Part 49

The escape from Omdurman of Father Ohrwalder and of two of the captive nuns in December 1891, of Father Rossignoli in October 1894, and of Slatin Bey in February 1895, revealed the condition of the Sudan to the outside world, threw a vivid light on the rule of the khalifa, and corroborated information already received of the discontent which existed among the tribes with the oppression and despotism under which they lived.

_The Eastern Sudan._--In 1884 Colonel Chermside, governor of the Red Sea littoral, entered into arrangements with King John of Abyssinia for the relief of the beleaguered Egyptian garrisons. Gera, Amadib, Senhit and Gallabat were, in consequence, duly succoured, and their garrisons and Egyptian populations brought away to the coast by the Abyssinians in 1885. Unfortunately famine compelled the garrison of Kassala to capitulate on the 30th of July of that year, and Osman Digna hurried there from Tamai to raise a force with which to meet the Abyssinian general, Ras Alula, who was preparing for its relief. By the end of August Osman Digna had occupied Kufit, in the Barea country, with 10,000 men and entrenched himself. On the 23rd of September Ras Alula attacked him there with an equal number of men and routed him with great slaughter. Over 3000 dervishes with their principal amirs, except Osman Digna, lay dead on the field, and many more were killed in the pursuit. The Abyssinians lost 40 officers and 1500 men killed, besides many more wounded. Instead of marching on to Kassala, Ras Alula, who at this time was much offended by the transfer of Massawa by the Egyptians to Italy, made a triumphant entry into Asmara, and absolutely refused to make any further efforts to extricate Egyptian garrisons from the grip of the khalifa. Meanwhile Osman Digna, who had fled from Kufit to Kassala, wreaked his vengeance upon the unhappy captives at Kassala.

Handub.

Battle of Afafit.

In the neighbourhood of Suakin there were many tribes disaffected to the khalifa's cause, and in the autumn of 1886 Colonel H. Kitchener, who was at the time governor of the Red Sea littoral, judiciously arranged a combination of them to overthrow Osman Digna, with the result that his stronghold at Tamai was captured on the 7th of October, 200 of his men killed, and 50 prisoners, 17 guns and a vast store of rifles and ammunition captured. For about a year there was comparative quiet. Then at the end of 1887 Osman Digna again advanced towards Suakin, but his force at Taroi was routed by the "Friendlies," and he fell back on Handub. Kitchener unsuccessfully endeavoured to capture Osman Digna on the 17th of January 1888, but in the attack was himself severely wounded, and was shortly after invalided. Later in the year Osman Digna collected a large force and besieged Suakin. In December the sirdar arrived with reinforcements from Cairo, and on the 20th sallied out and attacked the dervishes in their trenches at Gemaiza, clearing the whole line and inflicting considerable loss on the enemy, who retired towards Handub, and the country was again fairly quiet for a time. During 1889 and 1890 Tokar became the centre of dervish authority, while Handub continued to be occupied for the khalifa. In January 1891 Osman Digna showed signs of increased activity, and Colonel (afterwards Sir Charles) Holled Smith, then governor of the Red Sea littoral, attacked Handub successfully on the 27th and occupied it, then seized Trinkitat and Teb, and on the 19th of February fought the decisive action of Afafit, occupied Tokar, and drove Osman Digna back to Temrin with a loss of 700 men, including all his chief amirs. This action proved the final blow to the dervish power in the neighbourhood of Suakin, for although raiding continued on a small scale, the tribes were growing tired of the khalifa's rule and refused to support Osman Digna.

In the spring of 1891 an agreement was made between England and Italy by which the Italian forces in Eritrea were at liberty, if they were able, to capture and occupy Kassala, which lay close to the western boundary of their new colony, on condition that they restored it to Egypt at a future day when required to do so. Three years passed before they availed themselves of this agreement. In 1893 the dervishes, 12,000 strong, under Ahmed Ali, invaded Eritrea, and were met on the 29th of December at Agordat by Colonel Arimondi with 2000 men of a native force. Ahmed Ali's force was completely routed and himself killed, and in the following July Colonel Baratieri, with 2500 men, made a fine forced march from Agordat, surprised and captured Kassala on the 17th of that month, and continued to hold it for three years and a half.

