“To His Excellency the Envoy of our Great Government, Mr. Stanley.
“When Selim Bey Mator, commander of the troops of this province, came here and told us of the news of your coming, we were greatly rejoiced to learn of your safe arrival in this Province, and our desire to reach our Government has been greatly augmented, and therefore we hope, with the help of God, to be very soon with you, and to inform you of this we have written this letter.
| Wadelai. | |||
| Mabruk Shereef, | Lieutenant. | Ali el Kurdi, | Lieutenant. |
| Noor Abd el bein | ” | Ahmed Sultan | ” |
| Mustapha Ahmed | ” | Fadl el Mula Bakhit | ” |
| Halid Abdallah | ” | Dais el Bint Abdallah | ” |
| Faraj Sid Hamed | ” | Said Ibrahim | ” |
| Mursal Sudan | ” | Hussein Mohamed, | Captain. |
| Murjan Ndeen | ” | Murjan Idris | ” |
| Sabah el Hami | ” | Mustapha el Adjemi | ” |
| Bakhit Mohamed | ” | Kher Yusuf es Said | ” |
| Adeen Ahmed | ” | Marjan Bakhit | ” |
| Ismail Hussein | ” | Surur Sudan | ” |
| Mohamed Abdu | ” | Abdallah Mauzal | ” |
| Halid Majib | ” | Fadl el Mulla el Emin | ” |
| Ahmed Idris | ” | Ahmed el Dinkani | ” |
| Rehan Rashid | ” | Kadi Ahmed | ” |
| Rikas Hamed en Nil | ” | Said Abd es Sid | ” |
| Halil Sid Ahmed | ” | Bakhit Bergoot, | Adjutant Major. |
| Feraj Mohamed | ” | Bilal Dinkani | ” |
I then said: “I have heard with attention what you have spoken. I shall give you a written promise to the effect that you are granted a sufficient time to proceed from here to Wadelai to collect your troops and embark them with your families on board the steamers. It takes five days for a steamer to proceed to Wadelai, and five days to return. I shall give you a reasonable time for this work, and if I see that you are really serious in your intentions, I shall be quite willing to extend the time in order that we may proceed homeward in comfort.”
Selim Bey and his officers answered simultaneously, “We are serious in our intentions, and there is no occasion for delay.” To which I, wholly convinced, readily assented. The meeting terminated. An ox was presented to them and their followers for meat rations; and ten gallons of beer, with loads of sweet potatoes and bananas, were dispatched to their quarters for their entertainment.
At noon, Stairs’ column rolled into camp with piles of wealth—Remington, Maxim and Winchester fixed ammunition, gunpowder, percussion caps, bales of handkerchiefs, white cottons, blue cutch cloths, royal striped robes, beads of all colours, coils of bright wire, &c. &c. There were Zanzibaris, Madis, Lados, Soudanese, Manyuema, Baregga, Bandusuma, dwarfs and giants; in all, 312 carriers.