THE NUBA. 
7 
The Nuba race comprises the Bonjack and the Shillookj and 
stretching away inland^ they inhabit the mountains and more 
sterile districts of the limits of the great Zachara Desert border- 
ing on Kordofan to the norths and Darfour to the west. Some 
of these mountains — such as the group of Tekkela and Djibboon 
— yields in small quantities^ gold of a superior ductility^ and con- 
sequently the district has excited the cupidity of the Egyptian 
Government and its Governors; the inhabitants^, unfortunately, 
have to a great extent experienced what in England has been mis- 
named the civilizing effects of Egyptian sway.^^ The inhabitants 
of the Nuba mountains are merely subject to the casual marauding 
military expeditions of that Government, and after being robbed 
of as much grain, cattle, and slaves as can be obtained, they are 
left to the tender mercies of the Bagara Arabs who infest the plains. 
Tekkela, however, has been subjugated, and although not invested 
with a garrison, is tributary to Egypt by the payment of an annual 
tax of slaves and gold. Owing to the idea having been started (at 
a later date than the events recorded in this journal) by a scientific 
society in London, that her Majesty ^s Government should encourage 
the Viceroy of Egypt to enter into relations of amit}^ and commerce 
with the tribes adjoining the Equator, I will cite, for the informa- 
tion of my readers, a few instances of the means employed in 
these out-of-the-way regions by the Egyptian officials for carrying 
out that policy of amity and commerce/^ 
The following, out of many instances that have occurred, came 
to my knowledge during my residence in the tropics of Central 
Africa. My informant was a cavalry officer employed on the razzia 
in question, and an eye-witness to the following occurrence. In 
consequence of the failure of the Egyptian Governor of Kodofan 
to levy several years^ arrears of impost, consisting of ninety 
f 
