Page:Suakin, 1885.djvu/37

 Redoubt, this last being the one most used by us during the campaign.

There is a certain amount of trade carried on between Suakin and Suez, but this is much impeded by the heavy duties levied by the Egyptian Government.

Suakin has been formed by nature as the principal port of the Egyptian Sûdan and the Nile provinces, but has never risen to a position of any pretension, and even now its prosperity is only comparative. The place was formerly held directly subject to Turkey, but in 1865 it was sold and handed over to the Viceroy of Egypt. The inhabitants depend for their water supply on two or three wells about a mile from the town, and also on rain-water, which is collected during the wet season in a large sort of reservoir at the same place. The supply is at all times limited, and the quality of the water not particularly good, being strongly impregnated with salts. Towards the close of the dry season, when the water becomes very scarce, it turns thick, and is dark brown in colour. During the early autumn the climate is almost deadly for Europeans, and the natives themselves suffer greatly from sickness, the most prevalent complaints among them being dysentery and enteric