168 Gordon s Mission to King John.

Suliman •captured, 15t& July, 1880.

Though much had been done, the revolt was not, as Gessi thought, completely crashed, and in a few weeks, hearing that Suliman was meditating a junction with Harun, he at once went again in pursuit. On the night of the 15th July he surprised the enemy, and although he had only 290 men to their 700, he contrived to conceal the fact, and induced Suliman to lay down his arms. Fearing that, by plotting with the rebel Abdulgassin, who was at no great distance, the prisoners might escape, he shot the 11 ringleaders, including Suliman, and dismissed their men to their new countries. Gessi had now broken the neck of the revolt, and, aided by the tribes whose families he had freed from slavery, he hunted down the remaining bands. Abdulgassin was caught and shot, and only Kabeh escaped to the west, where he eventually carved a kingdom for himself near Lake Chad.

"Gordon goes to Abyssinia, 1879.

Gordon's Mission to Abyssinia, 1879.

In August, Gordon arrived at Cairo and conferred with the new Khedive, Tewfik, on affairs in Abyssinia. Walad Mikael and Johannes's general, Alula, were now plotting a joint attack on Bogos, and Gordon's proposal that he should at once go and endeavour to settle matters with the King, was eagerly accepted by the Khedive.

He landed at Massawa on 6th September, 1879, and finding that Bogos was practically in the hands of the Abyssinians, started on the 11th to meet Alula. The next day he heard that Alula, by the King's orders, had made a prisoner of Walad el Mikael and all his officers, and that Mikael's son had been killed. On the 16th Gordon reached Gura, the rendezvous, and, at an interview with Alula, requested him to state the complaints of Abyssinia against Egypt. Alula, on the 18th, replied that he had better see the King himself, and Gordon accordingly left the following day for Debra Tabor, near Gondar. He arrived there on the 27th October. On the 28th October, the King stated his claims as follows :— " You want peace; well, I want retrocession of Metamma, Shangallas, and Bogos, cession of Zeila and Amfila (ports), an Abuna, and a sum of money from one to two million pounds; or, if his Highness likes better than