THE SOUDAN.

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1512, 20 February 1885, Page 2

THE SOUDAN.

OBIGFX OF THE REBELLION. The word " Sondan " signifies th<* country of the blacks so far as they an? Mussulmans. Th«re ar*> threr Souflans — the Western Soudan, in Se-n--gambiaand the Upper Niger ; the G«n trul Soudan, which extends from the Niger to Lake Tchad, ami comprise* a largH territory, partly mountainous* and partly alluvial plain, the Utter division being about co-terminu* with the Kingdom of Bornou, and th» Eastern, or, as it is now called, Egyptian Soundan, which is composed of Darfur, Eordofau, Sen aa rand the lower part of what used to be called Nubia in the maps. In 1820 Afthetnpnt Ali s«nt , an expedition as far as Upper Nubia, and brought the principal States of j that extensive district und«r what wa* at least nominal subjection to Egypt, j to which country the Eastern Soudan I has ever since belonged. The Egyptian authority was still further extended by Sir Sair.nl Baker during his expedition (oganiwd by Ismal, th« late Khedive ) to Central Africa for the suppression of the slave trade. The inhabitants of the Soudan may be divided into two classes, which are practical ly if not I absolutely distinct. The one class w [ settled on the banks of the rivers, J follows agriculture, trade, and ev«m ( manufactures, all, however, in a ratber j negligent way. The other class inI habits the desert, and is more or less nomadic and exclusively pastoral — great marauders too, and men stealprs, hut as brave as they ar» cru<*l and barbarous. The soil of the Eastern Soudan is in many places extremely fertile, and before the slave-trade in a measure rained the country, a large export trade was carried on fey the inhabitants. The principal prod no tions are dhnrra or millet, cotton, sugar, dates, maize, tamarinds, and all sorts of spices. Other products exported are gums, aloes, civet, musk, wax, myrrh, senna, black wool, hides, leather, ivory, ostrich feathers, tobacco, coffee, and saltpetre. But the favourite traffic of the wandering Arabs is in slaves, whom they kiknap in the interior and dispose of to dealers on the East Coast This trade is the curse of the country ; it is moreover desolating and filling with unspeakable misery the whele interior of the northern half of that vast continent. Sir Sanml Baker claimed to have snppressed it in the Soudan, but it has, to use the expression applied by Bunyan to one of his giants, as many lives as a cat, and springs up in all it* former vigour and crnnlty as soon as *». the restraining agencies are removed or cease to act THE MAHDt. This large extent of territory would however, have remained unknown, even by name, to the bulk of the British awaking race but for the Ifabdi, who liad made hi 3 appearance before

