LETTERS CUT ON A TAMARIND -TREE. 345 
the villages, and thought it was too much like savage 
life, and beneath them, to participate in the festivities. 
As there is no conveyance in the country except by 
porters, the Turks found it very difficult to get their 
two hundred loads of ivory carried. The natives on 
several occasions refused to aid them, saying they were 
not slaves to be made to carry their property. Ke- 
sistance being continued, active hostilities were re- 
sorted to, and disastrous results ensued. What be- 
tween the firing of guns and discharge of arrows, three 
Toorkees were wounded, fifteen natives were killed, 
and seven made prisoners, the village was burned to 
the ground, and about one hundred cattle captured ! 
This was told us by some Seedees we sent back to 
find why the Turks were not coming to join the party. 
The women captured on these occasions remain the 
property of the captor, while all cattle and ivory must 
be shared by the master and his soldiers. 
Within sight of Apuddo stands a tamarind -tree, 
three or four miles from the right bank of the Nile, at 
3° 34£' N. lat. and 32° E. long. The Turks informed 
us that a European had, two years previously, accom- 
panied them from Gondokoro as far as this point, and 
had returned to Egypt from hence, because the rains 
were heavy, and he had not sufficient escort to push 
further south. They did not know his name, but they 
described him as having a long beard, and said we 
should find his name cut upon the tree. My notes on 
the 1st February 1863 are as follows regarding it : "I 
visited the tree on which a European had cut some 
letters, but they were so indistinct, that I walked 
twice round it before I could distinguish them, — they 
were grown over with a thorny creeper and bark, and 