_The Abyssinian Frontier._--On the Abyssinian frontier Ras Adal was in command of a considerable force of Abyssinians early in 1886, and in June of that year he invaded Gallabat and defeated the dervishes on the plain of Madana; the dervish amir Mahommed Wad Ardal was killed and his camp captured. In the following year the amir Yunis ed Dekeim made two successful raids into Abyssinian territory, upon which Ras Adal collected an enormous army, said to number 200,000 men, for the invasion of the Sudan. The khalifa sent the amir Hamdan Abu Angar, a very skilful leader, with an army of over 80,000 men against him. Abu Angar entered Abyssinia and, in August 1887, attacked Ras Adal in the plain of Debra Sin and, after a prolonged battle, defeated the Abyssinians, captured their camp, and marched on Gondar, the ancient capital of Abyssinia, which he sacked, and then returned into Gallabat. King John, the negus of Abyssinia, burning to avenge this defeat, marched, in February 1889, with an enormous army to Gallabat, where the amir Zeki Tumal commanded the khalifa's forces, some 60,000 strong, and had strongly fortified the town and the camp. On the 9th of March 1889 the Abyssinians made a terrific onslaught, stormed and burnt the town, and took thousands of prisoners. A small party of dervishes still held a zeriba when King John was struck by a stray bullet. The Abyssinians decided to retire, fighting ceased, and they moved off with their prisoners and the wounded negus. That night the king died, and the greater part of the army having gone ahead with the prisoners, a party of Arabs pursued the rearguard, which consisted of the king's bodyguard, routed them, and captured the king's body, which was sent to Omdurman to confirm the report of a brilliant victory sent by Zeki Tumal to the khalifa. Internal strife prevented the new negus of Abyssinia from prosecuting the war, which thus, in spite of the Abyssinian success, resulted in the increased prestige of the khalifa. From this time, however, the dervishes ceased to trouble the Abyssinians.

_Darfur and Kordofan._--On the outbreak of the mahdi's rebellion Slatin Bey was governor of the province, and when Madibbo, the insurgent sheikh of Rizighat, attacked and occupied Shakka and was following up his success, Slatin twice severely defeated him, and, having concentrated his forces at El Fasher, repulsed the enemy again at Om Shanga. Mahdism, however, spread over Darfur in spite of Slatin's efforts to stay it. He fought no fewer than twenty-seven

## actions in various parts of his province, but his own troops, in

course of time, became infected with the new faith and deserted him. He was obliged to surrender at Dara in December 1883, and was a prisoner, first at Obeid and then at Omdurman, until he escaped in 1895. In January 1884 Zogal, the new dervish amir of the province, attacked El Fasher, where Said Bey Guma and an Egyptian garrison 1000 strong with 10 guns was still holding out, and captured it. He also reduced the Jebel Marra district, where the loyal hill-people gave him some trouble.

After the death of the mahdi in 1885, Madibbo revolted against the khalifa, but was defeated by Karamalla, the dervish amir of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and was caught and executed. A war then sprang up between Karamalla and Sultan Yusef, who had succeeded Zogal as amir of Darfur. Yusef was joined in 1887 by Sultan Zayid, the black ruler of Jebel Marra, and Karamalla's trusted general, Ketenbur, was defeated with great slaughter at El Towaish on the 29th of June 1887. Osman wad Adam (Ganu), amir of Kordofan, was sent by the khalifa to Karamalla's assistance. He forced back the Darfurians near Dara on the 26th of December, routed Zayid in a second battle, entered El Fasher, and, in 1888, became complete master of the situation, the two sultans being killed. The Darfurian chiefs then allied themselves with Abu Gemaiza, sheikh of the Masalit Arabs, who had proclaimed himself "Khalifa Osman," and was known as the anti-mahdi. The revolt assumed large proportions, and became the more dangerous to Abdullah, the khalifa, by reason of its religious character, wild rumours spreading over the country and reaching to Egypt and Suakin of the advent to power of an opposition mahdi. Abu Gemaiza attacked a portion of Osman Adam's force, under Abd-el-Kader, at Kebkebia, 30 m. from El Fasher, and almost annihilated it on the 16th of October 1888; and a week later another large force of Osman Adam met with the same fate at the same place. Instead of following up his victories, Abu Gemaiza retired to Dar Tama to augment his army, to which thousands flocked as the news of his achievements spread far and wide. He again advanced to El Fasher in February 1889, but was seized with smallpox. His army, however, under Fiki Adam, fought a fierce battle close to El Fasher on the 22nd, which resulted in its defeat and dispersion, and Abu Gemaiza himself dying the following day, the movement collapsed.

