2 CONQUEST OF THE SOUDAN. of alluvial soil, covered with thick herbage relieved by occasional clumps of palms, the boat, all sails set, glides into the Blue Nile. A few minutes more and, hailed by the vociferous shouts of the Nubian boatmen, the town rises suddenly into view, with its palm-trees, its lines of little houses along the shore, its white mosques, with their pointed minarets, all standing out sharply against the clear blue sky. Heavy boats called ‘ nuggers,’ laden with durra-corn, wood, and gum-arabic, are ranged for nearly half a mile along the river-bank. The stone buildings of the Roman Mission of Verona and of Marquet’s factory are conspicuous above the dwellings of Nile mud to which they are in proximity. “ Upon landing, the stranger will find himself surrounded by a whole swarm of inquisitive negroes, and his astonishment will increase at every step; he will at once be struck by the variety of the types of the tribes of the Soudan into which he is thrown so suddenly. There are the Denka, Shilluk of the White River, Bari from Gondokoro, people from Unyoro, Niam-niam from Makraka, Mombuttu, Nuer, Jur, Bongo, Fertit from the Bahr-el-Ghazal, Galla, Abys-