Dervishes on the River. 199 Germans, and reinforcements were sent to help Zeki and fight against the white invaders.* Eventually Zeki got the upper hand of the Shilluks in 1892. the beginning of 1892, but the Dervish supremacy did not last long. In the summer of that year it was reported at Omdurman that the Italians were advancing westwards from Massawa. Zeki Tumal was therefore recalled with his army, and was thus obliged to evacuate Fashoda, leaving only a very small guard for the purpose of collecting taxes.

He was then sent back to Gedaref and Galabat, to make headway against the Italians, but on reporting that it was impossible to invade Eritrea, as the Khalifa wished him to do, he was again recalled to Omdurman, Fate of Zeki treacherously seized, thrown into prison, and ultimately uma starved to death.

(For the movements of the remainder of Emin's men, and of the Congo expeditions, see " Precis of Events on the Upper Nile, 1878-1898," I.D.W.O. " Confidential.")

During 1892 reports reached Omdurman from the south of an European advance on Equatoria from the Zanzibar direction. At this period there was a small Dervish garrison at "Regaf under Omar Saleh, and orders were sent to him to withdraw to Bor. This was effected, but the climate of Bor was so unhealthy, and the natives so difficult to manage, that Abu Girgeh, a powerful Emir whom the Khalifa was Abu anxious to get rid of, was sent south in October with Gireh * 250 men, with orders to send Omar Saleh to Omdurman. 189£ * Abu Girgeh. who had got wind of the Khalifa's intentions, took the first opportunity of fighting the other Baggara Emirs who were with him, and absconding at Fashoda.

For several months he was supposed to have deserted the Khalifa and joined a serious movement in Kordofan which was led by a western saint, one Muzil el Muhan, and which aimed at the destruction of the Khalifa. The # It is, perhaps, hardly necessary to say that these rumours were almost entirely devoid of foundation, for Emin, on his return to the interior, never went north of Kavalli's, having a lively recollection of his troubles (in 1888) on the Upper Nile. He was murdered at Kinena's, in the Congo Free State, on 26th October, 1892 ; this crime was owing to the petty jealousy of one Kibonge, who wished to show his rival, Munye Mohara, who had murdered several Belgians, that he too could kill a white man !