In 1891 Darfur and Kordofan were again disturbed, and Sultan Abbas succeeded in turning the dervishes out of the Jebel Marra district. Two years later a saint of Sokoto, Abu Naal Muzil el Muhan, collected many followers and for a time threatened the khalifa's power, but the revolt gradually died out.

_The Bahr-el-Ghazal._--The first outbreak in favour of Mahdism in the Bahr-el-Ghazal took place at Liffi in August 1882, when the Dinka tribe, under Jango, revolted and was defeated by Lupton Bey with considerable slaughter at Tel Gauna, and again in 1883 near Liffi. In September of that year Lupton's captain, Rufai Aga, was massacred with all his men at Dembo, and Lupton, short of ammunition, was forced to retire to Dem Suliman, where he was completely cut off from Khartum. After gallantly fighting for eighteen months he was compelled by the defection of his troops to surrender on the 21st of April 1884 to Karamalla, the dervish amir of the province. He died at Omdurman in 1888.

In 1890 the Shilluks in the neighbourhood of Fashoda rose against the khalifa, and the dervish amir of Gallabat, Zeki Tumal, was engaged for two years in suppressing the rebellion. He got the upper hand in 1892, and was recalled to oppose an Italian force said to be advancing from Massawa; but on reporting that it was impossible to invade Eritrea, as the khalifa wished him to do, he was summoned to Omdurman and put to death. The country then relapsed into its original barbarous condition, and dervish influence was nominal only. In 1892 the Congo State expedition established posts up to the seventh parallel of north latitude. In 1893 the dervish amir, Abu Mariam, fought with the Dinka tribe and was killed and his force destroyed, the fugitives taking refuge in Shakka. In the following year the Congo expedition established further posts, and in consequence the khalifa sent 3000 men, under the amir Khatem Musa, from Shakka to reoccupy the Bahr-el-Ghazal. The Belgians at Liffi retired before him, and he entered Faroga. Famine and disease broke out in Khatem Musa's camp in 1895, and a retreat was made towards Kordofan.

_Equatoria._--In the Equatorial Province, which extended from the Albert Nyanza to Lado, Emin Bey, who had a force of 1300 Egyptian troops and 3000 irregulars, distributed among many stations, held out, hoping for reinforcements. In March 1885, however, Amadi fell to the dervishes, and on the 18th of April Karamalla arrived near Lado, the capital, and sent to inform Emin of the fall of Khartum. Emin and Captain Casati, an Italian, moved south to Wadelai, giving up the northern posts, and opened friendly relations with Kabarega, king of Unyoro. On the 26th of February 1886 Emin received despatches from Cairo via Zanzibar, from which he learned all that had occurred during the previous three years, and that "he might take any step he liked, should he decide to leave the country." He determined to remain where he was and "hold together, as long as possible, the remnant of the last ten years." His troops were in a mutinous state, wishing to go north rather than south, as Emin had ordered them to do, and unsuccessfully endeavoured to carry him with them by force.

His communications to Europe through Zanzibar led to the relief expedition under H. M. Stanley, which went to his rescue by way of the Congo in 1887, and after encountering incredible dangers and experiencing innumerable sufferings, met with Emin and Casati at Nsabé, on the Albert Nyanza, on the 29th of April 1888. Stanley went back in May to pick up his belated rearguard, leaving Mounteney Jephson and a small escort to accompany Emin round his province. The southern garrisons decided to go with Emin, but the troops at Labore mutinied, and a general revolt broke out, headed by Fadl-el-Maula, governor of Fabbo. On arriving at Dufile in August 1888, Emin and Jephson were made prisoners by the Egyptian mutineers. In the meantime the arrival of Stanley at Lake Albert had caused rumours, which quickly spread to Omdurman, of a great invading white pasha, with the result that in July the khalifa sent up the river three steamers and six barges, containing 4000 troops, to oppose this new-comer. In October Omar-Saleh, the Mahdist commander, took Rejaf and sent messengers to Dufile to summon Emin to surrender; but on the 15th of November the mutineers released both Emin and Jephson, who returned to Lake Albert with some 600 refugees, and joined Stanley in February 1889. The expedition arrived at Zanzibar at the end of the year.

Emin's mutinous troops kept the dervishes at bay between Wadelai and Rejaf, and eventually severely defeated them, driving them back to Rejaf. They did not, however, follow up their victory, and under the leadership of Fadl-el-Maula Bey remained about Wadelai, while the dervishes strengthened their post at Rejaf. In 1893 Fadl-el-Maula Bey and many of his men took service with Baert of the Congo State expedition. The bey was killed fighting the dervishes at Wandi in January 1894, and the remnant of his men eventually were found by Captain Thruston from Uganda on the 23rd of March 1894 at Mahagi, on the Albert Nyanza, whither they had drifted from Wadelai in search of supplies. They were enlisted by Thruston and brought back under the British flag to Uganda.

In consequence of the Franco-Congolese Treaty of 1894, Major Cunningham and Lieutenant Vandeleur were sent from Uganda to Dufile, where they planted the British flag on the 15th of January 1895.

SUDAN OPERATIONS, 1896-1900

Dongola campaign, 1896.

The wonderful progress--political, economical and social--which Egypt had made during British occupation, so ably set forth in Sir Alfred Milner's _England in Egypt_ (published in 1892), together with the revelation in so strong a light of the character of the khalifa's despotism in the Sudan and the miserable condition of his misgoverned people, as detailed in the accounts of their captivity at Omdurman by Father Ohrwalder and Slatin Bey (published in 1892 and 1896), stirred public opinion in Great Britain, and brought the question of the recovery of the Sudan into prominence. A change of ministry took place in 1895, and Lord Salisbury's cabinet, which had consistently assailed the Egyptian policy of the old, was not unwilling to consider whether the flourishing condition of Egyptian finance, the prosperity of the country and the settled state of its affairs, with a capable and proved little army ready to hand, did not warrant an attempt being made to recover gradually the Sudan provinces abandoned by Egypt in 1885 on the advice of Mr Gladstone's government.

Such being the condition of public and official sentiment, the crushing defeat of the Italians by the Abyssinians at the battle of Adowa on the 1st of March 1896, and the critical state of Kassala--held by Italy at British suggestion, and now closely invested by the dervishes--made it not only desirable but necessary to take immediate action.

On the 14th of March 1896 Major-General Sir H. Kitchener, who succeeded Sir Francis Grenfell as sirdar of the Egyptian army in 1892, received orders to reoccupy Akasha, 50 m. south of Sarras, and to carry the railway on from Sarras. Subsequent operations were to depend upon the amount of resistance he encountered. On the 20th of March Akasha was occupied without opposition by an advanced column of Egyptian troops under Major J. Collinson, who formed an entrenched camp there. The reserves of the Egyptian army were called out, and responded with alacrity. The troops were concentrated at Wadi Halfa; the railway reconstruction, under Lieutenant E. P. Girouard, R.E., pushed southward; and a telegraph line followed the advance. At the commencement of the campaign the Egyptian army, including reserves, consisted of 16 battalions of infantry, of which 6 were Sudanese, 10 squadrons of cavalry, 5 batteries of artillery, 3 companies of garrison artillery, and 8 companies of camel corps, and it possessed 13 gunboats for river work. Colonel H. M. L. Rundle was chief of the staff; Major F. R. Wingate was head of the intelligence department, with Slatin Bey as his assistant; and Colonel A. Hunter was in command of Sarras, and south. The 1st battalion of the North Staffordshire regiment moved up from Cairo to join the Egyptian army.

In the meantime the advance to Akasha had already relieved the pressure at Kassala, Osman Digna having withdrawn a considerable force from the investing army and proceeded with it to Suakin. To meet Osman Digna's movement Lieutenant-Colonel G. E. Lloyd, the Suakin commandant, advanced to the Taroi Wells, 19 m. south of Suakin, on the 15th of April to co-operate with the "Friendlies," and with Major H. M. Sidney, advancing with a small force from Tokar. His cavalry, under Major M. A. C. B. Fenwick, went out to look for Sidney's force, and were surprised by a large number of dervishes. Fenwick, with some 40 officers and men, seized an isolated hill and held it through the night, repulsing the dervishes, who were the same night driven back with such heavy loss in attacking Lloyd's zeriba that they retired to the hills, and comparative quiet again reigned at Suakin. At the end of May an Indian brigade arrived for garrison duty, and the Egyptian troops were released for service on the Nile.

