474 LETTERS TO DK. SCHWEINFURTH. 



honey ; we make famous candles of wax. In place of coffee 

 we roast the seeds of Hibiscus sabdariffa, and I can assure you 

 that the decoction from them is not at all bad — it may even 

 be more wholesome and beneficial. Shoes are made here, and 

 very elegant ones too. We only want cloth for clothing, for 

 the damur manufacturers of Makraka have just gone over to 

 the saints, that is, have run away. I have asked Mt^sa to 

 send us Zanzibar men with cloth, which I would contrive to 

 get from them by barter. I am still hoping, in spite of all the 

 past events, that we shall at length be released by the arrival 

 of a steamer from Khartum ; it would indeed be a shame if all 

 Junker's splendid collections were destroyed. 



January 2, 1885. 



I send you again my best and most hearty wishes for the 

 New Year. Shall we be more fortunate this year than in that 

 just ended ? You and all the rest of the world have doubtless 

 long ago counted us among the missing, but we seem to me to 

 be quite invulnerable, and not at all likely to be found dead ; 

 therefore I shall not resign the hope of sending you Junker 

 safe and sound as a present some fine day. It has really gone 

 very ill with him this time : the loss of his collections, a twelve- 

 month's useless and unwished-for detention, privations of all 

 kinds, no news from his relations, make up a very pretty list. 

 And yet I am glad that he came hither from the Bahr-el- 

 Ghazal in time, and luckily escaped from that wasps' nest, 

 though, indeed, only to suffer and wait. It is a pity that the 

 fine natural history collections from the Nyam-Nyam country 

 are all lost, and cannot by any means be replaced. 



I have little to tell you about ourselves. On December 2 

 there was a hard-fought battle near Amadi, lasting from early 

 morning till noon, in which twelve of our officers and men were 

 killed and eighteen wounded, most of them by spear-thrusts. 

 This shows that the Agar Negroes had been summoned 

 to the assistance of the Danagla, and had come in great 

 numbers. Our men had stormed the camp of the enemy, 

 and spread great destruction among them, but they were forced 

 to give way on account of the superior numbers of the Negroes, 



