EVACUATION OF MAKRAKA. 481 



Amadi with the higher officials of the province within ten 

 days of Jumadi-el-Akhir 10 (March 26); otherwise he, Kere- 

 mallah, would march from Amadi against Lado on the 20th of 

 the said month (April 5) ; whatever might then happen would 

 be my own fault. The second, also from Keremallah, but 

 directed to me privately, informed me that he was only coming 

 to support me ; no harm should happen to me if I would 

 come and surrender. The third letter is signed by some of 

 our own people, who have joined the Danagla in Amadi 

 (Mohammed-es-Sayad, Egyptian captain ; Yussuf-Bei, Sudanese 

 joiner ; Abd-el-Aziz Aga and Hassan Aga, Sudanese lieu- 

 tenants, and several corporals). These informed me that the 

 officers in Amadi were drunk night and day, while the soldiers 

 ate old leather and hides to appease their hunger, and they 

 invited me to give myself up, for that they, the writers, had 

 not received any bad treatment from the rebels. As Khartum 

 is not even mentioned in any of these letters, we may almost 

 conclude that our opponents had also received no news from 

 there for a long time. The bearers of the letters, two Negroes 

 of Amadi, said that a number of Jellabas had come from Kor- 

 dofan, that the slave-trade was in a very flourishing state, and 

 that the slaves I freed in 188 1 had been reclaimed. 



Meanwhile the Danagla in Amadi had not remained idle, 

 but had pushed forward their outposts again to within three 

 days' march of Lado, and had instigated the Negroes to slay 

 unmercifully any stragglers from Amadi, and to close the road 

 to Makraka. This being the case, I was obliged to send my 

 letters to Makraka by the road I had lately opened through 

 Bejaf and Bimo. A detachment of the enemy had dispersed 

 the few officers and soldiers in Kamari, near Wandi, and then 

 marched against Wandi, which was untenable owing to its 

 position. The soldiers therefore retired in good order towards 

 Bimo, intending to take the road from there to Bejaf. But 

 before they could reach it, the Danagla attacked them fiercely, 

 and were thoroughly defeated, losing a large number of men, 

 and flying precipitately. The march forward was then com- 

 menced, and detachment after detachment arrived safely at 

 Beden, with their sick men and followers. I sent some clerks 

 and officials from Lado, where scarcity of corn prevailed, to 



2 H 



