UNTRUSTWORTHY OFFICERS. 497 



and east of Africa, the Pacific Ocean, and elsewhere. Reading 

 these short and meagre telegraphic notes really makes one 

 nervous ; the statements are so abrupt that it is vain to search 

 for the connexion between all the events. Excuse these long 

 digressions, which will certainly not interest you. I do not as 

 a rule fill my letters with reflections and personal opinions, but 

 I may be pardoned this time in consideration of my exceptional 

 position. And exceptionally brilliant it is ! 



In Egypt and elsewhere they have certainly no notion of 

 the difficulties of my situation. They simply suggest to me 

 the way to Zanzibar, just as they would a walk to Shubra. 

 You will have perceived from the information contained in the 

 foregoing leaves that I cannot depend with any certainty on 

 my own officers. The greater part of my men, especially the 

 officers, have no desire to leave this country. I have repeatedly 

 drawn the attention of the Government in Khartum to the fact 

 that it is absolutely necessary to change the officers here every 

 second year, and also the men, in part at any rate, lest in 

 troublous times our movements should be impeded by innumer- 

 able obstacles. I have not even received an answer. The 

 greater part of our soldiers, coming, as they do, from our own 

 districts (Makraka, Dinka, &c), and having never seen Egypt, 

 naturally prefer to remain here and live as their fathers did, while 

 the Negro soldier sent hither from Egypt, whether he be an 

 officer or a private soldier, has forgotten in the lapse of years 

 what strict discipline means, and, further, has adapted himself 

 to the country to such a degree that it has quite taken the 

 place of his native land. Each has his family, often a very 

 large one, if all its dependents be counted, and each has his 

 couple of goats or cows. Every one knows that the journey is 

 long and the toils great, that many days of hunger and hard- 

 ship lie before him, and that when he arrives in Egypt the 

 loose bonds of discipline will be tightened again, that he must 

 then say farewell to the mrisa jug, and that the " Taali ya 

 valad " (Come, boy) and " Ruh ya valad " (Go, boy) must 

 come to an end. . . . Then consider how little attention has 

 been shown to our soldiers from Khartum, how they have 

 been left without supplies, without clothing, without pay, — but 

 enough, you can now understand why the men do not wish 



2 I 



