12 
DESCRIPTION OF KHARTOUM. 
[chap. I. 
a few respectable bouses, occupied by tbe traders of 
the country, a small proportion of whom are Italians, 
French, and Germans, the European population num¬ 
bering about thirty. Greeks, Syrians, Copts, Arme¬ 
nians, Turks, Arabs, and Egyptians, form the motley 
inhabitants of Khartoum. 
There are consuls for France, Austria, and America, 
and with much pleasure I acknowledge many kind 
attentions, and assistance received from the two former, 
M. Thibaut and Herr Hansall. 
Khartoum is the seat of government, the Soudan 
provinces being under the control of a Governor- 
general, with despotic power. In 1861, there were 
about six thousand troops quartered in the town; a 
portion of these were Egyptians; other regiments were 
composed of blacks from Kordofan, and from the 
White and Blue Niles, with one regiment of Arnouts, 
and a battery of artillery. These troops are the curse 
of the country : as in the case of most Turkish and 
Egyptian officials, the receipt of pay is most irregular, 
and accordingly the soldiers are under loose discipline. 
Foraging and plunder is the business of the Egyptian 
soldier, and the miserable natives must submit to insult 
and ill-treatment at the will of the brutes who pillage 
them ad libitum. 
In 1862, Moosa Pasha was the Governor-general of 
