving a great 

 deal of trouble to Lupton Bey, my former assistant, now Gover- 

 nor of the Bahr-el-Ghazal district. It appears, therefore, that 

 the most distant possession of Egypt, the Equatorial province, 

 is at this moment the only part of her entire dominions which 

 is perfectly tranquil. 



The station of Bor was, as usual, in a very neat and clean 

 condition ; it is surrounded by extensive gardens, and its gar- 

 rison lives on the best footing with the thousands of Negroes 

 who reside in the neighbourhood, and who have learnt to feel 

 like men since I drove the Danagla from this place, and so put 

 an end to the slave-trade here. The Government, too, has 

 gained materially by this transaction, for the tax in grain, the 

 only tax which I have imposed, has been almost doubled in 

 amount. The people, who formerly left their homes, and who 

 preferred to lead a miserable life as fishers on the numerous 

 islands in the river, rather than lose their children, have gradu- 

 ally returned home, and have recommenced to cultivate ex- 

 tensive stretches of land which they had left lying fallow. The 

 whole district between Bor and Lado on the west bank of the 

 river, is an almost unbroken line of villages and huts, and even 

 where the Dinka give place to the Shir (who are Bari), new fields 

 and plantations have started into existence. All that is needed 

 is to protect the Negro population, and unrelentingly to pre- 

 vent the old razzias for men and cattle ; the Negroes will 

 themselves see to the spreading and increase of the population. 

 The Dinka, who possess large herds, were once the most 

 oppressed of the natives, and now they have already extended 

 far beyond their original boundaries. 



Lado, my capital, celebrated on account of its storms, its 

 thunder and lightning, and heat, suffered this year from want 

 of rain, so that in many places the first crops of durrah were 