The dervishes first came in contact with the Egyptian cavalry on the Nile near Akasha, on the 1st of May, and were repulsed. The army concentrated at Akasha early in June, and on the 6th Kitchener moved to the attack of Firket 16 m. away, where the amir Hamuda, with 3000 men, was encamped. The attack was made in two columns: one, under Colonel Hunter, marching along the river-bank, approached Firket from the north; while the other, under Major Burn-Murdoch, making a detour through the desert, approached it from the south. The co-operation of the two columns was admirably timed, and on the morning of the 7th the dervish camp was surrounded, and, after a sharp fight, Hamuda and many amirs and about 1000 men were killed, and 500 prisoners taken. The dash and discipline of the Egyptian troops in this victory were a good augury for the future.

By the end of June the railway was advanced beyond Akasha, and headquarters were at Kosha, 10 m. farther south. Cholera and fever were busy both with the North Staffordshire regiment at Gemai, whither they had been moved on its approach, and with the Egyptian troops at the front, and carried off many officers and men. The railway reached Kosha early in August; the cholera disappeared, and stores were collected and arrangements steadily made for a farther advance. The North Staffordshire moved up to the front, and in September the army moved on Kerma, which was found to be evacuated, the dervishes having crossed the river to Hafir. There they were attacked by the gunboats and Kitchener's artillery from the opposite bank, and forced to retire, with their commander, Wad Bishara, seriously wounded. Dongola was bombarded by the gunboats and captured by the army on the 23rd of September. Bishara and his men retreated, but were pursued by the Egyptians until the retreat became a hopeless rout. Guns, small arms and ammunition, with large stores of grain and dates, were captured, many prisoners taken, while hundreds surrendered voluntarily, among them a brother of the amir Wad en Nejumi. The dervish Dongola army had practically ceased to exist. Debba was seized on the 3rd October, Korti and Merawi occupied soon after, and the principal sheiks came in and submitted to the sirdar. The Dongola campaign was over, and the province recovered to Egypt. The Indian brigade at Suakin returned to India, and was replaced by Egyptians. The North Staffordshire returned to Cairo. The work of consolidation began, and preparations were made for a farther advance when everything should be ready.

The Sudan campaign, 1897.

The railway up the right bank of the Nile was continued to Kerma, in order to evade the difficulties of the 3rd cataract; but the sirdar had conceived the bold project of cutting off the great angle of the Nile from Wadi Halfa to Abu Hamed, involving nearly 600 m. of navigation and including the 4th cataract, by constructing a railway across the Nubian desert, and so bringing his base at Wadi Halfa within a few hours of his force, when it should have advanced to Abu Hamed, instead of ten days. Early in 1897 this new line of railway was commenced from Wadi Halfa across the great Nubian desert 230 m. to Abu Hamed. The first-mentioned line reached Kerma in May, and by July the second had advanced 130 m. into the desert towards Abu Hamed, when it became necessary, before it was carried farther, to secure that terminus by an advance from Merawi.

In the meantime the khalifa was not idle. He occupied Abu Klea wells and Metemma; recalled the amir Ibrahim Khalil, with 4000 men, from the Ghezira; brought to Omdurman the army of the west under Mahmud--some 10,000 men; entrusted the line of the Atbara--Ed Darner, Adarama, Asubri and El Fasher--to Osman Digna; constructed defences in the Shabluka gorge; and personally superintended the organization and drill of the forces gathered at Omdurman, and the collection of vast stores of food and supplies of camels for offensive expeditions.

Towards the end of June the chief of the Jaalin tribe, Abdalla wad Said, who occupied Metemma, angered by the khalifa, made his submission to Kitchener and asked for support, at the same time foolishly sending a defiant letter to the khalifa. The sirdar sent him rifles and ammunition across the desert from Korti; but before they arrived, Mahmud's army, sent by the khalifa, swept down on Metemma on the 1st of July and massacred Abdalla wad Said and his garrison.