_7th December._—We have not yet seen the king of this great nation, which may amount to 2,000,000 people, according to Suliman Kashef’s declaration, if it be true, that there are large gohrs fed by the Nile in the interior, whereon the villages lie equally as crowded as here on the main stream, who has not made his appearance. He dwells, however, only two or three hours’ distance from the river; and we hear throughout the night the large war-drums (Nogàra) beating in our neighbourhood—a proof that they mistrust us. I am also persuaded that if Suliman Kashef had once got the dreaded Bando of the Shilluks on board, he would have certainly sailed away with him. I read this in his countenance when he received the intelligence that the Bando would not appear. Willingly as I would have seen this negro king, yet I rejoiced at his not coming for this shameful treachery to be practised upon him. Besides, he had also no cause to welcome the Muslims, these sworn enemies of his people; for, shortly before our departure for the white stream, he had sent three ambassadors to Khartùm, to place himself on a friendly footing with the Turks, and thus to check the marauding expeditions of his Arab neighbours, in which Kurshid Basha and Suliman Kashef had played a principal part. These three Shilluks, who were masters of the Arabic language, were treated in the divan with the usual contempt, as “Abit,” and were handed over to the Sheikh el Beled of Khartùm, to be entertained as common men. This Sheikh, who, receiving no pay, and having to bear the burden of everything, performs the duties of his office more from fear than for the honour, regaled these imperial messengers so magnificently that they came to us Franks, and begged some girsh (piasters) for bread and merissa. To procure them a better reception in the divàn, I represented to Abdalla Effèndi that he would by such treatment draw upon him the anger of the Basha, who was absent in Taka. He really would have presented them on the next day with dresses of honour, but they went away by stealth on the same evening. Now, I heard privately, through my servants, from our messengers to the Shilluks, that the Bando accepted, indeed, the garments, but abused the donors, and said that he would receive and welcome his equals, such as Mohammed Ali, and not his slaves. I had not seen the baobàb-tree, which, as I learned in conversation, was in the neighbourhood of our landing-place. This gigantic tree, attaining a circumference of 60—nay, even of 120 feet, as one is said to be, near Fàzogl, is called in the land of Sudàn _Homera_, and its fruit _Gungulés_. So also the date-tree is called _Naghel_, and its fruit _Tammer_, or _Bellàgh_.