ant strategic centre, from which it is easy to send
reinforcements to any part of the Sudan that may be momentarily
threatened. This precaution is wise, for we do not really know how far
we are masters of this splendid country, which is many times larger than
France, and contains from ten to fifteen millions of people. There are
only 600 Europeans, including officers and other officials, and 4,000
negroes are enrolled as foot-soldiers, cavalry, and transport bearers,
while it requires an army of 40,000 men to maintain order in Algeria,
about a fourth of the size of the Sudan.

Apart from the fertility of the soil for cereal crops, there are three
kinds of trees which grow abundantly everywhere. The most interesting is
the karita, or butter-tree, from the nuts of which a vegetable butter is
extracted with all the delectable flavour of chocolate. Throughout the
whole of the Sudan no other fatty substance is used. The second tree is
the flour tree. The flour is enclosed in large pods, is of a yellow
colour, rich in sugar, and is used in the manufacture of pastry and
confectionery. The third is the cheese-tree, called _baga_ by the
natives, from the capsules of which a fine and brilliant vegetable silk
is yielded. The principal articles of commerce sent by Bammaku to
Timbuctoo are the products of these trees, gold, and kola-nuts.

In the voyage up the river beyond Bammaku we passed the districts in
which the principal towns are Nyamina, Sansanding, and Segu, in which
are the large cotton-fields, from the produce of which the beautiful
fabrics known as _pagnes de Segu_ are made, which are in great request
in Senegal and the markets of Timbuctoo. Near Segu is an establishment
known as the School of Hostages, instituted by the explorer Faidherbe
for the education of the sons of kings and chiefs of Senegambia, to
enable them to take part in home government, or to enter the civil and
military services of Senegal and Sudan.

_III.--The Jewel of the Niger Valley_

Jenne is the jewel of the valley of the Niger. A vast plain, infinitely
flat. In the midst of this a circle of water, and within it reared a
long mass of high and regular walls, erected on mounds as high, and
nearly as steep, as themselves. When I climbed the banks from my boat
and entered the walls, I was completely bewildered by the novelty and
strangeness of the town's interior. Regular streets; wide, straight
roads; well-built houses of two stories instantly arr