5 oo LETTERS TO DR. SCHWEINFURTH. 



The situation in this country is still a very gloomy one. 

 As I said before, the greater part of our people do not wish 

 to retire from here. I expect a definite answer from Lado by 

 the middle of this month, and shall then be able to consider 

 how I am to act. If I can only get the people to let the 

 Egyptians retire, I am quite ready to remain myself. 



April 20, ll 



The steamer I expected has arrived, but has brought only 

 unwelcome news. I have no information from the officers 

 whom I sent to Lado to explain the situation to the men there. 

 But a private letter from an Egyptian official has reached 

 me, containing, among other things, the following : — " The 

 report that several officers are on their way here to make 

 preparations for a movement to the south has caused great 

 excitement, and the men have agreed among themselves 

 not to go south, for, they say, the way to the seat of our 

 Government does not run southwards, but through Lado to 

 Khartum, and they would rather return to their homes than 

 go to the south. But if they are forced to do so, they will 

 seize all the arms and ammunition, kill any one who tries 

 to stop them, and finally make their way homewards. All 

 the men from here to Wadelai are unanimous, and should you 

 still insist on the march to the south, I fear that not one of us 

 will escape, neither you nor we. I beg you therefore to give 

 up this plan, and instead to send boats to Khartum to procure 

 help from there. No one believes the news which comes from 

 the south, but the men say, ' We had better remain here than 

 let ourselves be sold to Kabrega ; ' and, had not the Major, 

 Bihan Aga, held them in check, they might have rushed 

 off to the south long ago, carried out their designs there, and 

 then have gone to their homes through Wadelai." To explain 

 this, I must tell you that about a month ago all the older 

 corporals, &c, in Lado, almost all of them men from Bornn, 

 Adamawa, &c, conspired to kill all the officers, Sudanese, and 

 others in the place, and establish a sort of free state. But an 

 Egyptian officer heard of the plot, and informed his superiors of 

 it, and the Major put the ringleaders in irons, releasing them, 



