CHAP. 13.] 
SCARCITY AT GONDOKORO. 
109 
and ivory, and were surprised at seeing so large a party 
of English in so desolate a spot. It is a curious cir¬ 
cumstance, that although many Europeans had been as 
far south as Gondokoro, I was the first Englishman 
that had ever reached it. - We now formed a party 
of four. 
Gondokoro has a poor and sandy soil, so unpro¬ 
ductive, that corn is in the greatest scarcity, and is 
always brought from Khartoum by the annual boats 
tor the supply of the traders’ people, who congregate 
there from the interior, in the months of January and 
February, to deliver the ivory for shipment to Khar¬ 
toum. Corn is seldom or never less than eight times 
the price of Khartoum ; this is a great drawback to the 
country, as each trading party that arrives with ivory 
from the interior brings with it five or six hundred 
native porters, all of whom have to be fed during their 
stay at Gondokoro, and in many cases, in times of 
scarcity, they starve. This famine has given a bad 
name to the locality, and it is accordingly difficult 
to procure porters from the interior, who naturally 
fear starvation. 
I was thus extremely sorry that I was obliged to 
refuse a supply of corn to Mr. Petherick upon his appli¬ 
cation-—an act of necessity, but not of ill-nature upon 
my part, as I was obliged to leave a certain quantity 
