La Kethulle's Expedition. 203 conquer the Bahr el Ghazai " on his own account, to help them, and reinforced him by sending 2,000 men to Ombanga.

They were, however, not required. The Dervishes were too broken to renew the attack on the Janghe, and no further action appears to have taken place in this direction. Mahmud, chief Emir of Kordofan and the Bahr Mahmud.

el Ghazal, was much incensed at Abu Mariana's defeat, and sent to Darfur for reinforcements ; but the chiefs in Darfur refused to assist, or even to come and see him.

By the beginning of 1894 the Congo Expedition for the 1894. North was ready, and in February Nilis, with La Kethulle as second in command, five other whites (Lannoy, Gerard, Libois, Gonse Deschrymacker, and Sergeant Philippart), and a strong party, made a start for the North.

Recapitulating shortly, we see that by the end of February, 1894, the Dervishes based on Regaf were pressing the remains of the Kerckhoven expedition under Baert on the Congo-Nile watershed, but that in the rest of the Bahr el Ghazal their influence was practically nil, their only post of any importance, and that weakly held, being Shakka, to the north of the Bahr el Arab. The Congo forces hafl not succeeded in establishing posts on the Nile, whilst between the north-west of the Bahr el Ghazal and Semio's country they were busy cementing relations with the natives, who seemed not ill-disposed to receive them. Since the British Government had taken over Uganda on 1st April, 1893, fears had been expressed that the Dervishes would attack the colony from the north; but for this there appears to have been no justification, for the Khalifa had no intention of enlarging his dominions in this direction, and was content to keep Regaf as a penal settlement and as an outpost against the inroads of the whites.

The expedition under La Kethulle (for Nilis's name La K<sthuiie.

disappears almost at once) penetrated via Sandu, up the Chinko River, Sango, back to Sandu, Bakuma, Kreish, Bandassi country (7° 3G" north latitude), Upper Adda or Bahr el Arab (8° 40" north latitude), to the important town of Hofrat en Nahas (where there are valuable copper mines), being well received all along the route. At Hofrat en Nahas the natives are said to have offered to take La Kethulle west along the caravan route to Lake