During that period of awful want, when hundreds of natives were
dying of starvation in the streets, these great strong Baggaras were
eating to their hearts' content, completely regardless of all the
suffering creatures around them.

The revenue of the beit el mal is expended almost entirely on the
Baggaras; all the fertile islands in the neighbourhood, and the
best-cultivated portions of the Nile banks as far as Berber, have been
made over to them, whilst the original owners of the soil have been
turned out without a piastre's compensation; they are, therefore, owners
of all the best lands, and serve as a foreign garrison in occupation of
a conquered country.

Woe to the native who happens to have a Baggara as his neighbour! His
cattle are robbed, and he must share the product of the fields with his
overbearing master; wherever they go the Baggaras take their horses with
them, which must be fed and cared for at the expense of the local
inhabitants; complaints against Baggaras are not taken the slightest
notice of, or--as it more often happens--the complainant receives a
heavy punishment for having ventured to make a statement which is
invariably construed as untrue and incorrect. Thus these bold tribesmen
have every inducement to become more and more truculent the further
removed they are from the Khalifa's supervision. I will cite an example.

A rich native of the Gezireh had a dispute with a Baggara, and struck
his oppressor a blow with a stick in self-defence. Fate decreed that the
Baggara should die twenty-eight days afterwards, but his death was not
caused by the blow; the other Baggaras, however, seized the opportunity
of demanding blood-money, and if refused they threatened to report the
matter to the Khalifa. The stupid native was actually intimidated into
giving the Baggara 10,000 dollars, and the matter was declared to be
ended; but somehow it came to Yakub's ears, and learning that the
supposed murderer was a very rich man, he advised the friends of the
deceased Baggara not to accept blood-money, but to insist on the
native's death. This was agreed to. The poor man was arrested, dragged
to Omdurman, and hanged; whilst his property, consisting of a number of
goats and 30,000 dollars, was confiscated.

Not content with this, the Khalifa also ordered that the seven villages
in the neighbourhood should be burnt, on the plea that the inhabitants
had made common cause with the murderer in resisting lawfully
co