On the 25th, four vessels arrived from the
south, two belonging to Kutchuk Ali, one to Agad, and one to a trader
named Assaballa, from the Bahr Gazal. The latter had thirty-five slaves
on board. The others had heard, by some vessels that had gone up from
Khartoum, that I had formed a station near the Sobat, and had captured
the vessel and slaves of Kutchuk Ali, thus they had landed their slaves
at the Bahr Giraffe station. The Bahr Gazal vessel having arrived from a
different direction had not received the information. I seized the boat
and cargo, and liberated the slaves.
On board the diahbeeah of Kutchuk Ali were four musicians, natives of
Pongo, on the river Djoor. Their band consisted of two iron bells, a
flageolet and an instrument made of hard wood that was arranged like the
musical glasses of Europe. The latter was formed of ten pieces of a
metallic sounding-wood suspended above long narrow gourd shells. Each
piece of wood produced a separate note, and the instrument was played by
four sticks, the ends of which were covered with india-rubber. The
general effect, although a savage kind of harmony, was superior to most
native attempts at music.
The station of Tewfikeeyah had now assumed an important aspect, and I
much regretted that when the time should arrive for our departure to the
south it would be abandoned:
