CHAPTER VIII. 
ibrahim's return. 
Ibrahim returned from Gondokoro, bringing with 
him a large supply of ammunition. A wounded man 
of Chenooda's people also arrived, the sole relic of the 
fight with the Latookas; he had been left for dead, 
but had recovered, and for days and nights he had 
wandered about the country, in thirst and hunger,, 
hiding like a wild beast from the sight of human 
beings, his guilty conscience marking every Latooka 
as an enemy. As a proof of the superiority of the 
natives to the Khartoumers, he had at length been 
met by some Latookas, and not only was well treated 
and fed by their women, but they had guided him to 
Ibrahim's camp. 
The black man is a curious anomaly, the good and 
bad points of human nature bursting forth without any 
arrangement, like the flowers and thorns of his own 
wilderness. A creature of impulse, seldom actuated by 
reflection, the black man astounds by his complete 
obtuseness, and as suddenly confounds you by an 
unexpected exhibition of sympathy. From a long 
experience with African savages, I think it is as absurd 
to condemn the negro in ioto , as it is preposterous 
to compare his intellectual capacity with that of the 
white man. It is unfortunately the fashion for one 
party to uphold the negro as a superior being, while 
the other denies him the common powers of reason. 
