worst of the White Nile. They have been so often defeated by the
traders' parties in the immediate neighborhood of Gondokoro, that they
are on their best behavior, while within half a mile of the station; but
it is not at all uncommon to be asked for beads as a tax for the right
of sitting under a shady tree, or for passing through the country. The
traders' people, in order to terrify them into submission, were in the
habit of binding them, hands and feet, and carrying them to the edge of
a cliff about thirty feet high, a little beyond the ruins of the old
mission-house: beneath this cliff the river boils in a deep eddy; into
this watery grave the victims were remorselessly hurled as food for
crocodiles. It appeared that this punishment was dreaded by the natives
more than the bullet or rope, and it was accordingly adopted by the
trading parties.

Upon my arrival at Gondokoro I was looked upon by all these parties as a
spy sent by the British Government. Whenever I approached the
encampments of the various traders, I heard the clanking of fetters
before I reached the station, as the slaves were being quickly driven
into hiding-places to avoid inspection. They were chained by two rings
secured round the ankles, and connected by three or four links. One of
these traders was a Copt, the father of the American Consul at Khartoum;
and, to my surprise, I saw the vessels full of brigands arrive at
Gondokoro, with the American flag flying at the mast-head.

Gondokoro was a perfect hell. It is utterly ignored by the Egyptian
authorities, although well known to be a colony of cut-throats. Nothing
would be easier than to send a few officers and two hundred men from
Khartoum to form a military government, and thus impede the slave-trade;
but a bribe from the traders to the authorities is sufficient to insure
an uninterrupted asylum for any amount of villany. The camps were full