136 
TRAVELS IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 
May 20th . — The boats were still together ; no landing could be 
efiPected. Petherick had now a difficult task to perform — to investi- 
gate who had_, and who had not_, joined Abd il Majid in this nefarious 
traffic. 
It seems that Abd il Majid awaited at the Neambara the return of 
Mussad from his southward expedition^ and then proceeded with him 
to Gondokoro. There he found that three Khartoum traders were 
on the eve of a slave and cattle razzia. These men asked Abd il 
Majid to join them. The temptation was too strong to beresisted^ 
and feeling convinced that^ as the season had far advanced^ there was 
but little possibility of meeting Petherick, and thus be discovered, 
he consented. 
Ten only of his men accompanied Abd il Majid. The traders 
were the young Maltese whom we had met lower down the river, 
the Circassian, Kurschid Aga, and one Arab. 
The villages selected to despoil were those in the immediate 
neighbourhood of Gondokoro. Three hundred and fifty-one of the 
negroes were captured, and three thousand head of cattle. 
The Maltese and Kurschid Aga each received one hundred and 
thirty slaves and a thousand head of cattle. To the Arab fell the 
remainder. The spoil was divided according to the force each prin- 
cipal brought into the field. Abd il Majid had already disposed 
of some of his negroes, so Petherick rescued but eighteen from the 
boats. 
The depositions were duly taken, many witnesses coming forward, 
and papers were seized as vouchers of the above transactions. These 
will be sent to Khartoum, where Abd il Majid is to be handed over 
to his Government ; those relative to the Maltese to be forwarded 
to Cairo, whither also he will be conveyed, at the request of Pethe- 
rick, for an investigation there to be made by the British authorities. 