Arabi's revolt. Lieut General Charles P. Stone, who held the post of chief of the staff in the Fgyptian army from 1870 till the end of 1882, and who retnrned to his own coaotiy (America) in January 1883, relates that one day a confidential secretary of the Prune Minister hurriedly entered his office asked him, on the part of the Minister where the island of AUo was, informing him that news had come by telegraph that a rebellion had broken ont there under the \m<\ of a man who called himself the Mahdu Such was the first news received m Egypt of a personage whose name has since became world fimons. Th« Mahdi is like most of his clan -for a Mahdi ib no novelty in the Mahometan world —of obscure origin. He lived the life of a saintly refuse in an island in the Bine Nile, nourishing hi* fanaticism in sileuc* an 1 solitude., till su«h time as he jirizof! fit to show himself to hi* nation and proclaim himself their deliverer. Little more was known about him, ho* ever, than that he had rise v in revolt against Egyptian rule, and already gathered a large number of followers aronnd him in Kordofan. But bis fame soon carried excitement throughout the Soudan. As frr east as SonaWm. on the R**d Sea, the wild fire of reMlion liad spread before any considerable preparations had been made to suppress it General Stone had, indeed, been requested to undertake the task, but the E»ptian Government being unable to supply the nnmber of men be considered necessary, he was oblige! to refuse. Meanwhile the Mahdi's followers wer« increasing in all direetions,*and it was in lisoe.nsab'e that something should be done. HICKS PASHA. An Egyptian army was got together at Khartoum — a regular rabbleront — and placed under the command of General Hicks, who started som* time in October 1883 to crnsh the Mahdi. As the latter was knowa to be in the neighbourhood of El Obeid, Hicks marched up the left bank of the White Nile, and Ml in with the enemy at Xashgil, a little to th« south of the former place. Here his force, of some 5000 or 600 ■> men, having, it is alleged heen led into an ambush was completely annihilated, after three days' fighting. The rumour went that he himself had escaped, but it id only too certain that he perished with his army. The survivors were few indeed (one of them came into Khartoum months afterwards^ Snch a signal victory <«onld not but increase the prestige of the Mahdi in that quarter, and indeed in every part of the Soudan — all the more Weanse be figured in the eyes of his fellow conntrvmen as a patriot as well as a prophet. The part which he was playing in the Sondan, corresponded in some degree to the part which Arabi played in Egypt. They each headed an insurrection against ♦■he same Government — one, it it* to be feared, in the interest of the slave traffic, and the other, whether sincerely or not, ia the interest of Egyptian freedom. OSMAN DIGHA, About the very time when Hicks •was contending hopelessly with the Mahdites at Kashgil. a body of Arab hillmen, as the telegrams called them, made, a sudden descent upon Snakim, and killed 150 of the Egyptian garrison. The rebels in this part of the Soudan were nnder the command of Osman Digma, and some six weeks later they made another attack upon the garrison, and this time killed 700 of the Khedive's troops. A force was then organised by Baker Pasha (Colonel Valentine Baker) composed of gensdarmes, negro troops, and Arabs, for service on the Red Sea littoral. Towards the middle of December he started with his improvised army for Upper Egypt Within six weeks he was at Suakim, ready to strike a blow for the relief of Sinkat and Tokar. But on February 4, as be advanced for that purpose, his army was suddenly knocked to pieces at El Th'> by the rebels. He lost 2000 men and ali his guns and baggage, and was fain to be;it a hasty retreat to Suakim wi'h the remains of his motley force the lieat way he could. Exactly a week aft-r Baker's defeat Sinkat fell, the garrison dying heroically with their faces to the* foe. When the Governor <Tevfik Bey) saw that it was impossible to hold out longer— the town and garrison being reduced to starvation — lie ordered all the forts to be exploded and the gtlns to be spiked. When this was done he made a sally from the place at the head of the defenders— 600 in all. They were met ou^ide of the town by an overwhelming force of the r««Ms, who showed no m»rcy, but put them all to death. The male inhabitants of the town, together with •200 women and as many children, were also massacred. BIITIBH GOVERNMENT INTERFBSE. As matters were now getting serions the British Government determined, much against their will, to interfere. The defeat at Kashgil had caused them to reconsider their purpose to withdraw from Egypt. That purpose was, indeed, just on the point of being t-amed into <>?Tect when tho total destruction of Hicks' army showed them the danger to which the country was now exposed. Not only did the English troops remain in Egypt, but the small amiy «>f occupation was with all possible despatch reinforced. But for the seriousness of the issues involved the, situation at this particular Btage would liad 'oe*-n almost ludicrous. The Gladstone Government hid no stronger wi-.h than *"o withdraw, ami yet the very fact that France wa* eagerly clamonring for thfi sani" thine must have made them suspect that the interests of the E moire lay rather i> a continued dceunation. But ba t'» g »git may, certain it is that the Premier asd his colleagues would very :oou have

pleased both themselves and the jealous French by shipping off their soldiers, had not the Malidi stepped in and said in ttftpct, "No ; you must not and cannot po." It was really the False Prophet that prevented the British Government from taking a stsp than which nothing could hare been more lamentable.