A PLEDGE OF FRIENDSHIP. 
141 
May 2Srd . — Still at this sad place; the weather cold and wet. 
Petherick invited Mussaad^ his agent at the Neambara^ to take 
coffee in onr cabin; he was accompanied by a fine hoy^ a Neam 
Neam^ who with Einga^ also a Neam Neam^ soon fraternized. This 
hoy_, Mackraka, had been entrusted to Mijssaad by a Neam Neam 
chiefs to accompany him to his station_, where the boy could learn 
the Arabic language^ so that he might hereafter be useful to his 
tribe as interpreter. With this chief Mussaad had entered into a 
solemn pledge of friendship : a vein in the arm of each having been 
opened, they respectively sucked the blood ; thus was their compact 
sealed. 
Mussaad said that the Neam Neams were a friendly people, and 
fair to deal with, bringing their ivory freely, and not, as other 
negro tribes, wasting days to barter a few tusks. 
May 24th . — In the course of the day Sur KattPs boat, with the 
horses, sailed. The wind fresh and fair. Some of the negroes 
brought down by Abd il Majid were in her. 
The Arab secretaries not having completed the reports destined 
for the Governor- General of the Soudan at Khartoum, accusing 
the Syrian merchants men of their attack on the Nouaer on the 
16th, and detailed statements of the guilt of Abd il Majid, it was 
necessary to detain for another day the sailing of the Khartoum- 
bound boats. 
Petherick also wrote a voluminous despatch to Her Majesty^s 
Government, under flying seal to Her Majesty^s Agent and Consul- 
General at Alexandria. 
After giving every particular that had come to his knowledge 
with reference to the slave trade, enclosing evidence of Arab wit- 
nesses, and expressing confidence that during the onward journey 
