466 LETTERS TO DR. SCHWEINFURTH. 



and officers in the place to break their allegiance, but met with 

 a refusal. After this, on June 4, he started off, together with 

 some Danagla who had joined him, the above-mentioned officer, 

 and five Egyptian soldiers (ex-convicts). The boat on the 

 swollen Ye'i had first been sunk by his orders, to prevent the 

 news reaching here. They plundered the country all the way 

 through Makraka-Sugaire to Kabayendi, carrying off all the 

 natives they could lay hands on, both men and women, and 

 when they reached the station of Kabayendi, they pillaged not 

 only the Government magazine, but also private property. The 

 commander of the station, a certain Mustapha Aga, also from 

 Khartum, was put in chains and carried off, all his property 

 being confiscated. Then the rabble went to Kudurma, where 

 they took up their quarters in order to prepare flour for the 

 march to the Bahr-el-Ghazal, that is, to steal corn from the 

 natives, and make flour from part of it and mrissa from the 

 rest. During this halt, the Danagla stationed in Mundu joined 

 the rebels, with their arms and ammunition, and there were 

 only a few men left in Makraka who adhered to us. But in 

 the meantime I had been able to throw a few soldiers at least 

 into the district, and as it was not at all my intention to give 

 up acting on the defensive, I confined myself for the time being 

 to stirring up the Negroes against these men, and so far suc- 

 ceeded that all the people they had dragged off with them 

 returned to their homes. But dissensions seem to have broken 

 out in the Danagla' s camp itself, arising at first on account 

 of the captive, Mustapha Aga. Letters and news received 

 from deserters informed me that Ibrahim Aga was forced to 

 restore all that he had taken from Mustapha, and was at last 

 even imprisoned ; but in the end he took the road to Sabi, 

 accompanied by the five Egyptian soldiers and some of the 

 Danagla, while the remaining Danagla and the Egyptian officer 

 already referred to are still staying in Kudurma. They intend 

 to wait there until the kharif is over, and then to proceed to 

 the north. Of course, they are in close communication with 

 the Danagla who have remained ostensibly true to me, and I 

 should not be astonished if our present allies joined their 

 seditious brethren at the expiration of the kharif, unless help 

 or good news comes from the north. 



