The first duty of the provincial Governors is to maintain peace within their borders, and to make the inhabitants acknowledge the authority of the Government. In the elder provinces, Halfa, Suakin, Dongola, and Berber, there was no difficulty. The nomad tribes, the only possible source of trouble, are regularly paying the tribute, which has been imposed on them more as a badge of authority than for revenue purposes. As long as this is paid and they behave well, they are left to the rule of their own sheikhs, according to their custom. At Khartoum the presence of a British battalion insures order among a people who have not forgotten the sound of bullets. The stories of mutiny among the black troops were greatly exaggerated. It lasted only for a day, and was nothing more than a skirmish between two battalions which had a difference over some women. On the borders of Darfur there was a slight disturbance, but Ali Dinar is a strong and capable ruler, who understands very well that it is his interest to be on good terms with the Government, and the matter has been satisfactorily settled. In South-Western Kordofan the Nubas in the hills have been accustomed for centuries to raid each other, and be raided in their turn by the Arabs of the plains. In such remote regions it is difficult to summarily suppress customs of this sort, but it is hoped that permanent peace will soon be established by means of camel-corps patrols. The same applies to the frontier raids on the Abyssinian side. There was some reluctance at first to deal drastically with these raiders, for fear of trouble with Menelik, but now that the boundary has been definitely settled by the recent agreement, the raiders can be punished without any question of violating the frontier. In Fashoda Province the tribes, even the wild and shy Nuers, are settling down quietly, and though they hate the ‘Turk,’ they are glad to welcome the British. The Mek or King of the Shilluks, who live on the banks of the Nile from Lake No to a point above Fashoda, gave some little trouble at one time. He was very much struck with the institution of tax-collectors, which he determined to imitate. Accordingly, he put some of his people into a kind of uniform, and sent them round the villages to collect women and corn, nominally for the authorities of Khartoum. But he was informed that, while the Government admired his zeal for civilization, they felt, at the same time, that his knowledge of it was so elementary that it was necessary for him to devote some time to further study before he put his theory into practice. He is now undergoing a course of tuition at Wadi Halfa.